System Scribe Academy Book 1 - Chapters 86,87,88,89,90 (Patreon)

Chapter 86

M-0 Proto System

Ethan didn't know how to respond. He was so dumbfounded by the series of stupid events that his body refused to move. He watched a few things happen in quick succession. After Tenalia slashed the outside of the egg, both Finn and Luna went into combat mode, readying their weapons and dashing in. Nultan threw himself in front of them, spreading his arms wide as his eyes shimmered with that same divine power. For her part, the puppet retreated to a safe distance, wooden hands on her hips as she looked at her work in satisfaction.

"Do not harm them. They aren't a threat." Nultan's voice was flinty. Ethan could feel some kind of power he was pulling from the God himself. If he pushed his senses further, he could indeed feel something within the egg, something that felt like a person. A moment later, he realized it was two people.

"Unless you want these hills crawling with skeletons or otherwise reanimated corpses by the afternoon, you'll have to move." Luna clenched her fist tightly. Her knuckles were tipped with spikes of mana honed to a deadly edge. Finn held a card in one hand and a sword in the other.

"Unless you've spontaneously become the master of undeath or otherwise an expert on the subject, I suggest you relax." Nultan set his jaw, knowing he couldn’t beat Luna and Finn at the same time.

But Luna wasn’t an idiot. She had seen enough in the world to know when she was out of her depth. Nultan was a well-regarded cleric in his house, known for being the expert on undeath. If the figures in the egg were undead, he knew the best course.

Luna took a massive breath, letting it out as visible flecks of mana stung the air. “We cede to your expertise, cleric.”

“For now,” Finn growled, the card and sword vanishing in an instant. He stalked away, keeping his eyes locked on the egg.

“A blanket, or something,” Nultan demanded, holding his hand out as he turned to peer into the egg. “Gods… This might get complicated.”

Luna was quick to produce several blankets, handing them over to Nolten before standing at a safe distance. Finn had somehow managed to pry the massive sword out of Tenalia’s wooden grasp and was busy scolding her for being so hasty. The puppet had an excuse, but she was too distant for Ethan to hear, and his attention was fully locked onto the egg, as though he could bore a hole into it just by staring. But he didn’t have to wait very long.

Two figures emerged from the egg. They were slow to move as though their muscles had been asleep for years. The first was from the same race as Nolten himself. He was a large vulbet with pale white fur and sunken eyes. He had himself wrapped in the blanket and was shambling forward. The next was from the same race as Alex; the maeth. The scribe suspected this one was a female, but she was so disheveled it was hard to tell. Nultan led them to a large piece of fallen timber to sit before getting to work.

The healing magic he used was… weird. It didn’t glow with the familiar silver-gold light the scribe had seen before. This magic shone with a different flavor of magic altogether. Purple motes of light flowed from the cleric’s body, soaking into the two strange figures’ bodies and bringing a small amount of color back to their faces. When his healing was done, he turned and urged the others to follow him.

When the group was finally out of earshot, he spoke, "Not many people know a lot about undeath. There are three main categories. The first is that of a spirit, the same as your doll there. I know that she is a conceptual spirit, but ghosts are the same. They exist here in material space but have difficulty manifesting any effects unless they possess something. The second is a thrall. This is an undead that is tethered to another. This is the classic type of necromancy we're familiar with. A necromancer will raise the dead and make them do their bidding.”

The long silence that settled in after that was uncomfortable. Ethan found himself shifting on the spot, awaiting the next words that seemed as though they would never come. When Nultan finally spoke, it startled him. The scribe's eyes had been locked on the two undead sitting on the bit of wood. He was shocked to see that he felt some empathy for them.

“The last form is true on death. I’ve seen it before a few times, but I’ve never seen the birth of one. These two people were once mortal, and I doubt they remember much of their previous life. Whoever put them here did so for a very specific reason, a reason I’m not certain I will discover today.”

"So we should kill them," Luna said, pointing at the two undead. "They'll just raise more undead as thralls, right?”

Nultan released the heaviest sigh Ethan had ever heard. "Undeath does not mean evil. It's more of an affliction, an irreversible affliction. I wasn't entirely honest about my true alignment. Just as there is a sun, there is also a moon. conceptually anyway. I will not discuss details with any of you, but I hold a minor affinity for Death magic.”

“You healed them, right?” Ethan asked. He hadn’t been paying full attention, but he could tell when someone was squishing spells together. “You cast a Death-infused healing spell, right?”

“Perceptive,” Nultan said with a wry chuckle. “I know now why my Lord wanted me on this job. He must’ve known I was the only one who would understand their condition.”

“But come on… We can’t let undead run around the academy,” Finn objected.

Nultan laughed at that, giving Finn a look as though he were an idiot. "Then perhaps you'd like to tell the twenty-some students and teachers who already have the affliction. You could expel them yourself. Although I don't know if you could physically remove some of them. They would easily overpower you. You would die."

Luna seemed partially annoyed and partially confused. The anomaly was still there at the egg. There was something wrong with it that needed fixing. Their job wasn't done until the anomaly was expunged. “Before we proceed, could you explain the condition of undeath to us? You claim our ignorance but don't want to educate us.”

Nultan’s posture relaxed. "I didn't expect you to be receptive. Fine. Undeath is a fairly simple affliction. It is one of the few that the Church has studied that is permanent. You cannot remove it through any means, not even through godly acts. It is the popular perception that ‘undeath’ means rot and decay. But that is only the withering effects of necromantic undeath; that of the thrall. True undeath means preservation. A living body needs energy through food to survive, but an undead body functions more like the monsters we’re familiar with. Their organs cease to function. No need for food, water, air, and so on.”

“Woah.” Finn said, running his fingers through his hair. He took a seat. “That sounds... ghoulish.”

“It is anything but,” Nultan said. “It is another way. Life to death, unlife to undeath. Although the local seat is empty, my Lord Hallow has an opposite in the Primal God of Undeath. They’re two sides of a concept, interlinked and inexorable.”

"This is all very academic, and trust me, I'm extremely interested. But what are we going to do about them? What are we going to do about the anomaly?" Ethan spoke up for the first time, feeling like a child who had just sat at the grown-ups' table at Thanksgiving.

"You're the expert on that." Luna jabbed a finger at the scribe. "Their conditions might be linked to the incompleteness of the anomaly. Why don't you get in there and start working on it? Maybe that'll improve their condition.” 

“I agree,” Nultan said with a nod. “The magic I used should’ve revived them, but they’re still in permanent stasis.”

“A condition you’ll have to tell me about,” Ethan said, leaning heavily on his ever-upright staff and withdrawing his celestial pen. “I’ll get to work right away. And hey, Finn… Next time the puppet asks you for something, decline.”

“Lesson learned.”

Ethan reluctantly approached the egg. It didn't seem to be made of biological material, but whatever it was made of, he couldn't place. It had the consistency of stone… maybe. There was a leather-like quality to it that made the whole thing confusing. The inside was completely dry. He started by cataloging the sigils he could see, completely unwilling to emulate this system before he truly understood it. If it was connected to some far-off god, he wasn’t excited about emulating it.

The first thing Ethan noted was that whatever the array near the egg was doing, it was connecting to those two people. They still sat there completely naked aside from the blankets draped over their shoulders. They remained motionless, not breathing, blinking, or fidgeting in the slightest. The scribe made connections between them, cataloging it with his bracelet. When they had peeled apart most of the functionality of the array, they found the problem. There was a malfunctioning timer section, but that was not his concern. His worry rested with the absurdly complex part of the lattice array that he could never hope to decipher.

Taking a break from his work, Ethan approached Nultan and projected the array from his bracelet. “I’m guessing you can read some of this.”

The cleric’s eyes went wide for only a moment. Then his gaze darted around the array as he put it together. Ethan wasn’t sure how good people with a cleric-style class were at reading spell arrays, but it was obvious this guy knew what he was looking at.

“These sigils up here,” Nultan gestured to the confusing, 4-deep webwork above the functional part of the array. “Those are some interesting sigils. I don’t recognize them.”

“If I had to guess, they belong to that god you were talking about. Which means I don’t really want to touch it.” Ethan jabbed a finger at Tenalia, who was trying to convince Finn to give him the sword again. “She’s a Primal Spirit. And the amount of trouble she causes is high. But she has an insight into things like this that transcends learned knowledge.”

Nultan’s jaw clenched. “Can you fix this?”

“Yeah, but I have to borrow divine power from the Primal God of Undeath. I can’t isolate the array and just fix the timer. Hell, this entire thing is Rank 4. Emulating it is going to be hard enough as it is, but there’s no way I’m inviting another god in.”

Nultan pursed his lips, nodding. “Give me a moment. I might have a solution.”

Without saying another word, he sat on the ground. Within a breath, a familiar energy swirled around him. Hallow’s energy. An instant later, a bubble of swirling magic sprang up and enveloped Ethan and Nultan. The cleric’s mouth twisted into a wide smile as he nodded.

“I can’t get into the details,” he said. “But the local authorities have taken an interest in your job. Within this bubble, you can ‘emulate’ an outside system without the deity’s notice.”

Ethan cocked an eyebrow. “Can I have that power? Like… just in general.”

“Hurry. My Lord says this is a costly shield.”

There was no “hurry” in the way Ethan proceeded. He was punching well above his weight by attempting to emulate a Rank 4 anomaly. It didn’t matter if Hallow was blocking signals from some distant Primal God of Undeath, it was a matter of skill. The scribe wasn’t good at a lot of things. But he had been doing anomalies nonstop. He understood the intricacies of an array, and now had a better understanding of lattice arrays. But for all his effort, the only thing that moved the emulation forward was focusing on the simple control sigils, specifically the timer that was screwed up.

Ethan’s body was covered in sweat. He grit his teeth as something hot smoldered in his chest, his brain working overtime just to get the emulation working. He’d open his eyes every few seconds, seeing a new image flashed by his bracelet. The artifact created different arrangements of the array, framing it with different concepts until something finally clicked. The scribe felt a rush of something ancient bubbling from his soul, rushing out to consume him. Something calm and comforting battered it away, forbidding it from existing.

All the tension released from his body the moment the system message appeared.

[Anomalous M-0 Proto System Variant Emulated]

ERROR: You have emulated an anomalous system. This variant of the M-0 Proto system is malfunctioning.

M-0 Time-Release Anomaly

Difficult Rank: Extreme (Rank 4)

Known Errors: Timer Sigil Malfunction (358 years overdue)

System Alignment: M-0 Proto

Anomaly Designation: Savior Release

Current Status: Looping

Chapter 87

Saviors Released

The weight of the Rank 4 anomalous system settled in on Ethan’s shoulders. There was a physical and spiritual pressure to it that made him buckle, falling to one knee as the damage spread quickly. It came with no pain, oddly enough, but whatever physical effects ravaged a concerned-looking Nultan quickly healed him. No one needed to tell the scribe how important haste was for his task.

The bracelet flashed information into the air, seeming to run through permutations of the solution as it processed. Rather than keeping its processing hidden, it ran through possible solutions to minimize the physical strain on its owner. Ethan had a plan for fixing this before the weight of the system fell upon his shoulders. Faced with the confusing mingling of energy in his body, he threw those plans out and just did what his bracelet told him to do.

After recreating the array, he doubled the quantity of energy-siphoning sigils in the counter section of the array, ensuring it kept the correct time. Not only had the bracelet found a way to solve the anomaly, but it had found the best way to fix it with minimal effort. Ethan locked the changes in, the pressure that had come so suddenly flooding out of his body. He fell on his back, vision swirling as viewed a shifting pattern of blue sky and clouds above.

“Take it easy,” Nultan warned. The barrier provided by Hallow vanished, all threat of some Primal god coming to call fading with it. “That couldn’t have been pleasant. Hopefully I dulled your nerves enough for you not to notice… that.”

Although he didn’t feel it, Ethan looked down to see his robes. They were soaked through with blood. Both Luna and Finn looked on in horror. He gave them the thumbs-up, but it hardly seemed to soothe their worries. None of them got a chance to discuss it, though. The two undead were stirring, and Nultan rushed off to tend to them. They swayed, requiring support to stay upright. This gave Ethan enough time to check his message for solving the anomaly.

[Savior Release Anomaly Repaired]

You have repaired an anomaly known to the Grand System. Please continue to resolve anomalies.

Reward:

Increased breadth and depth of one Attribute Ring of your choice.

Increased breadth and depth of one Attribute Ring for bound puppet.

Ethan blinked a few times. He ignored the sounds coming from Nultan as he talked with the recently revived undead. The scribe propped himself, aided by Luna and a rush of her mana flooding into him. He didn’t have time to consider that technique, instead glaring at Tenalia.

“Why are you bound to me?” Ethan asked.

Tenalia shrugged her wooden shoulders. “One must bind oneself to something, yes?”

Luna made a face, her eyes shifting to the image of a cloudy red nebula. “Can you move?”

To his surprise, Ethan could move just fine. He got to his feet, grimacing as he got a better look at his clothes. With a pulse of his Vigor Ring, he tried to clean the blood away. But it just wouldn’t go.

“Actually, I was working on something for you,” Finn said, scratching his chin. “Well, Luna made me work on it. Luna’s actually doing most of the work…”

“Way to spoil the surprise,” Luna said, helping Ethan along. Even if he didn’t need the help.

With Tenalia riding on his head, Ethan approached the undead with his companions on either side. Nultan was kneeling before the two, his hand on either of their heads. The familiar mixture of Death magic wove together with Healing magic, creating a heady mix that made the scribe dizzy.

“They remember very little,” Nultan said, gesturing to the female maeth first. “She thinks her name is Solace. And he thinks his name is Zeal. They had been fighting on this planet before something happened. I suspect divine intervention, likely an old death god, that sealed them away. Soaking in Death magic for so long has rendered them as true undead.”

“Yikes.” Finn winced.

“What’s the move?” Luna asked, folding her arms.

“Logically, Nultan takes them.” Ethan felt all eyes fall on him. “What? Does anyone here have a clue how an undead body works? What if their energy levels get all messed up? I know we’re all good with mana, but how are you guys with Death mana?”

Finn shifted uncomfortably. “I could learn.”

“We couldn’t.” Luna settled her sights on Nultan. “We also need to keep in mind the fact that he is undead. As much as Nultan trusts the true undead, it cannot be something widely known.”

“The reaction would be unfavorable,” Ethan concluded.

“I’m happy to provide a few safe houses.” Finn flashed a smile.

“My services, and my sword, are yours to command.” Tenalia said, bowing from her position atop Ethan’s head.

Nultan raised a hand, spreading an annoyed look between each member of the Anomalous Materials Group. “This isn’t my first time caring for a new true undead. Until I can teach them how to process Death mana without destroying their bodies, they’ll be very sluggish. Until then, I’ll need to flood them with a mix of Death and Healing.”

“So, do you have a place?” Finn asked, tapping his foot.

“I do. A church at Luminarum House city where they’ll be welcomed.” Nultan gave the two undead a bit more mana to snack on. “Likewise, I invite you to come and check on them as often as you wish. I understand you may feel responsible.”

“Anomalous Materials Group meeting,” Luna announced, jerking her head to one side.

Before Ethan could object, Tenalia jumped from his head, making a motion as though she was cracking her knuckles. “I’ll keep an eye on them.”

Ethan scoffed, walking off to join the other members of the team. As far as he was concerned, he wanted to send the undead off. The care they would require was beyond anything they could deal with. Even if he could adapt his system to handle Death mana, it might take too long. He imagined himself having to learn how to put food into someone’s mouth taking weeks, as the scenarios were analogous.

“So he is truly a disciple of Hallow?” Luna asked, turning her attention directly to Ethan.

“Absolutely. There’s no doubt about that.”

Luna grumbled a bit, but eventually nodded. “I don’t know what to think about this…”

“Oh, the message I got said they were supposed to be released 358 years ago,” Ethan said.

“Huh. Oddly close to when this world was formed. They were likely part of the defensive force that repelled some of the first invaders.” Finn cupped his chin as though he was going back in time to check on his facts. “I know the records aren’t good, but their casualties were high.”

“Both here and the mortal world,” Luna agreed. “That means they were special. We’re going to keep a close eye on them.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Don’t look at me, I’m the baby,” Ethan said.

With that settled, the group headed back to give their confirmation to Nultan. Luna was the one to agree to his terms, and they planned for regular visits. Ethan didn’t think that was necessary, seeing as both undead were already looking way better. They sent Finn off to grab some transport while Luna and Ethan cleaned up the remaining tainted energy. There wasn’t much, but some had soaked into the wood of the trees and the stones on the ground. More than likely, the entire place would be burned to the ground, but it was worth clearing the vestiges of foul mana away.

“I think you might’ve done the right thing, Tenalia.” Ethan patted his puppet on the head. “Are you ever going to explain why you bound yourself to me?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Want a job as my bodyguard?”

“I’ve already accepted the position,” Tenalia confirmed. “Let’s do our duty. We must escort those poor undead to their temporary home.”

Ethan slotted his barrier and beam attack into his Affinity Ring. He didn’t expect an attack, but if Tenalia was going to take her job seriously, so was he.

Luminarum House City was… something else. Every city in the academy reflected the kinds of classes it catered to. Luminarum dealt with healers and support-style classes. That meant they had an obsession with white stone, silver and gold details, and just about the cleanest streets Ethan had ever seen. There were a lot fewer businesses here, but a lot more homes. The scribe suspected that those without a home could easily find a place to stay here, exemplifying the concept of charity that the healer gods seemed to favor.

Ethan could appreciate the stone buildings here, maybe even the coordinated color on the roofs, but it was a bit sterile. When they finally found their way to the largest church dedicated to Hallow in the academy, he felt much more at ease. First were the guards, contracted and unaligned with any other deity. These people were only present in the inner-sanctum. They also had really big spears and mean looks on their faces. Big spears and mean looks meant good guards, right?

“These two will be behind a few layers of security,” Nultan said, seeming eager to reassure the group. “Doesn’t matter what the public thinks, they won’t have to worry about any of that.”

The inner cloister of the church was impressive. It appeared much like the cloisters Ethan had learned about back on Earth, complete with a very impressive garden and a lot of vegetation. More impressively was what he sensed in one of the many back rooms. Mana fonts, spewing out different types of mana. Including Death mana.

“You’re equipped for the task.” Luna nodded with approval. “If you don’t mind, I’ll have a word with your superior. On behalf of our benefactors and the Anomalous Materials Group.”

Nultan helped his two charges have a seat on a bench, feeding them a bit more of his potent mana. “This way.”

“So, this is awkward,” Finn said after a few moments, whistling a bit. “Inner sanctum of Hallow’s church. I never expected to visit.”

“I’d rather leave as soon as possible,” Ethan said, looking around to ensure no one was within earshot. “I’m doing a very bad job avoiding divinity.”

Although he was uncomfortable with Hallow, it was hard to deny how much that god had helped them. Saving two people, undead or not, was also pretty satisfying. Ethan didn’t know what else to do, so he went over and knelt before the two undead people. Since the guy, Zeal, was mostly covered in fur it was hard to tell how he was doing. Solace, on the other hand, had some color back in her cheeks. They both still had a dull look in their eyes, as though they couldn’t focus on anything, but they were doing better.

“How does that work?” Ethan asked. “How are you looking more rosy if your heart isn’t working.”

“How should… I know?” Solace asked, her voice barely a growling whisper.

Ethan tightened his expression, tempering any worry that might have bled through his control. “If you two have any problems just let me know. We have some pull with some powerful people.”

“We won… right?” Zeal asked. His voice was so deep and gravely that in a whisper, Ethan could barely understand him.

“You did, if the history books are correct.” Finn came close, offering them a bright smile. Maybe he thought that would be enough to cheer them up, but it wasn’t.

“History, huh?” Zeal groaned. “Better than nothing.”

Deciding it was best to leave the pair in the hands of the experts, Finn and Ethan went to a respectable distance to wait. Luna came back with a smile, which was completely unexpected. She was apparently impressed with the promised care of the church, and she explained it once they exited the church.

“They’re the real deal. They have specialty equipment, spells, and techniques to care for true undead.” Luna took a moment as she walked, eventually clicking her tongue. “I’ll reference a few texts to ensure they’re telling the truth. But it looks legit.”

“Okay, so… Ethan, you look like you just went on a spree.”

“What?”

“A killing spree. Luna, let’s go work on his robes.” Finn gestured smoothly toward the nearest Gate. “And you, go clean yourself up.”

“Good idea.”

Chapter 88

Armed to the Teeth

The weekend passed in a blur. With the last week of classes approaching, he almost didn’t know what to do with himself. After throwing away his old robes, and buying another pair that was just as nice, he spent his time studying for classes, hanging out with Barry and Amelia, and watching Tenalia train. The puppet had found a stick to work as a sword and had used it constantly until Sunday morning. That’s when she snapped it in half, vowing to finally get her hands on “real steel.”

The event was interesting enough that Barry wanted to join them at Feyhammer house. At least Tenalia’s dresses were done. She wore a red and white dress with a floral pattern and a matching hat. That alone was enough to make her look more like a very tiny human, rather than a puppet. As they walked, Barry and Ethan studied and discussed how things would go over the coming months.

“Depends on who you talk to, really,” Barry said with a weak shrug. “The guys at Feyhammer don’t do a damn thing but craft after the classes are over. But if you talk to anyone at Gale House, or Fangbrand, Duskthorn for that matter, they’re spinning some tales.”

“Such as?” Ethan asked, watching as the array floating in the air before them shifted to another image. The bracelet was getting better by the day. Not only from raw processing power, but a kind of intuitive intelligence that allowed it to predict what the scribe would ask for next. Skynet was imminent.

“Here’s the problem. If you take a place like Gale House and break each student or professor down to parts, you get a confusing mix. Support mages, offensive mages, crafting mages, utility mages. I talked to some second-year offensive mages who claim we get attacked by monsters after the semester ends. A utility mage told me they practice disaster recovery. But that’s not the worst part.” Barry paused, catching his breath from so much rambling. “I think they’re all messing with me, man!”

“A coordinated hazing?” Ethan asked.

“Maybe. Or a contract that forbids them from telling the exact truth, which supports the theory that something big happens between the semesters.” Barry turned to Ethan, his smile growing broader by the moment. “I’m thinking they do war games.”

Based on the information Barry had that wasn’t the least likely possibility, but it also wasn’t guaranteed. Ethan knew one thing about each academy on the planet: they were designed to prepare people to go into the wider universe. A style of education that matched that on Earth didn’t make sense in that context. Instead, they would have an education system that worked for them. A short semester of information followed by some practical fighting made sense.

And it went further. Barry mentioned that each mage he spoke to had a different tale to tell. Well, that made perfect sense if one assumed the university would put each type of mage into a different role. You wouldn’t take a utility mage and put them on the front lines. You would create disaster scenarios for them to respond to.

“Makes perfect sense to me,” Ethan said. “So they silence the previous students so they don’t spoil the surprise. I’m going to bet that’s why the classes are so short. They continue, but in a different form. A more practical form.”

“What about the book-learning classes?”

Ethan shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe just real-world examples.”

“Enough talk!” Tenalia finally shouted, silencing the conversation. “We approach the destination.”

Ethan had commissioned the armor and the weapons from the same blacksmith. It was, of course, a blacksmith recommended by Barry. They got some kind of discount, and each piece was guaranteed to be at or close to rank two. At first, the scribe had only done so because he wanted the very best for the puppet. He thought he was going to send it off to live on its own, but instead, now there she was, bound at his side through some strange magic he didn't even understand.

“Hey Howard.” Barry sauntered through the shop portion of the blacksmith and leaned against the counter. “I'm here to inspect the goods, just to make sure you're not cheating my friend here.”

Howard was a muscular human man with a shaven head and a massive beard. He looked at Barry with an expression of offense at first but then eventually laughed. "I'd expect nothing less from you. Just a moment, Mr. Walsh will go fetch your goods."

Apparently there were a lot of pieces that went into making armor. There were neck guard things and stuff that went between the shoulders and the shoulder pad pieces. Ethan had no idea what any of it was called, but Barry and Howard did. It took them no time to discuss the intricacies of that armor and how difficult it had been to create such a small scale. Tenalia was just over a foot tall, so each piece had to be created with expert precision.

They worked together to fit the armor onto the doll. She was happy to remove her dress and stood perfectly still with her arms wide. Ethan suspected she would never take the armor off, especially after hearing what Howard had to say next.  

"Now, when you lock each piece together, the system recognizes it as a whole piece. So we've got a chest piece, a helmet, leggings, and boots to make up the first part of the set." Howard tightened a leather strap, padding it and nodding with approval. "This doll is very sturdy. You must be a master golemancer. Anyway, all the pieces have a rank to self-repair, self-clean enchantment, as well as something I took the liberty of putting in there. It's a deflection enchantment. With the small size of the armor, and the way I've domed everything, it'll be hard for anybody to land a blow. But in case they do, just bring it back here and I'll fix it up for you. The material is Imbued Steel, just about the best you can get for metal before Rank 3.”

“So, are we happy?” Barry asked, cracking his knuckles.

Above all, the armor was absolutely splendid. Not only was it well made, but it was ornate enough to satisfy the concept of elven nobility. The helmet itself had a visor Tenalia could flip up and down. The top was domed and inlaid with golden runes that shone occasionally. The armor itself held the same details with a domed chest piece that came to what almost appeared to be a skirt at her waist and slight shoulder pad things on her shoulders. Her little boots had treaded soles, which would give her better traction.

Even if Ethan discounted the way that it looked, he could feel the magic, and he recognized part of a few of the runes inscribed on the surface. It was, he knew, a masterwork, something that should have been created for a high-ranking adventurer or some noble person. Eventually, the scribe looked up and nodded to the blacksmith. "It's amazing. We're very happy with it, aren't we, Tenalia?"  

"Yes, but we must see the swords and the spears now." She growled up at the blacksmith like an angry dog.

"Well, little lady, you're going to be very pleased." The blacksmith disappeared, returning a moment later with a rolled-up bit of leather. When he unrolled it, he revealed an assortment of tiny weapons that made even him laugh. “Here's the thing. The work on this job was kind of challenging, but I saved so much money on materials that I just made a couple of extra things. Why don't you take a look and see if these are acceptable?”

With a swift motion, the puppet jumped up on the counter, tilting her visor face down to look at the weapons. The blacksmith had created two variations of all the armaments the scribe had requested. Then, there were some more interesting variations. There was basically a version scaled to the size of the puppet's body, one that was her height, and another that was twice her height.

"I had a feeling your master was a very competent golemancer, so I created the standard weapons: self-cleaning, self-repair, enchantment, and sharpness on both the regular-sized sword and spear, and the full-sized sword and spear. But on the big ones, the ones that are twice your height, I didn't add the sharpness enchantment. Instead, I added the weight enchantment. If you add mana to the weapon, it will get heavier. But I have a feeling you can handle quite a bit of weight, little lady."

If Tenalia had eyes, they would currently be sparkling. She went straight for the gigantic version of the weapons, picking up the two-foot-long sword, which was actually more like a regular short sword. A flash of mana came from somewhere inside her, and the sword glimmered. It was made from the same bright gray steel as the armor, with the gold enchantments running along the blade. These appeared when she added mana. She sagged slightly but still held the sword aloft.

“About twice as heavy as Finn’s sword,” Tenalia said, nodding with approval.

“Really?” Barry asked, scratching his head. “Doesn’t look that heavy… Let me try.”

The moment Barry took the sword, he tipped forward, head nearly banging on the counter as the unexpected weight of the weapon settled in his hand. “Damn, that’s a beefy boy!” With some effort, he brought it up with both hands and gave it a test swing. “How strong are you, Tenalia?!”

“Rank 2,” the puppet confirmed. “Please return my sword, or I will be forced to gouge your eyeballs out.”

“Noted.” Barry handed the sword back in an instant. “Don’t touch a lady’s sword. That’s a good rule.”

Even fished a few coins out of his bag, flicking a few until he had a quantity he thought was suitable for a tip. He handed it out for Harold to take, but the blacksmith shook his head.  

"This was a fun job. It was challenging and entertaining. So the amount we settled on, the amount you already paid, was more than enough." The blacksmith offered him a beaming smile. "If the little lady ever needs an upgrade in equipment, just come calling. I'm more than happy to help. Rank 3, 4, or 5… It’ll cost you a fortune, but I can even do Rank 6 equipment.”

“My man!” Barry shouted, slapping Harold hard on the shoulder.

Harold hooted with excitement, and the pair grunted for a few moments in a pretty impressive display of manliness.

Ethan and Tenalia remained in the blacksmith shop for as long as was necessary to be polite. By the time they left, she had the large sword resting on her shoulder and an undeniable swagger in the way she walked. The scribe had difficulty not laughing at her, but as they walked down the street, he noticed she seemed to have a destination. Barry joined them shortly after, jogging to catch up and eyeing the puppet with suspicion.

"Where's she off to?"

"To find a rank two dungeon, of course." Tenalia produced a sound like a scoff, swinging to point her sword accusingly at Barry. "You may come with me and fight alongside me if you wish. If you can keep up."

“You need a license for that stuff,” Barry said.

“And you need to rent a dungeon in advance.” Tenalia waved the concerns away with her sword. “The cost is minimal, especially compared to potential profits. I took the liberty of signing you up, Ethan.”

Looking around in confusion, Ethan eventually settled his gaze on the puppet. “You’ve been sneaking out when I sleep.”

“You sleep like a log. It wasn’t difficult. Now, come. Have either of you ever seen an orc? They are foul. They must be purged.”

Ethan and Barry followed behind the puppet, too scared to speak up and too excited about the potential adventure. Ethan had to get into a dungeon and study it a bit more. He had been working with his bracelet to create a new rune. Although he had time over the weekend to contact some people to make a shed out back, this next project was a bit more complicated than just using spatial magic. There were two phases to the project, and the first one involved understanding dimensional magic.

After all, who didn’t love a dimensional storage item? How else was Tenalia supposed to carry so many swords?

Chapter 89

Orc Dungeon

Ethan got a crash course on how dungeons worked within the academy. The first thing he learned was that dungeons were managed. Whether this was by a private party or by the Academy, they were both bound by the same rules. The first rule was that the dungeon was open to anyone who could prove themselves worthy of delving inside. The scribe’s claim to fame was his position with the Anomalous Materials Group, which put him in a league of its own. That was a great way to get paperwork signed without much question.

The second rule was that the dungeon needed to be properly managed. A structure had to be constructed around it to contain any potential breaks, and 24/7 guards were posted around the entrance. These guards had training to understand how a dungeon was operating and whether it needed to be culled, which led to the third and fourth rules. The third was that a dungeon should be cleared if it is not being run by adventurers. The fourth was that the core of the dungeon should never be destroyed. It was a fact so important that the core itself, nestled somewhere deep in dimensional space, had been reinforced by somebody with a Dungeon Engineer Class. If those requirements could not be met, the dungeon would be destroyed.

This led to ‌dungeon towns. Ethan, Barry, and Tenalia took a portal to a place south of Feyhammer House City along the lovely coast. The scribe spent far too long marveling at the shimmering blue waves and the smell of salt in the air before being dragged away by Barry. They entered the Dungeon Town and saw that nearly everything here centered on the Orc Dungeon, which the puppet had apparently reserved for the day. Commerce here was all about the dungeon. Guides, equipment, information guides… There might’ve been some light farming on the far reaches of the town, but the highlight was the dungeon.

“Just so you know, Tenalia, this is a dungeon for you.” Ethan wanted that to be clear before they entered. He had no plans to exert himself within the dungeon. There was far too much studying to be done, and he needed to record every facet of any arrays he could find.

“I would be offended if you stole my kills.” The puppet sauntered forward, tapping her sword against her shoulder as she approached one burly guard. “I require entrance into this foul dungeon.”

The guard looked down at the puppet for only a few moments before looking up to Ethan, determining that perhaps he was the master of this creature. The scribe nodded and held his badge out for scanning.

“Since I’m counting this little armored thing as your minion, your contract says you can have a +1, so you’re good to go. Do you know the rules?” The guard must’ve seen a lot weirder stuff in his time, because he moved on as though nothing had happened.

“We’re quite experienced.” Tenalia looked up to the guard expectantly.

“Fine. Head on in. You’ve got the dungeon for the day. Just stay safe.”

As promised, in those same rules, the dungeon was behind several fortified walls. There were even more guards inside the cloistered interior, but the group eventually found their way into the dungeon. Not before Ethan took time to study the entrance, recording a few more sigils he had missed the last time. Of course, the entrance itself would be very important if he wanted to create a dimensional bag. That was the first hurdle he needed to overcome. He felt the familiar sensation of being displaced as he stepped through the portal, arriving on the other side and finding an oddly picturesque scene. They stood on a hill overlooking a walled town far in the distance. Between them were clusters of trees and small hamlets spread across the landscape. It took him longer than he’d like to admit to realize that the city itself was on fire.

“I cannot protect you if you do not stay close, so we will move slowly. This dungeon is time-dilated, so we can spend longer here than normal.” Tenalia adjusted the sword on her shoulder and moved forward.

“She’s on a mission.” Barry laughed, walking forward to follow the puppet. “No surprise. If she’s the concept of an elf, she’ll have a natural hate for orcs.”

“How so?”

Barry shrugged. “I might’ve dropped history, but some of it stuck. I’m gonna guess, based on her behavior, that she’s from the Kuzanite line of elves instead of the Sylvan. According to my history books, those elves really had it out for the orcs. Thousands of years on their home planet spent fighting them off. They were nearly undone a billion times.”

“Interesting.” Ethan split his attention between Barry and his readings.

“Big question: why am I here?”

“To carry stuff.” Tenalia answered from ahead on the path, not even looking back as she marched forward.

With the increased processing power and memory, the bracelet recorded everything it could. Studying the dimensional space itself was great for getting clues, but they would have to reconstruct individual sigils, convert them into system sigils, and then convert those into runes to make a dimensional bag. It was a pain in the ass process, but the result would be worth it. Ethan had no intention of becoming some bag crafter. He wanted to make a bag for himself and Tenalia, but perhaps some extra money would make the endeavor worth it.

“The first orc pack is up ahead.” Tenalia readied her sword, flooding it with mana and grabbing the attention of both Barry and Ethan.  

“Just be careful. I don’t want you going in there and getting yourself hurt. That armor was very expensive, you know.” Ethan scolded her like a father reprimanding a child, warning them that if they touched the hot stove, they would get burned. But he hardly needed to give the warning.  

Barry was the first to make a surprised sound. Tenalia coiled on the spot like a snake ready to strike. When she kicked up off the ground, a plume of dust shot out. She covered the 100-pace distance to the small cluster of trees in an instant. Three orcs had just emerged. They looked upon the shooting star hurtling towards them in confusion, and a breath later, their heads had been removed. Ethan felt a faint flood of energy enter his body.

Since the last time Ethan had been in a dungeon, he had determined that killing stuff gave him energy, just like solving anomalies. But, this was a very small amount of energy. Maybe 1/500th the value of a single anomaly. It was hard to judge with something so tiny. He felt like he was judging the weight of a feather using his bathroom scale. The task was impossible.

“So, your puppet is a nightmare monster from the deepest hells.” Barry nodded with approval. “The more ya know!”

“Large peasant boy!” Tenalia shouted. “Come collect their things.”

Barry produced a snappy salute. “Yes, ma’am!”

Barry and Ethan focused their efforts on collecting the various materials dropped by the orcs. Sometimes they would drop a metal weapon, but other times it was simply reagents apparently used by alchemists. Tenalia was convinced that these would produce quite a large profit, but the scribe had trouble believing that anyone would want to buy orc teeth. He was pretty sure he had seen half-orcs running around the Academy and had to wonder if there was a difference between the system-generated version and the real thing. He shuddered to think about it and instead ignored it, going back to his duties.

Ethan split his concentration between picking up items for the puppet and studying the dungeon. Not only was the dungeon itself a wealth of knowledge, but since he didn’t have to fight the monsters, he could observe from afar and record their various arrays as they decomposed. Since the monsters were a product of the dungeon, they were connected to the same magic and pulsed with dimensionality.

“I’ve got a decent idea of how to make a dimensional space now.” Ethan summoned a selection of 15 sigils from the X-13 system, bidding his bracelet to project it. “I’m not entirely sure about the arrangement, but I think this is all we’re going to need. I’ll compose this into a single System Sigil, and then we’ll see if it works as a rune.”

“Interesting… Yes, those are symbols.” Barry nodded sage-like. “The way you put that line there is just… Let me tell you, I’m a big fan!”

Ethan stifled a laugh, shaking his head. “Bracelet, can you run what we know against the knowledge base? I know you stole a few arrays from Luna and Finn’s bag, so use those as a base.”

“Operation starting… This unit is unsure of the estimated time.”

“Just keep me informed. I’ll keep studying the dungeon.”

The Rank 2 Dungeon was purported to be for a party of three. It was Rank 2, which meant that as a single person, Tenalia should have struggled to clear it. Perhaps it was a combination of her equipment and size, but she blasted through everything they faced, including mini-bosses, leading all the way up to the wall. That’s where, according to the puppet, things got difficult.

“Please ensure you are equipped with defensive magic, Ethan. The large peasant will also need a weapon, just in case I cannot reach you in time.”

“She knows my name.” Barry looked crestfallen. “She doesn’t have to use a descriptor every time.”

“Barry, the large peasant,” Tenalia said.

Barry’s expression brightened significantly. “See! She knows it. Hard to stay mad at something so cute.”

Whatever tactics were inherent to the concept of those Kuzanite elves were on full display in the puppet. She led them through the streets of the crumbling city, avoiding ambushes and alerting them when monsters were coming up behind them. Of course, Barry and Ethan were combat-capable. Neither of them had a preference for fighting, but when it came down to it, they had powerful magic and magitech weapons on their side. Barry had refined his exploding sword to be basically just a gun sword. He would stab and orc in the chest and then pull the trigger, eliminating the monster with little fuss.

And Ethan was there to back him up with support magic and laser beams. A potent combination.

On a whim, the scribe infused Tenalia with his haste spell. He realized it was a mistake, but couldn’t help himself. After gaining the effect, she zipped through the city streets with even more conviction, falling into a blood haze. Even if the monster produced no blood. One after the other, they fell. Over the course of 12 hours, the group worked their way toward the center.

“Fine!” Tenalia finally relented. “We will take a break. Your mortal bodies need rest.”

“The bags are getting heavy, lady,” Barry grumbled, finally settling down on a chair in some random building. The streets of the city were crowded with such buildings, and the group had selected the most stable-looking one.

“We made decent progress. Can your fleshy prisons do with only a few hours of sleep? We must leave before the 20th hour, or you’ll be late for class.”

Tenalia was apparently fantastic at counting time, so they relied on her to wake them up in a few hours. When they finally awoke, it was more of the same. The puppet destroyed monsters with ease. Barry and Ethan collected the loot, and more progress was made on the dimensional back. The scribe was confident he could create one after some concessions. The primary problem was that he doubted any fabric could hold his runes since he was clumsy and typically just burned them into metal. He figured there had to be some kind of material to hold up to his rough way of doing things. Barry claimed there were some fabrics that could withstand quite a lot, but they were quite expensive. They had an extensive discussion on making them out of either expensive fabric or expensive leather. Either way, it would cost a lot.

This discussion took place as Tenalia was fighting the final boss. It was an orc mystic, which meant it cast spells and was supported by a cadre of other orc monsters. It flung spells as its soldiers moved around the battlefield. The puppet darted between them, weaving an expert pattern of death that dispatched them with expediency. When the battle was done, there was quite a bit of loot to collect, enough that both Barry and Ethan were properly laden. When the dungeon core emerged from the ground for them to see, it was wrapped in thick chains and guarded by a barrier. They disregarded it and began the arduous march out. The entire time, the puppet seemed wholly full of herself.

“It is about midnight,” Tenalia announced as they exited the dungeon. They arrived in the sleepy dungeon town, gaining interested looks from the nearby guards. “Apologies for going over our time.”

“By about fifteen minutes,” one nearby guard said. “No worries. The next party isn’t expected until tomorrow morning.”

“I bid you adieu.” Tenalia performed a very nice curtsy, and the group was off…

Off to bed.

Chapter 90

Profitable Puppet

Tenalia was becoming more independent. The morning after the dungeon run, on Monday, the last week of classes, she headed off to sell the loot by herself. It was no surprise the puppet had no trouble carrying the many large sacks, and she expected to be busy for most of the day getting the best prices. That left Ethan alone to eat a freshly prepared breakfast on his back porch as he observed the shed which had mysteriously appeared. Workers who used magic to create buildings moved at a different speed, and it appeared as though they were already done with it.

Barry had awoken too tired to notice the change to the backyard, and instead went off to eat at the dining hall.

Ethan released a happy sigh. He didn't have enough time between now and his class at 10 a.m. to finish it up, but there would be plenty of time in the afternoon. Then he had to source materials for his dimensional bag. It was quite a lot of work. Eventually, he sighed, not looking forward to listening to the yapping Chihuahua, but interested enough to see what the professor had to say about the coming months. He finally left after finishing the design for Barry's shack. Hopefully, the money Tenalia earned was enough to cover the cost of the expensive crystals.

The scribe took one last look at the massive interior of his cottage, giggling to himself before heading out. He met up with Barry outside Oak Building 18 and headed in to see the class already mostly full and the Chihuahua hovering on the platform at the head of the class. Professor Eggs had a particular look on her face today that screamed she had something interesting to talk about. When the duo finally found their seats in the middle of the class, they settled in and prepared for the big reveal they had already anticipated.

Professor Eggs hovered over to one window and barked for a good minute before she returned to the platform, hovering there as though suspended under the arms. She always looked so uncomfortable.

"As everybody knows, our classes end this week. Does that mean that your education with me is over? No, absolutely not.” Professor Eggs yapped a few more times before clearing her throat. “In the next few months, you will be put through trials like you've never seen before. If you want to earn my seal of approval, you will show that you have learned something in this class. I want to see that you've mastered not only the basics but the advanced concepts. I will grade each of you.”

Barry’s hand shot up before anyone else could respond. Professor Eggs nodded at him. “Yeah, do you have any specifics?”

"The only thing that I can tell you is that the tests will be practical. You will get a new point system that operates differently than the one you're familiar with. This point system results in prizes at the end of a certain period. You can find me in the office during this event and schedule a time for a practical examination. I will assess you individually and determine which test best suits your path. If you fail my test during this time, you're welcome to come and try again as many times as you want.”

“For example, I’m more of a crafter,” Barry said, his booming voice demanding the attention of everyone in the building. “If I wanted to show you I learned ritual magic, what kind of test would you create for me?”

“Small-scale ritual magic, such as runic inscriptions. You could also produce an item which uses concepts of ritual magic, such as the interlinking of arrays, depth, and sigil weaving to display what you learned.” Professor Eggs cleared her throat once more. “Again, each test will be entirely fair. If you’re a support mage, I’ll ask you to create wide-scale support magic. Offensive mages, offensive magic. And so on.”

Even smiled to himself when more hands shot up. When presented with a test, students on both Earth and Tal’vengar had questions. They wanted to be as prepared as possible for the trial ahead, but the scribe was more confident than ever that he and Barry had absolutely nailed what was going to happen. He sat there with a smug smile for the entire class, most of the time being dedicated to those questions.

"Well, I suppose we're not going over the rest of the lesson. I was going to reiterate what we already had covered, but ‌a lot of the students have created small study groups outside of the classroom. This is something that Gale House absolutely encourages, and of course, I'm proud of you all." Professor Eggs yapped twice and then growled at a student in the first row. "Of all the classes I'm teaching this semester, you all seem the most prepared, so I encourage you to keep doing what you're doing, and you'll be more than ready for the trials to come."

The class was dismissed, and taking the encouragement of the professor to heart, almost all the students gathered in a nearby park. The moment everyone was assembled, Barry blurted out the suspicions they had about the coming trials. This was met with a mix of skepticism from some students, but the logic was sound, and most of them accepted it as fact. Even if they were not 100% correct about the invasion of monsters and the specifics of the trial, having a wide-scale, multi-academy event like that made sense. This was an academy planet, after all.

With that knowledge in mind, people made plans on how they would display what they had learned during the two months of the semester. As expected, some were more support mages, while others were utility and offensive mages. They all came up with different ritual circles that they could show Professor Eggs to exemplify how they had paid attention in our class. For his part, Ethan had already thought of a few extremely fancy ritual circles to craft. He could go a step further and show how he could adapt a ritual circle to operate more like a runic circle. The bracelet didn't hurt in that manner. He had it design a few variations of the same spell, which would no doubt impress his teacher.

If one method failed, he’d impress her with quite a few more.

Despite all his preparation, as Ethan sat in the park watching all the mages practice their rituals, he wasn't sure if he would continue this class. The advice he had been given was to abandon the standard classes and go off to something more esoteric. He knew only one class in his schedule for the next semester, and it was Anomalous Materials. The others were unknown to him. Going down the list of his classes in his mind, he didn't think that Ritual Foundations 2 would be worth taking. Array Foundations 2 might be worth it for him since most of his life centered on arrays, and Mana Control Foundations 2 was all but useless. That left two classes for him to pick, and he wasn't sure which ones he should choose.

More research was required.

Mercifully, Barry was too busy that day to follow Ethan back to the cottage. The scribe made his way back, picking a lazy path as he fell into his thoughts. He wasn't surprised to see that Tenalia hadn't returned home yet. She was still off selling her wares, even if the 10 a.m. class had gone longer than he had expected. She was still busy. Instead, he went into the backyard and inspected the shed he had commissioned. It was extremely simple, with a ceramic tile roof, timber construction, and a creaky wooden door. He opened it, stepping inside to see the quaint 5x5 space.

At least they had installed a wooden floor. From what he understood about his special Spatial Expansion rune, this would be the perfect interior. Taking the 5x5 space to 100x100 would be challenging, and getting it to recognize the ventilation system, a very simple duct system that drew air from the back-left corner of the room, would be difficult.

The scribe appreciated the interior for a bit before heading back into the cottage and getting to work on his metal plate. The only difference between this one and the one he had installed within his house was that it utilized three Mana Crystals as backup power sources. This meant it also had a beefier mana regeneration capability, and if his math was right, it would provide more than enough energy to keep the massive space functioning. There might even be some leftover mana for future functions.

While Ethan waited for his puppet to return, he worked on a few things. First, he studied for Array Foundation 1. Next, he cultivated more mana for his other rings. He was getting pretty close with his Agility ring, but Strength, Dexterity, Vigor, and Endurance were being stubborn. Perhaps it was his uneasy thoughts, but he still did his best to make as much progress as he could.

It was the late afternoon before Tenalia finally returned home. A coin hovered where he fingers should’ve been, right outside the metal of her “gauntlet,” if it could be called that. Although she didn’t have a facial expression, he could feel her smugness radiating outward.

“30k, peasant,” Tenalia said. “For a single dungeon run, I earned 30k coins.”

“As in… thirty-thousand?” Ethan looked up from his reclined position on the sofa. He wouldn’t admit that he had just been about to fall asleep.

“Correct. You may bow before me at any point.” Tenalia strolled across the room, handing the coin over to Ethan.

The scribe was about to question why she would give it up so willingly. She had earned the money herself but didn't seem to have any use for it, so what was the point? For now, he decided not to question her and instead rose to his feet, got to his knees, and performed a dramatic bow. "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"

“Indeed, you are not.” Tenalia struck a few choice poses, slashing her sword through the air and performing other heroic gestures. "The dungeon is meant to be run by no less than three people at rank two. Considering the cost of entry and the materials, most people would spend to run that dungeon, 30k isn't actually that much. Even only maintaining their gear, most adventurers would only earn half of that. Chuck in a few potions and you're down to 10k.”

Ethan wanted to be extremely impressed with that amount of money, but the more Tenalia talked about it, the more he realized it wasn't really that much. Adventuring was expensive. Somebody needed a lot of capital even just to get in there. The puppet's advantage was that she was insanely powerful for her rank and she didn’t need to rest. She could avoid most of the monster strikes, only taking a few glancing blows when she was in there. She didn't need potions, and she didn't take damage. Justice's mind was turning over the information, trying to find a flaw in her logic. She had more to announce.

"Some dungeons offer nighttime runs that hardly anyone purchases. There is a particular dungeon in Duskthorn House City that is very dangerous. This dungeon holds the record for claiming the most lives. It is a Poison Dungeon. Almost every tunnel within that dungeon contains a miasma that will choke anyone up to rank five. I'm going to run it and make a fortune." Tenalia let that information settle in before she continued. “The entrance fee is minimal. I do not breathe. And the alchemical reagents within are worth a lot of money. With your blessing, I’d like to run it tonight.”

Tenalia could run off on her own if she wanted. Ethan didn’t know why she had attached herself to him, but he wouldn’t deny her this chance. Part of him was worried that she wouldn’t become her own person, but he didn’t even know if that was possible. She wasn’t a proto-soul or a soul. She was a Primal Spirit, representing a concept. That existence was so alien to him that he didn’t even know what was best for her.

“You have my approval.” Ethan nodded with pride, patting the puppet on the helmet. “And with your approval, I’d like the presence of your company while I do some errands.”

“Such as?”

“Buying some Mana Crystals, and visiting the church.”

“Ah, a worthwhile task. Perhaps we could visit the church dedicated to the Lady of Light while we’re there?”

“Whatever you want, killer.”