System Scribe Academy Book 1 - Chapters 76,77,78,79,80 (Patreon)

Chapter 76

Gravity Sap

The sound of rusted weapons clinking against a firm barrier echoed throughout the cavern. Ethan and Barry had only spent 10 minutes exploring it, going down about two levels from the mossy entrance. That's when they first heard the shrieking in the distance. Despite the big man's powerful punches, they had quickly been cornered, running down a dead end instead of toward the entrance. They now stood, looking at the creatures, at least 5 of them, and tried to break their way through the scribe's shield.

"Yeah. I should have seen this coming. That's my bad. Who would sell the claim to a cave for less than 5,000 coins, right?" He offered a nervous laugh, jumping back as one of the strange-scaled creatures jumped at the shield again. “Those are kobolds, by the way.”

“Why do they stink so much?” Ethan asked, pinching his nose.

“The poop. I think it might be the poop… So, are we dead?”

Even shook his head. Of course, they weren't dead. He had the extreme gravity spell. But it would hardly solve Barry's problem with the cave. From what the scribe understood, monsters could spawn randomly. But as he tasted the magic in the air, he didn't think that was the case. He thought it was a much worse symptom. Perhaps even a dungeon buried somewhere deep below. Go figure. They would go to explore something as simple as an ore claim and end up dealing with a dungeon.

“Give me a moment,” Ethan said, closing his eyes as he looked for the one energy signature he knew should be there. Spatial mana.

“Okay. I’ll just stand here.” Barry folded his arms and whistled. “Don’t mind me, little creatures. Just gonna stand here awkwardly.”

It took Ethan a minute to sift through the various energies in the dungeon, but he eventually found it. A very intense sensation of spatial magic was a few floors below where they were, which meant that a dungeon had appeared and the monsters within had broken out. He shook his head. "Bracelet, can you give me an analysis? What are the chances these monsters are from a dungeon? And what rank do you think that dungeon would be?"

“Calculating…”

Barry offered a massive shrug, pressing his back against the stone wall. “What’s the plan?”

Ethan didn't respond at first. His plan was a stupid one. They weren't exactly equipped to handle a dungeon, but that all depended on the bracelet's analysis of the situation. He was certain that if it was a weak enough dungeon, falling into one of the classes of dungeons he had read about, which were considered mostly safe, they could delve without a problem. More importantly, he was interested in absorbing a few concepts of dimensionality and other dungeon-based magics.

“Analysis complete. Based on the weapons held by the kobold defenders, the amount of energy in the air, and the location of the dungeon, this unit would classify the nearby dungeon as: Class: Safe. Type: Kobold (Rank 0). Challenge: Minimal.”

Ethan rubbed his hands together. “Bracelet, cook up some long-range offensive abilities for me. Or, otherwise find gaps in my fighting style as we delve and come up with solutions based on all the information you have.”

“Understood. Entering analysis mode.”

“Wait, what?” Barry asked with a nervous laugh.

"Grab that rock," Ethan gestured to a nearby stone and was surprised to see Barry scoop it up without a question. "I had the bracelet analyze the dungeon, and it thinks the energy signatures match something that had been documented in the library. It's considered a safe Rank 0 dungeon, which means it's perfect for the weakest of the weak, which is us if you didn't know."

"Yeah, sure, that's nice, but we don't need to run it." Barry’s brows were furrowed, his face painted in the mask of a man trying to figure out if his friend had gone insane. "I mean, I have a weapon I could use, I guess, but I've never engaged in combat in this world."

Ethan mentally drew a circle outside of his barrier and activated Lesser Extreme Gravity Field. After the mana drained from his soul, sparking along the edges of his affinity ring, he took a deep breath with Mana Siphon. The creatures slammed against the ground immediately, each letting out a concerned yelp. A moment later, the scribe dropped his barrier and stepped close. "Just put the rock right here, and gravity will do the rest."

“Oh, that’s grim, Ethan.” Barry had a serious look on his face. “Crushing the monsters is one thing, but this? Come on.”

“They’re mostly made of magic,” Ethan said, waving a dismissive hand. “There would be blood everywhere, otherwise.”

“Ugh, is this your evil arc?” Barry asked. But he obeyed, stepping close enough until he noticed the shimmer from the field of gravity. He pushed the rock into the field, and it fell with the extreme gravity. The monster died immediately and, as expected, did not release a torrent of blood and brain. “That’s a bit too tidy for my liking.”

Ethan clapped his hands twice. “Get in there and take care of the rest of the creatures. I'm the support and you're the damage dealer, so let's go.”

Barry shook his head, eventually dispatching each of the 5 kobolds. Then it was Ethan's turn to sniff out the dungeon. All the way there, his bracelet gave him suggestions for spells that might be useful. He had a few support ones that he was eager to use. These were spells he had already crafted, and he'd go over them once they found the dungeon's entrance. But for now, they slunk through the caves, killing two more groups of the kobolds before they finally found the shimmering archway. It was in another dead end and barely put off any light at all.

“Okay, what weapon do you have?” Ethan asked.

“Explody Sword. Version 1, of course.” Barry stuck his chest out in pride.

Ethan tilted his head to the side. “You’ll have to elaborate.

“Okay, check it out…”

Barry withdrew something from nowhere. It was in that moment that Ethan realized his friend had gotten a hold of a dimensional bag before him. The sword itself was about arm's length. Most of it was completely unremarkable except for the spot near the guard. Instead of a normal crossguard, it had something that looked suspiciously like a revolver, complete with a trigger.

“You made a gunsword,” Ethan said with a laugh. “Yeah, that’s kinda awesome. Do you want to test it?”

“Uh… not really. But you seem pretty eager. How confident are you?”

“100% confident, actually. I’ll explain the combo of spells I’m gonna use when we get inside. My artifact came up with a decent strategy.”

The reluctance on Barry's face seemed to fade. The man trusted Ethan's assessment of the situation and eventually nodded, facing the portal and approaching it with all the bravery of such a huge guy. The scribe followed closely after, unable to deny that he was feeling incredible excitement for the little adventure. The moment he touched the barrier, he felt a foreign power spreading over his body. It was dimensional magic. He knew it. It was as though he took one step into the barrier and the next he had been transported to a different place altogether. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the scene, but when they did, he let out a low whistle.

Although Ethan had expected to step into another cramped cave system, the reality was completely different. The area was large and wide enough for him to mistake it for the outdoors. Certainly, the light shining overhead seemed enough like a sun, but eventually he realized that the light was a massive crystal embedded in a ceiling miles away. The landscape that rolled out before him was dotted here and there with mushrooms glowing with a powerful light. Massive outcrops of rock segmented most areas, turning certain sections into maze-like traps and others into open fields of strange subterranean plants.

"Well, you don't see this every day," Barry looked around scratching his head. "So, what's the plan exactly? Like I said, I'm not really an adventurer. I’m a crafter.”

“Yes, but you’re a big meaty smash guy. I’ll cast a few choice spells on us to keep us safe. Haste and my System Barrier with the Target Focus modification. That’ll make it so if you take a hit, the barrier will spring up to protect you. Meanwhile, I’ve got some very nasty debuffs.” Ethan was most excited about the debuffs. He had a few new ones to show off. “Otherwise, I just want to see the dungeon core. For study, of course.”

“Of course,” Barry said, but it was clear he was getting more nervous by the minute.

Ethan cast the barrier spell on himself and Barry. He felt it settle in over his skin, retracting from the spherical shape and hiding for the moment. Then he cast Lesser System Haste and felt a rush flood through him. His muscles and mind both sped up, making him stumble forward a moment after casting it.

“Woah, that one is nice.” Barry gave Ethan the thumbs-up. “Okay, I’m a bit more confident.”

“Just wait until you see my other spells. Okay, let’s go. I can’t tell where the core is, so we just have to guess.”

Barry took the lead, and Ethan reviewed his spells. In his Rank 1 Affinity Ring, he had Lesser Gravity Sap with the Target Focus (Centered) modifier. This time, he had rolled his intent into the spell well enough that create a clean-looking spell description, and even a new spell name. He inspected the new, cleaner version of his modified spell.

[Lesser Targeted Gravity Sap]

Affinity Ring Synergy Ability

Generated By:

Increase Gravity, Siphon Mana, Target Focus (Centered)

Description:

Afflict a single target with a higher-than-normal gravity field that drains away mana each second. Effect lasts 30 seconds (baseline) but can be increased by infusing more mana into your Affinity Ring.

Effect:

Increase the gravity for one target.

Drains mana per second from the target based on the amount of mana invested. If the target has no mana, it will inflict Mana Sickness instead.

This spell was about as cool as any other spell Ethan had created. The reason he wanted to tune it to be single-target was so that Barry could move freely. This way, the spell would only afflict one monster at a time, rather than an area. He was quite proud of this spell and it would act as his primary support debuff for any fights. Next came the spell he had slotted in his Rank 2 Affinity Ring, which he inspected.

[System Beam]

Rank 2 Affinity Ring Ability

Generated By:

Fire Beam (X-13, Flamethrower Anomaly, Rank 1)

Description:

Create a beam of system-based energy in your palm. Direct this beam at enemies to inflict celestial damage. This spell drains a great amount of mana.

Effect:

Creates a beam of pure celestial energy, inflicting celestial-based damage.

2 buffs, 1 debuff, and an attack spell. Ethan was sure he could come up with some more stuff to increase his mobility, but he knew this would be more than enough to take care of the kobolds. The bracelet had toyed with the idea of adding another debuff to his Rank 2 Affinity Ring, but eventually settled on versatility.

“Ready to go on our first adventure?” Ethan asked, practically salivating. Maybe he could make his own dimensional bags. If only he could understand the dungeon’s magic.

“Uh, I guess?” Barry asked, looking a bit nervous.

“Excellent. Let’s slay some kobolds.”

Chapter 77

Kobold Dungeon

A group of three kobolds lumbered across the mossy ground. Their straining was made all the more hilarious by Barry, standing and screaming near the head of their formation. The gunsword was completely untested. Barry had hoped he could use it as a means to talk Ethan off the ledge of running the dungeon, but it didn't work. If anything, it had only made the scribe more eager. Now here they were, both staring down the slow-moving kobolds with no expectation of what would happen when he pulled the trigger.

One kobold got close enough to Barry to swing its rusted weapon. The knee-height creature dragged the sword through the air, and when it came within a foot of the big man, a barrier sprung to catch the weapon. Octagonal plates shimmered in the dim light of the massive cavern. Barry gritted his teeth, finally resting his finger on the trigger and pulling it slowly. Ethan watched in anticipation and then in horror. The ground bucked beneath their feet as the sword barked a response. A gout of flames sprung forth from underneath the blade, engulfing each monster in a deadly fire that simply wiped them from existence.

The sword melted completely.

“Dang it!” Barry shouted, the now-useless weapon falling to the ground in a puddle. “I knew I put too much mana in that thing. Don’t worry, I have a backup.” Sure enough, Barry withdrew another gunsword from a small bag he had on his hip. He fiddled with the area near the guard for a moment, then nodded with approval. “There, that one should be a lot less intense. It won’t destroy itself every time I try to fire it.”

Ethan laughed, coming alongside his friend and patting him on the back. "Whatever the case is, I think we can handle this dungeon with ease. Anyway, I have a feeling this is the way we want to walk."

It was pretty difficult to sense which direction the Dungeon Core might be in, since Ethan had only ever read about what a Dungeon Core was. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for. But the one thing he was good at was sniffing out the various energies that lingered in the air. He could feel that the direction closer to the maze-like portion of the underground cavern was likely the place they wanted to go. It was thick with a mix of dimensional and spatial magic that practically made him salivate. 

"How about that offensive spell you were talking about?" Barry looked at Ethan accusingly. "It doesn't seem like you have any end to mana, so why don't you just do that instead of forcing me to destroy my precious babies?"

"Because I wanted to see what an explody sword was," Ethan said with a chuckle. "And I've got to say, you didn't disappoint."

Although Barry tried to act as though he was offended, he smiled and they pressed on. The wide-open layout of the dungeon was nice. They were able to see the small packs of kobolds that ran around the area. It wasn't long before Ethan spotted one he felt was in range of his newest, and perhaps only, offensive spell. He rolled up the sleeves on his robe, rubbed his hands together, and held his right hand out, palm ready to gather the magic of the System Beam ability.

"I hope you're ready to fight because I have no idea what this spell does," Ethan said, allowing some of his mana to enter his rank 2 affinity ring. It immediately lit up, flooding the slot containing the system beam spell and preparing to fire. An instant later, he felt that magic gathering in his palm.

"Oh, that one looks shiny." Barry tilted his head to one side to get a better look at the spell.  

Ethan felt the ability out. Some abilities requested dimensions or direction, but this one seemed to be a completely blind-fire affair. He took a steadying breath, drawing in some mana with mana siphon before adding more juice to the spell. When it finally kicked off, the flash was intense enough to be blinding. The scribe aimlessly dragged the beam across the landscape, squinting against the brightness and doing his best to keep it on target. 

The creatures yelped in the distance, the beam splitting them in half with ease. They faded into the mana their bodies were made of, flaking into the air like dancing particles of magic on the wind. Ethan cut the mana to the spell, blinking away the spots that still remained in his vision. “Well, that was effective. But all my mana is gone. And I mean all of it.”

“For a 5-second burst?” Barry asked. “That’s a steep cost…”

It was easy enough to restore the mana from low mana cost spells, but this one was hungry. You can now rest on the ground for about five minutes to fully fill his soul with mana again, thanks to his Rank 2 Mind Ring. The mana available to him was vast, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to use that spell again. He estimated that if he did a quick, second-long burst, he would only burn through perhaps a quarter of his total mana, but he had used the beam to drag across the landscape, dispatching the entire group at once. He decided at that moment to use it sparingly rather than as a first attack kind of thing.

“The effects of a Rank 2 spell have been noted,” Ethan declared. “And I am happy!”

Barry slapped him on the back, laughing. “Okay, big man. Take us to the core so we can get this over with. Anyway, thanks for forcing me down here. The cave is useless for ore if we don’t destroy this dungeon.”

“Maybe you could rent the dungeon out to adventurers?” Ethan suggested.

“Yeah, maybe. But the combat houses all have their own tamed dungeons. A wild one like this would only get pilfered and cleared before I could make any money.”

The next time the pair engaged a group of cobalts, it went much better. Between their haste, the gravity spell, and Barry's less explosive sword, they were able to defeat the group with ease. It wasn't difficult when the creatures were fighting or basically shambling under the weight of intense gravity. At first it seemed like cheating until Ethan considered the power imbalance. He might not have been a full-fledged rank two mage, but he was casting rank two spells. Barry's aptitude with magitech was at the genius level, making everything he created, especially a sword, a deadly weapon.

This meant that clearing their way through the dungeon was easy. The kobolds dropped some loot, which was apparently what they did. Since Ethan had no interest in anything they dropped, Barry took it all to melt down later. Rusted iron weapons weren’t much use as they were, but once reformed into something useful, he could save some money on material costs.

It didn’t take long to find the core. But as they approached the end of the maze, Ethan leaned around one side and spotted something odd. A large ball of metal floated on a platform in the distance, but standing before it was a… “Giant lizard,” Ethan whispered, turning to Barry and shaking his head. “Ten-foot-tall lizard with some real big teeth and claws.”

“Ew. Does it look like too much for us to handle?” Barry asked.

Ethan wasn't so sure, but before engaging the giant lizard that guarded the dungeon's core, he had his bracelets run a few scenarios for them. The information they were fed was incomplete, but according to the artifact, they shouldn't have a problem defeating it. That was because it suspected there were no magical resistances on the creature's scales. As long as they used a few well-timed explosions, the gravity spell, and a couple of beams to the monster's face, they should be fine. And of course, the bracelets' predictions were correct.

The giant lizard was slow-moving to start with, lumbering out to the field after it had spotted Barry, gaining its attention. Ethan was quick to cast his gravity spell, which stuck to the monster without issue. An instant later, its lumbering strides became labored and its knees buckled as it attempted to lurch forward and attack anything. A few moments later, there were a couple of choice explosions and a beam of pure celestial magic which punched through the thin scales of the monster. Only a minute after the fight started, it ended and the monster fell heavily to the ground. It evaporated in chunks of mana that floated up into the air and popped with an audible sound. Left behind was a small sword that rotated on the spot.

“Oh! Can I have that? I need it for… uh… reasons,” Barry said.

Ethan shrugged, having absolutely no interest in the item. Barry ran for it, grabbing the handle and thrusting it into the air. The scribe's only interest was in the dungeon core itself. He approached it with his celestial pen in hand, looking at the surface and marveling at the complexity. Etched into the metal was a webwork of confusing sigils. They were pieces of magic he had never seen before, and each one radiated a kind of power that he could only hope to understand. Before long, he had plopped onto his butt and was sketching stuff in the air.

"How long is this going to take?" Barry seemed impatient, twirling a sword through the air and appreciating the craftsmanship.  

"I really can't say. Maybe a year to understand everything that's going on here. There are layers on layers on layers here. I couldn't even guess what rank the dungeon core is."  

Barry let out an exasperated sigh, finding the most comfortable-looking rock in the area and laying down. In a few moments, he had closed his eyes and appeared to have been napping. Ethan, meanwhile, focused all his attention on the dungeon core. He realized quickly that focusing on understanding it as a whole would get him nowhere. Instead, he needed to wrap his mind around dimensional magic. 

It became apparent rather quickly that even that might have been a pipe dream. Instead, he simply recorded everything that he could, shoving it into his bracelet for later review. The library might have had a few books on dimensions and dungeons, but it did not have detailed X-13 arrays, especially not ones that the scribe could one day emulate. For now, it was all out of his reach, and only three hours later, he had recorded everything he possibly could. With his bracelet, he even got an incredibly detailed scan of the core he could bring up for future study.

“Okay, buddy,” Ethan said, waking Barry by poking him a few times. “Let’s destroy the core.”

“Already?” Barry asked, stretching and yawning. “I was having the best dream. I wasn’t in a dungeon in that dream.”

Ethan laughed. “Destroying it should be easy enough. We’ll get a system-based reward for clearing it, according to my books, and we’ll get teleported outside. Then, the dungeon will fold in on itself and die.”

“Well, that sounds rather grim.” Although Barry grumbled more objections, he was eager to get out of there.

Destroying the core wasn’t as easy as Ethan had expected. They had to peel the metal layer away, revealing what was apparently the dungeon’s soul. The scribe had to reassure Barry that it was a proto-soul, which meant it had no sentience. Even the term was a scholarly one, and he doubted there was any recognition from the natural phenomenon. Once they had that outer layer peeled, a few System Beam shots to the shifting mass of mist destroyed the dungeon. The gigantic room rumbled as chunks from the ceiling fell down.

For a moment, Ethan thought the teleportation side of things wasn’t going to happen, and he made a plan to dash for the entrance. But he breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the familiar sensation of teleportation magic wrap around him. A few moments later, the pair of them were sent back to the archway denoting the entrance. It crumbled to dust, and an instant later, a system message flashed in their vision.

“Oh. Okay.” Barry laughed. “Running dungeons might actually be worth it!”

Chapter 78

Upright Staff

[Kobold Dungeon (Rank 0) Completed]

You have destroyed a Rank 0 kobold dungeon generated by the X-13 system. This dungeon contained no detectable errors.

Rewards:
1,000 coins.

[Upright Staff]

For how easy the Rank 0 dungeon was, 1,000 coins was pretty nice. That amount of money would buy between 5 and 10 meals in the Silver City, depending on the quality of the meat. Of course, the bag and staff appeared in the air before the scribe. While the coins fell to the ground with a satisfying noise, the staff just kinda fell butt-end to the ground and stayed there.

“What’s wrong with your staff?” Barry asked.

That was a very good question. Ethan reached out, grabbing the staff and rotating it in his hand. He held it horizontally and then released it. As expected, it snapped upright, bouncing on the ground a few times and remaining there. "Looks like it always stays upright."

"Why don't you inspect it?" Barry asked.

Of course, Ethan expected that the moment he went to inspect it, the item would complain to him. Just like his bracelet had refused to produce a system message, you can understand that's where he thought this was going. Instead, a normal item description popped up.

[Upright Staff]

Rank 0 Staff

Description:

A strange staff that always seems to point “up” if not held by a person.

Effect:

Always upright, unless held.

Ethan had a lot of trouble not laughing at the staff. He wasn't sure what he thought items produced by a dungeon would be, but this wasn't it. The entire purpose of the staff was to stay upright at all times. He wasn't sure if that was useful, but the more he looked at the construction of the item, being made of comfortable-looking wood with a cloth-wrapped handle at the perfect height for him to grab while walking, he figured it would make a decent walking stick. If he wasn't using it, he could just leave it where it was, and it would stay upright. There was no need to lean this staff against a surface to take a break.

"Yeah, that's all it does. It just stays upright." Ethan scratched his head, trying to see if he was missing something, but eventually shrugged. Apparently, the dungeon produced something that was useful for the person who had cleared it. Since Barry had been there, stabbing stuff and almost blowing himself up alongside Ethan, the dungeon had given him some decent materials. He seemed excited about it. So, everyone won in this scenario.

But Ethan wasn't going to leave it at that. He encouraged Barry to join him as they cleared through the rest of the cave system. The purpose of their visit, after all, was to ensure it was clear of monsters and contained at least some decent ore. It didn't take them long to run into more packs of the little critters, but they were easily dispatched. Somewhere near the third level, down a bend that dead-ended into a sheer wall of rock, they discovered the first seam of ore in the wall. That got Barry even more excited.

“This is decent iron!” Barry shouted, tapping his gunsword on the wall. “Gonna be a pain to get it out, but look at it!”

Ethan nodded with approval. “Yes, the metal is metaly. I like the ore-like qualities of the ore.”

“Guess you wanna retreat to study all that data you collected.” Barry sighed dramatically. “Don’t worry about me, my friend. I’ll be fine.”

Shaking his head, Ethan had to hold back a laugh. He couldn’t tell if the man was being serious. “I’ll stick around. I’m kinda taking it easy this weekend, and I figure we can go over some notes while I’m down here.”

Barry shot him a nasty look at first, but eventually relented. The unfortunate fact about the bracelet was that it could now contain quite a lot of information. As the storage capacity increased, Ethan took to dumping more and more things into it. He even had the bracelet generally scanning the area for anything of interest and committing it to its memory banks. As he approached the Projector Block, he could now recall that information in projected form at any moment. Since Barry was also in the Ritual Foundations 1 and Array Foundations 1 classes, they toggled between the subjects as they explored.

A few hours later, Barry had marked all the interesting seams on a hand-drawn map. "Now comes the hard part," Barry scratched at the stubble on his chin, jamming his finger into a few of the Xs on the map. "I think I might need to hire some people to help with this, which is less than ideal, but I don't think I can extract all the ore from this place alone."

There might have been a spell that could help extract the ore, but neither Ethan nor his wrist-mounted computer could think of it. Instead, the pair went back to the city and inquired with a few miners' guilds. Before long, Barry had hired some workers. It seemed like a bit much for somebody who had only been in the academy for less than two months, but there it was. The cost was extremely expensive upfront, but after securing the services of a skilled guild, their pay would be considerably less over time.

Which meant it was time to get some food.

Barry had a few places he liked to eat in the area, and they stomped in there and generally discussed everything that was going on. Barry seemed concerned for both of their rates of growth, fearing that obtaining too much power in such a short amount of time would result in too many eyes centering on them. But Ethan was happy to deliver the good news that this was quite common. He remembered back to the adventures he had met near the dragon's mountain and how advanced they were for their grade. All the academies, it seemed, focused on personal development through individual activities. The classes were supplemental.

Flicking through his tablet, Ethan felt the need for change. He had been tackling so many font-style anomalies, since they were the easiest to fix, and had ignored some of the more… creepy ones. Sure, he had to deal with the Necromantic Font one day, but that would require organization between not only the Anomalous Materials Group, but also Luminarum House. Without those god-infused holyfolk, the job just wouldn’t get off the ground. Not unless Ethan suddenly developed a technique for processing vast amounts of mana without pulling it into his body.

"So what's the deal with that one?" Barry spoke through a mouth full of food, pointing at an entry on the tablet. The duo had found themselves in an outdoor eating area in front of a pretty decent restaurant. They served an assortment of cultural and noodle dishes. The scribe knew nothing about the history, only that he loved the savory taste of whatever the thick sauce that clung to the steaming noodles was.

"According to the report, it's a haunted doll, but I'll be honest, this doesn't sound like a haunting." Ethan selected the entry, scrolling through the notes. Unlike most anomalous entries, this one had an extensive list of notes attached to it. There had been multiple attempts to have people with cleric-based classes come in and take care of the doll. This meant it was likely not a ghost if they had absolutely zero luck.

“Sweet. Have fun with that.”

“What? You scared of ghosts?”

“Nope.”

Ethan gave Barry a flat look. If he wasn’t afraid of ghosts, there was only one other thing he could be afraid of with this anomaly.

“Come on!” Barry shouted, nearly flipping their table over as he spasmed. “They’ve got dead, lifeless eyes! You can’t tell me that’s cute. You don’t think they’re cute, do you?”

“Oh, no.” Ethan read over the entry. The doll itself did sounds extremely creepy, but he wouldn’t let Barry live this down. “They’re extremely scary. I’m quite scared.”

“Screw you, dude.”

Ethan tried his best not to laugh, but wanted to drop the topic. Barry was getting legitimately upset about the topic of conversation, and he shifted uncomfortably on the spot, grumbling to himself about how creepy dolls were. Eventually, the scribe cleared his throat. "So, what are you going to do with that sword we got from the dungeon? Are you going to sell it or something?"

"Hell no. I'm gonna put a gun on that thing."

Ethan laughed and coughed, a single noodle shooting out of his nose. “Good God, man.”

The remainder of the meal was pleasant, but even when Ethan offered it a few more times, Barry outright refused to join him for the doll job. The haunted doll in question was being held in an old, disused house. It didn't slip Ethan's notice that this might have been the perfect opportunity to purchase property for Barry, but the house in question was owned by the city rather than an individual. After some light inquiry, he found out the city wouldn't sell it, even if the place was on fire, infested with dragons, or otherwise unusable.

Even the guard at the entrance to the building refused to go inside. Ethan found it truly difficult to blame him. He led the way with his staff in one hand and his pen in the other. The air was thick with energy, and that was the only thing that helped the scribe keep his cool. Although he didn't recognize the specific flavor, there was a certain something tinged throughout it; something that felt anomalous.

Ethan felt a shiver run up his spine as he moved from one hall to the other. The interior of the building was simple enough, made from wood paneling that had seen the wear of ages. Cobwebs filled every available corner, and dust covered every surface. The scribe turned a corner, feeling that sensation crawl up his back. It was as though he was being watched from the shadows. Another corner, and the source of the anomaly was…

“Yep. There it is,” Ethan said, gritting his teeth. “You’re a big brave man. You’re a big brave man.”

Resting in the corner of a room that must have once been a dining room was a doll. It was made of porcelain with a floppy yellow sun hat and a yellow and white polka dot dress. The scribe felt that feeling of unease crawl further up his spine, and he led the way with his staff ready to bonk it at a moment's notice. He froze on the spot.

“Do you want to play with me?”

A child’s voice issued from where the doll sat and Ethan screamed. He clapped a hand over his mouth, watching in terror as the doll’s head swiveled like in the damned Exorcist. The painted features of the doll had faded with time, showing more of the cracked porcelain underneath. The voice it spoke with was ethereal and that of a child. But with a few steadying breaths, the scribe calmed himself. The anomalous energy was coming straight from the doll, and he didn't feel as though it was the same type of ghost binding that had afflicted Avalara. This was something else entirely.

"What are you exactly?" Ethan tilted his head to one side, sketching a few sigils in the air. It was difficult to see the entire array that afflicted the doll, and he couldn't get his class to emulate the system outright. “You have an anomalous X-13 system, I think. But I don’t recognize the specific class or phenomenon you’re using.”

“You don’t want to play?” the doll asked. But the voice was even and without emotion.

Ethan had a trick when dealing with uncomfortable situations like this. He had always considered himself to be a very level-headed kind of person. Logical, even. There had been several times in his life on Earth when things were far outside of his control. What he did at those times was focus his mind entirely on the things that he could control. He couldn't make the creepy doll vanish, but he could focus on the facets of it that he understood. The binding of the anomaly to an object, the interaction of the sigils with the latent mana in the air. These were all things that he could think of and potentially fix. The creep factor of the doll was totally out of his hands.

"Yes, I believe we're going to play a very fun game," Ethan said, putting on his best friendly voice. "But we're going to have to check a few things first. I guess you could say... we're going to pretend to be wizards."

“I like wizards.”

Ethan shivered again, rolling his shoulders. Big brave man. Big brave man.

The first thing to check was to see exactly where the anomaly was bound to. It was entirely possible that this anomaly wasn't attached to the doll at all. It could have been the building itself or the ground underneath the floorboards that held the actual sigils with font style anomalies. This was always easy to tell. But his experience with anomalies that had bound themselves to movable objects was minimal. So, with great reluctance, the scribe approached the doll and cleared his throat.

The doll’s head pivoted, locking onto him with those dead, painted eyes.

“You’re not a wizard.” The doll only waited a moment before lunging.

Chapter 79

Tenalia

The thing about Ethan’s experience with combat boiled down to one fact: gravity. Gravity magic wasn’t common for people to have before the 5th rank, and a Rank 1 version of the Increase Gravity spell most commonly used by Gravity Mages was potent. Combine that with the potent effect of mana drain, and you had yourself a creepy-ass doll plastered to the ground in less than a breath.

Ethan folded his arms, tutting in disappointment. "We could have done this the easy way, but you wanted to be a little butthole, doll. Well, at least we've confirmed one thing. You're bound to the doll itself, and not the spot."

"Release me."

The voice coming from the doll this time was anything but that of a pleasant child. It came out gravely and scratchy, as though something was speaking directly through the very porcelain of the doll. Ethan wouldn't jump to conclusions, but there was something in that faint voice that made his unease grow. Although he hoped his suspicions were incorrect, he had a feeling about the doll.

“Bracelet, could you cook up a prison for this annoying doll.” Ethan sighed.

“Operation complete in… 5 minutes.”

“Ooo. Speedy.” Ethan cleared his throat, kneeling to poke at the doll. “If there’s anything sentient in there, I just want you to know… I’m not here to hurt you. But the longer you put up a fight, the more mana I’m gonna drain out of you. If I drain too much mana, the binding array might fail. Which means, you’ll die.”

The doll offered only a long silence. Ethan clicked his tongue. He didn't figure that. Whatever inhabited this thing would give up the ghost so easily, but he had to try. His suspicion was that there was some kind of consciousness within the doll, but it wasn't a ghost. What little of the array he had discovered didn’t match with what he knew from Avalara’s binding.

"Operation complete. This unit has created two spells. One will destroy the binding completely, and the other will suppress it for transport."

“Destroying the binding would kill any sentient consciousness, right?” Ethan said, paying great attention to the doll after saying that. It shifted slightly as if to escape from the gravity spell. “Project the doll-killing spell for me, so I can end this thing.”

Ethan didn't consider himself a tough guy. Even after he said that, he felt a pang of guilt spread through his chest, but the effect was immediate. It took the doll only a moment to respond.  

"Wait. Don't." 

“Oh, you ready to talk now?”

“I… I don’t know what I am.” The scratchy voice came with a bit too much emotion, making Ethan feel bad about the gravity spell. “I appeared and found this doll.”

Ethan shook his head and cast the reactive version of his barrier spell on himself. “Now that you know I have the power to destroy you, I hope our conversation will be more fruitful. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ethan. I'm a System Scribe, which means I run around and fix errors within the system. When I fix an error, it doesn't mean I destroy the anomaly. It means I make it operate correctly. If you would let me, I could fix whatever is wrong with you.”

The doll was reluctant to speak, but eventually did. “I don’t know what I am.”

Painful guilt ran through Ethan’s chest. Whatever was bound to the doll was strange, and he doubted any of the books he had on file would help him through this. Instead, he would take it step-by-step just like the other anomalies. “You’re holding onto that array pretty tightly. If you let me take a look at it, I can help. I’ll release you from the spell, but just know I have a reactive barrier that I doubt you can break through.”

“Fine,” the entity said.

Ethan nodded. With a wave of his hand, the Gravity Siphon spell dissipated. To his surprise, the doll didn’t lunge.

Good. That means it trusts me… I can’t imagine what this entity is thinking. Binding to a doll and pretending to be creepy is a level of strategy that shows intelligence. Let’s just hope it isn’t too smart.

“Excellent.” Ethan viewed the array in full now. He wanted to liken it to the ghost binding, but it was so different as to be completely alien. “I’m going to emulate your system and see what’s wrong with you, okay?”

“I’m trusting you, mortal. Don’t disappoint me.”

“Yeah. Of course.” Ethan cleared his throat. He traced the array into the air with his Celestial Pen. “Bracelet, start analysis on the array. Looks like some kind of binding, but there’s a web of complex logic underneath… At least we’re only working with a Rank 2 lattice array.”

“This unit cannot estimate the time to completion. Please stand by…”

And so the work began. The doll didn’t make another move. It allowed them to probe the array that designated its entire existence. Ethan was quick to section off an entire part of the arrangement, identifying it as some advanced-level sigils he had never seen. The bracelet confirmed they didn’t have any references to something even remotely complex. But eventually, the system relented and the emulation screen appeared.

[Anomalous PRIMARY System Variant Emulated]

ERROR: You have emulated an anomalous system. This variant of the PRIMARY system is malfunctioning. It is imperative that you fix it. Your ability to interact with this system is extremely restricted. Please use your Celestial Pen to resolve enough errors to stabilize the anomaly.

Primal Spirit Anomaly

Difficult Rank: UNKNOWN

System Alignment: PRIMARY

Anomaly Designation: UNKNOWN

Current Status: UNKNOWN

“Well, you’re a strange one, aren’t you?” Ethan asked, finding himself more excited about the problem by the moment.

“Is that a good thing?” The doll’s voice was slightly less scratchy than before.

“Yeah, this is a very good thing. You’re part of the same family of systems as me. The designation is “PRIMARY,” which means you’re about as close to the source of celestial energy as possible.

“This unit suspected as much. Each sigil is a variation of what one can suspect to be system-based sigils, rather than the X-13 or M-228 specific sigils.”

“My bracelet says that we’re going to be working blind for a while,” Ethan said, since the entity couldn’t hear what he was saying. “I’ve got a question: would you mind moving to a place where I can work on you more comfortably? This might take a bit for me to fix you up.”

“That is… acceptable.”

Ethan picked the doll up, finding that all the creepiness had faded. Now it just looked like a lost child to him, scared and without its parents. “Also, I want you to work on a name. Let me know if you need suggestions.”

“Understood.”

“Huh. You sound like my bracelet.” Ethan smiled as he carried the doll out of the crusty old building.

Of course, the guard near the entrance nearly died of a heart attack when Ethan carried the doll outside. It was hard not to laugh at the man. He now had with him a portable guard repellent, as long as that guard had heard tales of the aggressive haunted doll. Thankfully the story hadn't spread to Gale House, and people there just thought he was weird for carrying around a cracked porcelain doll. He made his way to the cottage in the late afternoon, finding and sagging into the sofa. Of course, Avalara was there, her head cocked to the side as she studied the entity.

“Are you collecting ghosts?” she asked.

“It isn’t a ghost.” Ethan gestured between the doll and Avalara. “Say hello to a Primal Spirit. Ever heard of one?”

“I can’t say that I have.” Avalara cupped her chin, floating around the doll, which rested on a table in the middle of the room. “That’s some awfully complex magic holding it together.”

“Celestial magic, basically.” Ethan rubbed his eyes. The rigors of the day had worn him down more than he wanted to admit. A bit of rest would do him good. “I’m just gonna take a nap. Wake me if you discover anything interesting.”

“Will do,” Avalara said. “This is most interesting.”

***

Ethan woke the next morning feeling slightly defeated. Between him, Avalara, the bracelet, Barry, and Amelia, none of them had cracked the issue with the doll. And the doll was no closer to discovering its name. Everyone was interested in such a strange thing, sure, but no one had any experience with something like this. The complex 2-layer array that represented the “function” part of the Primal Spirit didn’t help matters.

Ethan took a break from the doll, heading over to the dining hall to grab some food and waste some time. Sometimes it was better to let his thoughts settle when he was stuck on a problem. He could only explain it so many ways aloud before he trod the same ground again and again. The upside was that he now had a category of symbols he could investigate. They were all in the system's language but were easy enough to translate into the X-13 system. That way, he would ask an expert what their opinion on the binding was.

Upon returning to the cottage, the doll had some good news.

“I have settled upon a list of names.”

“Okay! Let’s hear them.” Ethan settled in on the sofa, excited to see what the doll came up with.

“Janice.”

“Nope. Wait, are you a girl?”

The doll hummed. “Perhaps. The ghost suggested Tenalia.”

“Is that an elf name?” Ethan asked.

“A traditional one from a place called Perisart, apparently.”

“Let’s add that to the list of feminine names that sound pretty nice,” Ethan said, nodding with approval.

“Gorethromp.”

“Ew, throw it in the bin,” Ethan said, making a disgusted face

The conversation went on, and Ethan didn't miss the subtle changes occurring in the way the spirit spoke. It became less as though the doll itself was talking by dragging bits of porcelain together, and more as though a soft feminine voice came forth. The spirit was likely attracted to the elven name because it may have been an elf at one time. Or perhaps it was all projection, and he was reading too much into it. Whatever the case, they eventually settled on Tenalia for now, with the idea that she might want to change it later.

Ethan was only moderately disappointed that this wasn't one of the problems he could solve in 10 minutes. He worked on it for the entire weekend, splitting his time between running calculations on the array, studying for his classes, and learning how to create runic enchantments. That was the most difficult part, as it relied on the spell he had created from observing the crafters. The Sketch Rune emulated ability, which when placed into his Dexterity Ring produced an ability of the same name, was tricky at the best of times.

Amelia suggested he start off with something simple, which Ethan had initially ignored. Only once he failed about thirty times did he take her advice. Barry came in with a few scrap pieces of metal for him to practice on, resulting a few Flame runes. When Ethan supplied mana to the runework inscription, it produced a small flame that came from the center of the arrangement. By Sunday, the scribe was working a larger scale project, starting with the section of the enchantment that would supply mana.

Spatial magic was a hungry business. It required a lot of mana to function properly. If the enchantment failed after a space had been expanded, everything would rush to the center and clatter together. People within the space would also get squished, which wasn’t ideal. Instead of just putting the first draft of the runework in his kitchen, he tested it in the garden with a few hilarious results.

“I don’t think that worked,” Avalara commented when a few rocks that had been arranged to denote the corners of the room crashed together over the grassy lawn. “I’m pretty sure this kills mortals.”

Ethan nodded. “Never trust the first iteration. I’m almost there… just gotta get the mana-sucking part of the rune working right.”

“I have faith in you,” Tenalia said, her doll form resting somewhere nearby.

“Thanks, creepy spirit,” Ethan said, patting her on the head. “Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll crack you and the spatial problem at the same time. Hey, maybe I can implant your spirit into a room. You can be a room!”

“I’d rather be anything else,” Tenalia said.

Chapter 80

Voidspace

Ritual Foundations 1 was effortless after all the study and experience Ethan had over the weekend. Professor Eggs had floated around the room, yapping and screaming about the importance of sigil arrangement, but the entire class had already mysteriously covered the topic. That was thanks to the mini class Ethan and Barry had hosted in the park on Saturday. The result was a very confused Chihuahua with no one to bark at. Eventually, she had to admit that they were doing better than most of her classes.

“Lunch?” Barry asked, rubbing his hands together as he and Ethan walked from Oak Building 18.

Ethan shook his head. He wasn’t normally hungry at noon, but today was the exception. So, he lamented what he had to say next. “Amelia set me up with some golemancer. I dunno if that’s a real class, but that’s what she called it.”

“That girl has connections!” Barry said with a hearty laugh. “No worries. Maybe you’ll figure it out. Or not. You know, hard to say with the weird crap you do.”

Ethan had a new plan for Barry’s workshop, but it was a ways off. The man didn’t mind working out of the rented space for now. In fact, he didn’t seem to care where he did his magitech work, so long as it got done. After extracting himself from a prolonged conversation, the scribe headed off. The golemancer in question was doing some guest lectures at the Tariat Academy… Curiously, she wasn’t giving her lectures to Gale House, instead speaking to Fangbrand, the fighter house.

Hopefully, they forgot about the whole dragon thing.

Traveling to Fangbrand was easy enough. Ethan took the nearest portal, finding himself in one of the most north-reaching houses within Tariat Academy. The weather was okay,  but most of the problems with Fangbrand came from the massive mountains to the north. They drove a constant chill and gray clouds that were strewn across the sky. The scribe was surprised when the guards near the Gate didn’t stop him, or flog him.

The difference in the architecture between Gale House and Fangbrand house wasn’t that different. Ethan could only spot the difference in materials used to insulate the homes in Fangbrand against the harsh weather. Even with the reputation of the house for hot-headed combat, most people on the street were friendly. They had taken the concept of cooperation and taking care of the house to mean service through combat. Which worked for them, since there were quite a few monsters in the surrounding area.

The guards were equally friendly, pointing Ethan toward one of the training yards near the center of the city. Walking that far was moderately annoying, seeing as he only had so much time with the golemancer. Although he had word the person would wait for him, he also received a lot of warnings about how fickle the woman could be. And it didn’t take long to figure out where she was. In the distance, the sound of battle came rolled in.

Nestled in a square that seemed to have been built for the purpose of hosting battles, a massive group of students had gathered. The square itself was uninteresting; only a clearing in the middle of a lot of buildings. The group of fighters was so thick, he couldn’t even see the action. So, with a quick System Leap into the air, and a System Platform to keep him aloft, he got his first look at the arena.

A group of ten fighters faced off against… one two-foot-tall wooden puppet. Ethan’s confusion as to the matchup was soon relieved when the golem moved. Three fighters moved in at once, one with a massive hammer, another with a spear, and the last with a sword. The puppet ducked, jumped, and rushed in after all three strikes missed. With a tiny wooden sword, it slashed at the combatants, easily disarming them. The crowd cheered with excitement, pumping their fists as the other fighters moved in.

“As you can see!” a powerful voice rushed over the crowd. It came from the puppet master herself, the person Ethan understood was named Xol’trex… Trex or short, apparently. “The puppets can be tuned for lower difficulty.”

The puppeteer herself was… striking. She was at least seven-feet-tall with skin made of shifting shades of purple and blue. It seemed to move in waves across what little exposed flesh she had. Her eyes glowed an intense shade of blue, emitting their own light even against the light of the sun. Wearing nothing more than simple combat robes, similar enough to those Ethan had seen worn by the cultivators, her aged face held an obvious wisdom that came with such time alive.

The next group of three fighters that moved against the puppet fared much better. This time, the golem moved much slower. When the group moved as a team, it wasn’t able to keep up with their attacks. Soon, weapons of steel bit into its wooden body. With their organization, they took the powerful puppet down in moments, hacking it to bits. Trex moved to the center of the arena. Where she swept her hand, fighters parted.

Trex held her hand over the puppet, smiling as the pieces came back together. The wood reformed, and Ethan couldn’t miss the sniff of something he recognized from Erradon. Creation magic. Just a small amount of it, but enough for him to tell. Before long, the puppet was on its feet again, ready to fight.

“There we are. All that effort is undone in a moment.” Trex surveyed the group, turning and spotting Ethan standing on an invisible platform. She simply gave him a nod of approval before turning to regard the crowd again. “This goes double for necromancers. If you find yourself up against one, do me a favor. Cut their head off before you waste your time with minions. Always go for the source as far as magic is concerned.”

That was some decent advice and Ethan found himself nodding along. He had to recast System Platform so he wouldn’t plunge to the crowd below, but maintained his mana through Mana Siphon. The lesson only went on for a while longer, and it was clear Trex was eager to have a word with the scribe. Perhaps she was more excited about the meeting than he had anticipated.

The fighters weren’t happy when she concluded the lesson, but with a smile, Trex placed a few puppets in the arena’s center for them to fight while she was gone. The woman walked down an alleyway, beckoning for Ethan to follow. Suddenly, he had the feeling as though he was walking into a spider’s web… but it was hard to stop himself.

“So, I heard you have an interesting problem,” Trex said, not even turning around as she walked.

“Uh, yeah. I can’t crack it.” Ethan felt awkward talking to her back. The woman, despite her obvious advanced age, moved with purpose and poise.

Trex finally stopped, turning and folding her arms over her chest. “You don’t happen to have a sketch of this problem do you?”

“Projection, please,” Ethan requested. An instant later, the bracelet projected an image of the array he had mapped until that point.

“Hmmm. Interesting. Not a mind spirit.” Trex tilted her head to one side, reaching out to touch the projection. The scribe had a feeling she wasn’t doing so out of ignorance. “Something like a processing spirit… I’ve seen something like this, young scribe. Very impressive you’ve only been here for… Two months?”

“Something like that.”

Trex smiled. “The last time someone brought me something interesting was… Well, at least a century. I know how to solve your problem. But, would you like to grab a drink first?”

Declining was a bad idea. It didn’t matter if Ethan wanted a drink or not, he needed this wise woman’s help. “Absolutely,” he said, mustering as much excitement as he could. “Know any local places?”

Trex snorted. “Yeah. I know one,” she said, passing her hand through the air. A portal appeared, shimmering with shifting blue-purple energy.

Ethan narrowed his eyes, sensing the strange mix of magic. If he hadn’t studied the dungeon so much, he might’ve missed it. The magic resting inside wasn’t Portal magic. “A dimensional space?” he asked.

“Hah! Yeah, I like you a lot. Come on, I’ve got some decent coffee stashed away somewhere.”

Without explaining further, she stepped in. Ethan should’ve refused to go into a mysterious portal. But the master this person had over dimensional magic was immense. He found his feet moving forward, staff clicking against the ground as he entered the dimensional space. A slight tug at his navel told him was was transiting between two spaces, and a moment later his mouth fell open.

“Well, that’s… Something.”

Ethan stood on a verdant lawn, bright blue sky overhead with wisps of clouds floating by. In the distance, at least 500 feet over a well-maintained garden, was a manor. It had straight white-washed walls with endless rows of windows spanning four floors. There was even a fancy fountain burbling in the center of a red brick path. Trex stood with a stupid smile on her face.

“Oh, yeah. That’s right.” Trex took a deep breath. “Breathe it in. That’s jealousy."

“No kidding,” Ethan said, his eyes darting everywhere. “What is this place? Is it like… a fragment of reality like a dungeon, or… There’s a lot of Creation magic here, and a ton of Dimensional magic but I can also feel Soul magic.”

“Holy hells, kid,” Trex said, laughing nervously. “You wanna slow down there? Took some of us decades to even sense this kind of magic.”

Ethan allowed himself a smug smile, wiping it away as quickly as he could. Instead, he followed Trex into the manor. As expected, it was completely empty, but she made her way to the kitchen, grinding coffee beans and putting on the strong-smelling brew. She said nothing the entire time, focused entirely on the coffee. Although the scent was a bit too intense for the scribe, he fully intended to drink whatever she served him.

Placing two fine cups on a dining room table, Trex took a seat and gestured for Ethan to do the same. She slid the cup across the table along with a jar of sugar, which the scribe scooped liberally into his coffee. That brought it just below the level of intolerable acidity he disliked about the drink. A splash of cream made it pretty good, if not delicious.

“So, you somehow trapped a Primal Spirit.” Trex shook her head, drinking her black coffee. “Mind projecting that array for me again?”

Ethan did as he was told, instructing his bracelet to do so. The woman nodded along, reading through the various parts.

“To answer your questions, asked or not, about this dimensional space, we’re currently in Voidspace.” Trex gestured around vaguely. “I carved a slice out, making it my home.”

Ethan knew very little about Voidspace. He had some ideas about dungeons occupying Voidspace, which was a hack the system used to create dimensional spaces. The idea of physical linearity with Voidspace was… complex, and the scribe knew he didn’t have the brainpower to understand half of it. He thought of it like two planes, one atop the other. He was on the top one, and Voidspace was the bottom one.

“Mostly I’m interested in this Primal Spirit,” Ethan said, leaning in over the table. “It was bound to this creepy doll, and I haven’t be able to… uh… fix it.”

Trex threw her head back, laughing. “Bit late to hide your powers, kid! You can’t fix it through emulation, right?” She shook her head, tutting him like a disappointed mother. “You might be the first Scribe I’ve heard of, but this isn’t my first brush with the Grand System.”

Ethan leaned in even further, chest practically pressing against the surface of the table. “Seriously? So, what do you know about Primal Spirits?”

Trex laughed again, taking a very big sip of her coffee. “So, you captured something I’d call a conceptual spirit. Which, as far as I know, is an impossible thing. Congratulations, you’ve got to fix the conceptual aspect of all elvenkind.”