Chương 36: Field Trip

After she was done with that, Arielle started on the copycat spell, which Valeria warned her came with certain limitations.

"There are already 'replicating' spells in your spell book," Valeria told her.

"However, even the adept tier ones will only copy the simpler spells of apprentice and initiate tiers."

"Is that limitation intentional?"

"Yes. Not only is it a difficult spell to scale up without blowing your mind or body or both, but there may be some legal ramifications to think about. Either way, once you create it, the spell will get flagged by your EPUQ and analyzed before it lets you incorporate. Just something to be aware of." Arielle nodded, thinking of another way she could create an echo spell without it being an echo spell. Maybe a mere reflect spell? Was that still too close? Or something else?

While researching that, she also learned a nifty attack spell, called [Cross Dissolve] Name: Cross Dissolve Tier: 5 Primary Essence Theme: Vacu + Calor Essence Equation (with stages): Stage 1: Vacu 𝞫 + Luxa 𝞪 Stage 2: Calor 𝞪 + Massa 𝞪 Visual/Physical Effect: Releases a four-way cross void blade that severs through most Grade A, B, and C materials. Common Risks (reaction imbalances) High risk of backlash Usage Notes / Variants Spell is dangerous. Category 3 Hazard.

Use carefully, as the mage might be subject to legal ramifications if someone gets injured as a result of the spell. Runes recommended. Arielle didn't plan on using it any time soon, but it was a good spell to have in her attack arsenal just in case. She tried it out on a piece of paper in front of her, scaling down the spell so it only cut it into four pieces. She decided to incorporate it into her Grimoire. Once she was done, she got the alerts: CONGRATULATIONS!

[CROSS DISSOLVE] IS NOW IN YOUR GRIMOIRE +3 XP TOTAL SPELLS EXECUTED: [CROSS DISSOLVE] (+3XP), CURRENT POINTS ACHIEVED: +9 TOTAL POINTS ACHIEVED: 469 XP She was almost halfway to her next level up. She should probably speed that up, since she still had about 49 levels to go, and an apprentice making Master level spells would just be ridiculous. Lyra's first training session also took place that weekend, after Maus'. When Lyra tried to cast the vitality spell, her aura revealed something very interesting.

The green essences rushed to her a little faster than the rest, which was normal as she was a Vitae lean. However, the spread of her green aura coincided with the other essences almost getting pushed back as a result. So that might be one reason why she struggled. It wasn't just that her core control of the other essences was weak. It was also that her Vitae core was actively fighting against the others and pushing the essences away from her.

Her Vitae was more active than it should be, and somehow its activity was blocking the rest. Arielle didn't know what this meant. She asked Lyra, but Lyra didn't seem to know what it meant either.

"An overactive Vitae core?" she said.

"Yeah, something like that. I'll ask Elric and have him look into it. Maybe he knows more." Lyra nodded. Arielle spent the rest of the session telling her when her Vitae core was being overactive and helping her manually reduce its activity. It didn't happen all the time, but Arielle couldn't predict when it would happen, not from that one session. She would need many more to draw patterns. But at least Lyra managed the spell twice today, which was good for her.

She was so happy she beamed at Arielle, and Arielle smiled back.

"Thank you," she said.

"Thank me after I fix it," Arielle concluded. After that, they went over to the greenhouse for the CPR meeting. Arielle walked there with Lyra, who warned, "I'm not sure you're going to win over Telip. At least not today."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He's not mean or anything, contrary to popular opinion. He's even very helpful to us first years, but unless you need help, he barely talks to anyone."

"I do need his help with something."

"Yes, but for today…" Lyra visibly struggled to frame her words.

"Just don't say too much, okay? We'll set the building blocks of the relationship, and if he likes you, he'll agree to mentor you."

"Building blocks," Arielle repeated.

"Of course." At the greenhouse, she had to introduce herself to the mixed group of mostly second and first years, with a single third year and a fourth year, which was Telip. Arielle cleared her throat, folded her hands together, and said, "Hello. I am Arielle Blacksoil. I am fifteen and a member of Cohort 1. I am here to work on my rune crafting." The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. No one answered at first, but then Telip spoke up.

"Why?" Telip asked.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to work on runes so early. You're still in your first year."

"Yes, but I'm working with Professor Valeria on adept spells already, some of which require runes. Not to mention, I am thinking of changing my lean to Vacu-dominant, and Vacu-dominant spells also tend to require runes." That triggered a murmur around the room.

"Why would you change to Vacu?" Someone asked.

"That's mad."

"No offense, Telip," the person sitting next to them said, and Telip afforded them the tiniest of smiles.'"Vacu isn't easy," he said.

"Almost nothing worth having is," she said.

"That's what my mother used to say." Telip didn't say anything for some time. Then he gestured for her to sit beside him.

"You'll sit with me today. I'll give you a few things to read."

"Oh, good." She lit up, and as she approached the table and slid into her seat, she said, "I saw you making a portal, by the way. It was very impressive."

"Thank you."

"Where are you going?"

"What makes you think I'm going anywhere?"

"People don't typically make portals to stay in the same place. I assume you wanted an access point to another dimension. Like, say the elven realm. That's where almost everyone wants to go." Elves visited Earth only once every few years, and humans visited their realm almost never. It was said to be a truly magical-looking place, and only a few humans had ever been given access in their lifetime. Of those, most did not make it back to Earth. Telip didn't answer her question.

Instead, he slid over a manual titled, Think you want a Vacu lean? Think again. A history of supernatural disasters.

"Read that," he said.

"And if you still want Vacu after that, I'll help you."

"By mentoring me?" she asked hopefully.

"No," he said, but he didn't expand on how else he would help her. Arielle spent most of her class time reading the document. It was a list of horrifying things that had happened to Vacu-leans over the centuries. Some she'd already read about in The Vacu Paradox, but some were new to her. She only got distracted by an explosion at the back when someone blew their cantrip. Arielle found that the club was more of a study group than anything, where everyone did what they wanted and called Telip when they needed help.

Professor Woden didn't show up once. Nevertheless, she enjoyed it. Despite that and a relatively successful weekend, Arielle felt low. Part of that was that she, too, was getting frustrated with all the misleading tales about the Vacu primordials. She'd picked up three other books on it, and they all seemed to be telling the same stories in different ways. She'd written down all the interesting names. Vaelor. Draco. Mirabelle Soto, who was a seer that claimed to commune with the Unmaker.

Of course, she was dead now, but her daughter was alive, and Arielle went to Woden and suggested they visit her. Professor Woden shot her down.

"No."

"What? Why not?"

"Because I will not allow my students to traumatize people with their dead mothers just to fulfil a class project." She cocked her head, and he said, "Do you even know what happened to Mirabelle Soto?" She shook her head.

"She was burned alive in front of her whole family for the crime of summoning demons. The demonic sect was in charge of that."

"Oh," Arielle whispered.

"I hadn't gotten to that part of the book yet."

"Of course. And Arielle, I want to stress this. I appreciate how passionate you are about this topic, and I'm sure you may yet end up surprising me, but this assignment is just as much about teamwork as it is about getting results. How helpful has your team been? Have any of them suggested any leads for you all to follow?" The answer was no. They mostly read books very slowly and then complained about what they had to read.

But Arielle knew that this was the sort of question she was supposed to lie about, so she nodded.

"Yes, they have been very helpful." Professor Woden snorted.

"You don't even sound like you believe yourself. Do I need to tell them to do more of the work?"

"No," Arielle squeezed the front of her robe and said, "They're already annoyed with me. I don't want to make it worse." Professor Woden sighed.

"Whether or not they're annoyed with you is irrelevant to the assignment. If they refuse to contribute, I will simply fail them. And I will let them know that. Understood?" Arielle nodded. Hopefully, this didn't backfire on her too. A few days later, her group and Woden went on a field trip to the Unholy Trio's temple in Khor. They arrived in Khor by ferry, but Woden decided to teleport all seven of them to the front steps of the temple without warning.

They had just dismounted onto the docks and were being yelled at by the fishermen when suddenly they were on the black stone steps with a cool draft emerging from within.

"Did you teleport all of us?" Lacey asked Woden, giving him an incredulous look.

"Yes," Woden said, smiling in amusement.

"You didn't want to walk through the entire market, did you?"

"Maybe not, but teleporting seven people at a time is incredibly risky."

"The risk is part of the fun," he said, and when the boys all gave him dirty looks, he laughed.

"Don't worry. Teleportation is my specialty. Besides, there was someone I'm avoiding at the market, and I'd rather they not see me." Arielle wondered if it was the man at the apothecary he was avoiding.

"You should have used a glamour spell in that case," she suggested.

"I should have, shouldn't I? Oh well, we're already here." Riorke and Lacey shared a look of concern before turning back to their professor, who was laughing nervously and rubbing the back of his head.

"Alright. Let's go in." As they walked through the soaring doorway of the temple, the silence seemed to swallow up any sound that entered. There was no echo and barely any sound of footsteps. If anything, it was like they were walking on clouds.

"You'll have to speak up when you're in here," Woden said.

"Or better yet, do not talk at all. The temple doesn't like noise."

"Doesn't seem to like visitors either," Riorke commented, resting his gaze on the towering statues of hissing serpents that were coiled around the entrance. Next to that was the image of a shadow wraith carved repeatedly on the walls. The candles lit up automatically in welcome, only partially illuminating part of the temple, while the outer corners remained thick with an encroaching darkness. It was exactly as one would expect.

A darkened hall made up of blackened stone, lit only by four single candles, mounted to form a square around the expanse. Dark stone columns sectioned off the main Gothic cathedral, with a trio of statues on a raised stage. One stood in the middle, its back turned with a long sword at its side, and a scale in one hand. The Hollow Priest. The other on the left was tall, almost monstrous in size, but his features were obscured by sculpted swirls. Abyssal Drift.

The last one was a hooded figure with tattered robes representing death. Chains linked from one to the other, binding the three disciples together. Incense burned constantly, adding a dark mist to the atmosphere, the black monotone only broken by red prayer cushions that had been placed near the statues. It was customary for people to kneel before the statue to offer alms, and Arielle retrieved a copper coin from her system. As she dropped it into the receptacle, Arielle felt a stir of... something.

She wasn't sure what. It was like a cool air whispering down her neck, like someone was standing behind her, but when she turned, nothing was there. Once she was done, Woden encouraged them to split up, and as the other ones walked away to explore the higher floors, Arielle stayed to explore the first floor. Both to give herself space from their tense silence and also because she'd never been in a temple before, and she wanted to savor the experience.

She walked closer to the statue of the Drift, standing on her tippy toes to put her hand on its lower chest. She felt it again, behind her, surrounding her, and almost like the mist grew thicker, obscuring her vision. Underneath her hand, she felt a thump. Like a heart pulsing. Suddenly, the symbols flashed in her eyes, unstoppable images. She gasped and tried to withdraw her hand, but it remained stuck as though someone or something was pressing their hand over it.

As she tried to draw in a breath, the darkness swallowed her, and she was falling forward. Face first into the grass. Grass? She jerked up instantly, spitting a leaf out of her mouth and looking around. She was no longer in the temple. Nothing but grass stretched out for miles, and she heard a sound in a foreign language behind her. Turning, she saw someone floating in a bubble a few feet above her, frowning and speaking in that same language. Hewas looking down at her in confusion.

A creature with pointy ears and pale blue skin and.... An elf?