Chương 61: Chapter 56: Is all this just because of the hair?

He'd spent all his Progress Points on upgrading Nascent Resonance. Nascent Resonance (Rank I → Rank II) Passive: Casting spells gradually strengthens elemental affinity toward the spell's associated element. Efficiency scales with spellcasting quality. On the walk back to his dorm, Fabrisse found himself revising the next two weeks. If he practiced Embercoil every waking moment... No. Every available moment.

If he took three fewer bells for sleeping, five fewer minutes for every meal, and practiced as he walked to lectures or wait in queue, maybe he'd have twenty bells of practice. If he exhausted his FP every thirty minutes, then slept for five before starting again... He did the arithmetic. Twenty hours of practice required forty recovery breaks. Forty breaks at five minutes each came to three bells and twenty minutes of sleep.

Adding a proper three-bell sleep before dawn, he should still be able to get six-bell worth. It seemed surprisingly workable. Fabrisse ran a hand through his hair again as he walked. He still wasn't used to the extra volume, or how the curls fell differently every time he touched them. He should probably stop touching them. He rounded the corner into the central courtyard and saw Severa Montreal coming from the opposite direction. She promptly stopped walking.

Fabrisse took another few steps before realizing she was staring at him. He responded by walking faster. Their eyes met, and for some reason, she continued staring. He looked away. That is an unsettling amount of eye contact. Did I accidentally insult her somehow? A few steps later, curiosity got the better of him, and he looked back. She was somehow much closer now. Fabrisse slowed. Severa came to a stop a few paces away and said absolutely nothing. Did I do something? He tried to remember their last conversation.

Nothing immediately came to mind that warranted this much staring.

"Montreal?" Still nothing. His hand found his face. There had better not be something on it.

"Um…" he ventured.

"Hello?" She continued staring for another second before moving her eyes down to his neck. He looked down as well. She appeared to have developed an inexplicable fascination with his Embermoth Pendant. She finally spoke, "You could fit a shard of Roseglass Opal there." Roseglass Opal? That was an Epic-grade artificing material.

"... I don't have one."

"I do." What does that have to do with— Severa slipped two fingers inside her robe and produced a thumbnail-sized fragment that shimmered with rose-red light. Why does she just have that? I guess she's a Fire Thaumaturge, and that's a fire-attuned item, but still…

"Hold still." Aether unwound from her fingertips. The tiny shard lifted and sat against the empty setting on the pendant's face, fusing into place as delicate silver threads cinched around it. The entire process took less than three seconds. Fabrisse looked down. That seemed… symmetrical enough. The rose-red shard sat neatly within the empty setting, and its color complemented the Embermoth crystal without overwhelming it.

Considering she'd attached it in the middle of a courtyard with no preparation whatsoever, the result was surprisingly harmonious. [Item Crafted: Embermoth Pendant #1] Rarity: Rare → Rare+ [Inventory Slots Taken: 2] Fire Spell Output: +12% → +22% FP Bleed while casting Fire spells: -7% → -9% Emotional Modulation Effect (Rage): +15% → +22% Emotional Modulation Effect (Passion): +11% → +16% Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Emotional Modulation Effect (Joy): +6% Emotional Modulation Effect (Conviction): +3% That… that was incredible. She took three seconds to bring that much of an upgrade?

"This is a Fire Output amplifier," Severe said.

"Yes." She looked at him again. More specifically, his hair.

"Continue focusing on your Fire training instead of... whatever you're doing to yourself."

"I am. I'm trying to improve my Fire affinity." He didn't appreciate how defensive he sounded.

"Why? You're failing regardless."

"I won't." She studied him in a way that made him wonder whether he'd accidentally answered a different question. Finally, she said, "Not at the current rate." He knew that much. Why did she have to say that to his face if she wasn't going to offer a solution—"You require a Fire Receptor."

"A Fire Receptor?"

"A catalyst that amplifies the surrounding Fire Resonance. We assembled one before, though I doubt you remember any of it.." He frowned. That seemed unfair. He remembered assembling quite a lot of things with Severa. True, she rarely explained what any of them were for. She would hand him a diagram, point out the Aetherlock on whatever component she wanted, and tell him to get it open. After that came a few simple assembly steps, then she took over the actual artificing.

Half the time, Fabrisse didn't know what they were making until they were done. In hindsight, he often hadn't known what they were making until it was already finished. Severa turned. He thought she was going to walk away without another word, but then she said, "If you're serious, meet me at the Mirrored Tower. Fourth Floor. Third Day." It took Fabrisse a second to process that.

"The Mirrored Tower?"

"Yes."

"I... don't have access." Fabrisse had never even been inside the Mirrored Tower. The training chambers alone cost more than he received in a month, and the upper floors might as well have been another country. He knew the sort of geniuses who went up there. He wasn't one of them.

"That's your problem," she said.

"I literally cannot enter the building."

"No." She looked at him over her shoulder.

"Your problem is that you mistake difficulty for impossibility. You're always like that. You stop trying to stand the moment you fall." She reached inside her robe once more and tossed something toward him. Fabrisse caught it on instinct. It was a small black cube, strangely heavy for its size, with dozens of silver pins set into each face. An Aetherlock. He recognized this one. He'd solved it before, retrieved the key inside, and then ran off with the whole thing when Severa shouted that a Warden was coming.

She had been the one shouting, so really, this was partly her fault.

"You've opened locks more sophisticated than the Mirrored Tower's." That was because you kept insisting the Academy hid forbidden artifact components behind puzzle mechanisms...

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

"I thought you intended to watch me fail." Severa was silent for just long enough for him to wonder whether she'd decided the conversation was over. She said at last, "Watching someone fail without even trying isn't particularly interesting. The Mirrored Tower's security is within your capabilities, Kestovar. Do it while I'm still feeling generous." Then she walked off. Fabrisse watched her cross the courtyard. Was that encouragement? It might have been. With Severa, it was difficult to tell.

She had a habit of saying perfectly normal things as though there were some deeper meaning to them, something he was supposed to figure out later. Most of the time, Fabrisse suspected there wasn't. [Sidequest Received: Unauthorized Education (1)] Objective: Break into the Mirrored Tower on the Fourth Day and meet Severa Montreal before she leaves. Reward: +200 EXP +10 Shadow Thaumaturgy Mastery Points Emotional Link Unlocked: Severa Montreal – Rank II What had just happened?

He reached up and touched his hair again. Is all this just because of the hair? So she hadn't liked it either. He knew it. She'd even felt the need to improve his pendant before commenting on it. Apparently, it had looked bad enough that she couldn't leave it alone. How unfortunate. He still wasn't sure what had bothered her so much, but at least the pendant was more useful now. Fabrisse rounded the next corner and ran a thumb over it. Strange as the afternoon had been, things had worked out rather well.

His Fire Affinity was improving faster than he'd expected, he had a new resonance necklace, and somehow his old pendant had come out of the whole thing stronger as well. Objectively speaking, it had been an excellent day. Maybe too excellent.

"Oi, rock witch." Fabrisse stopped. Never mind. Cuman Gollivur stood a short distance ahead, looking as unpleasant as ever.

"Looking a bit tanned today, Rock Witch. Is that from another spectacular failure?" There was nobody around to laugh at his insults, yet he'd done so anyway.

"I am busy, Gollivur," he said. Cuman had said worse before. Usually, Fabrisse would have gone on with his day. This time, though, he looked back. Cuman's face is surprisingly punchable. No. Fire first. He kept walking. Cuman chuckled.

"Huh." Fabrisse didn't answer. Cuman called after him.

"You're even looking back now, huh?" Fabrisse kept walking.

"So it's true." Cuman folded his arms.

"You bind with the Eidralith for a few days, and suddenly you've grown a backbone." Fabrisse kept walking.

"I saw your little performance during Skybrace. Actual Air spells. Impressive. The Chosen One can finally cast magic. Maybe I should be worried." Cuman floated past Fabrisse in a cushion of air, glancing down at him. Fabrisse kept walking. Cuman spread his hands and took an exaggerated step forward until Fabrisse could see his back.

"Maybe I should just walk away." He took another step. He was about to do something. Fabrisse glanced around. Nobody was present. Not good. He whispered to himself, "Ivory stillness." The miniature air shield formed between his hands. Then Cuman turned around.

"... Psych." He snapped his fingers into a casting seal.

"Gale. Drive." A lance of wind roared toward Fabrisse.