The research center was in a weird spot in the city. Instead of being directly inside the walls protecting the building from monster attacks, it was outside, in a way. Right by the gates, there was another reinforced stone wall surrounding this tall lighthouse-looking structure with a large blue crystal on top that gave off the sa light as the lamp posts. This structure was separated to avoid any issues if there was an accident during the research. If a spirit went on a rampage, or soone turned the elental spirit into a demonic being, it would still be outside the city walls. Going around the entrance to the research center, which was on the opposite side of the gate, Hera and the others saw the entire building for the first ti. Up close, they could see that it was more of a cathedral than a lighthouse. Yes, there was a tall tower with the crystal on top, but the base was a large rectangular structure that clearly showed the existence of several chambers inside, including what seed to be a greenhouse on the side with round glass walls.
The door to the entrance was open, and there was so movent inside. As they got close, a woman with pale skin and long black hair going all the way to her hips wearing a uniform very similar to the one the guild clerks wore approached them, "Hello. I'm Camila. Are you here for an appointnt?"
"Oh, hi Camila. We don't have an appointnt. We ca here trying to learn more about the elental spirits. Is there a library or sothing like that here?" Hera noticed the woman was hugging so books and a stack of paper.
Camila scrambled to get one of the pieces of paper. It seed like she was looking for sothing specific, but she had trouble finding it, "Aha! We do, but we also have a presentation teaching about spirits. We weren't scheduled to do one yet since we are setting everything up, but if you guys don't mind waiting for a while. I can get a classroom and teach you myself. I need to practice doing that thing anyway."
"How long do we have to wait?" Blue asked.
"Well, probably around half an hour or so. I can get your contact information and send you a text when I'm ready. I promise to call you today and before 5. I'm not going to ask you to co here in the middle of the night for a class. We have strict rules about how much we can work," Camila pulled another piece of paper before speaking, and she seed bothered by that rule.
"That's great. I would love to see the class," Hera looked to the group, and everyone agreed to participate, "Can we stay in the library you ntioned?"
"Yeah, sure. Hum…" Camila looked around, pointing to different doors and mumbling to herself, "OK, got it. The open library is over there, through the green door. Before that, we need to go to the reception desk and get you a visitor badge. We need that to keep track of who cos here."
Camila led everyone to the reception desk and walked behind it. She started typing sothing on the computer and kept mumbling. This ti, Hera tried to pay a bit of attention to what the woman was saying, "… top left, go to new entry, then the drop-down look for visitor. It's in alphabetical order, so it's at the bottom."
Hera held back a chuckle. When she started working after high school, she would do the sa thing to rember how all the systems of the store worked. This was before working in the bookstore when she was in an office supply chain, and the owner always wanted to have the newest inventory system, which ant they were constantly changing procedures. Speaking the process out loud helped her to focus and rember each step.
There was another person there in the sa uniform, a tall, muscular woman who you could put so bodybuilders to sha. She didn't interact with Hera and her friends, but the woman seed particularly concerned about what Camila was doing. The woman had a clipboard with so paper on it, but she was just moving the pages without even looking at it. Her eyes constantly watching Camila work.
"OK, so all I need is your guild cards, and I can add you to the system," Camila smiled at the group. They passed their cards along, and a few monts later, they were all set up.
Hera thanked Camila, and the group went to the library behind the green door. It was much more like a bookstore than anything. There was even an automated register on the side. You could ring up the book yourself and then pay for it. The volus inside were in a specific display as well. So talked about the history of spirits, while others talked about the rooms where one could find those spirits and so theories about the conditions required for the existence of a spirit room, aning a room where the elental spirits would live in. Others would talk about specifc spirits and how they behaved, and there was only a single book about what happened when a spirit beca overwheld by the contractor's emotions. There was also the option to get a download code for the virtual version of these volus. Hera decided to pick one of each of the books about elental spirits that were on display and the download codes for herself. Bonnie and Helena were the types who liked to have the physical copy of every book, while Hera only did that to the books she really enjoyed.
They spent about half an hour in that library/bookstore. Blue and Leo even got so books unrelated to the spirits. Hera started reading a title called 'how to train your spirit,' which was a guide to making the connection you have with a spirit stronger, but that didn't actually help to get a spirit partner. When the group was about to head out, Camila sent them a ssage letting everyone know to et her in classroom 2. With a sigh, Blue led the way. She wasn't that interested in taking a random class in the middle of a room that was all about sleep.
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Inside the room, there were several desks and a large screen on the back. As well as a hologram projector that could be used depending on what one would want to show. Camila was already in the front of the class with a slide show on the screen, "Oh, you guys got here quickly."
"We were still in the library. How long will this take? I'm kind of hungry," Alex asked.
Camila went through her notes, "Well, the full class can take a few hours, but since we don't have everything set up, I can do the short version. Maybe forget all the stuff about the sleep spirit behavior and focus more on the general information. Oh, and if you want, we can order so pizzas. Well, I an, like if you guys are willing to share the price. I like working here, but I'm not going to pay to work here, you know."
"You are already taking your ti to do this. I'll pay for the pizzas, but can we order? Or does it have to be you?" Hera asked.
"No, no, no. I'll pay my share. It's not right for you to be the only one paying," Camilla shook her head.
"Are you sure? It's really not an issue at all. We just did a dungeon for the first ti before we got here. I have the money," Hera said.
"You know it's not a good thing to tell people you have money, right? I know you are new to having money but keep that in mind," Leo said.
"I an, anyone who ca this far would have around the 50 k we got from the dungeon, wouldn't they?" Hera turned to Leo.
"50k? That's a lot," Camilla gasped. When the group stared at her, she cleared her throat," Well. I an, if they saved for so months, yeah, but unless we do a dungeon, we won't get a payout like that. Our pay here is about 10-15k a month, plus housing, which is great. I an, it just sucks that everything here is so expensive. But I guess that's how economics work, you know. If we had a source of inco in the MAZE in the form of dungeons and made things the sa price everywhere, it would be so easy to make the markets crash. I'm rambling, sorry. I'll shut up now."
"Don't worry, but I have no idea if what you said made sense. Actually, I couldn't understand half of it. You might want to slow down when you are teaching the class," Leo said.
"I'll keep that in mind. Sorry again."
"It's fine. What about the pizzas? Should you order?" Alex asked.
"Anyone can order, just ask to deliver it in my na. Everyone orders food here so no one would bat an eye. As long as you are not in one of the areas where they worry about contamination," Camila explained.
Blue quickly pulled up her tablet and ordered so food. While waiting, Camila started her presentation," OK, so let's start with the basics. Elental spirits are… Well, monsters made out of elental mana. It's kind of in the na. Their elents define their entire beings. It's not like a Water Nymph who is mostly made out of water mana, but its body is made out of water, not magic. Or a Flaming Salamander, which is like a lizard made of fire. The fire is still there, even if it's using mana to burn. Elentals don't have that other part. They are 100% mana, no dium, just magic," after speaking, Camila realized that the slide show was still on the first slide. She quickly changed that, showing a picture of the Water Nymph and the Flaming Salamander. A circle on each of the creature's bodies showed a magnified part of their skin made out of a non-magical elent.
"Man. I really need to rember to show this at the right ti," Camila sighed.
"I an, it's your first ti, and your explanation was good enough to let people understand, although the slides do help," Alex replied.
"Thanks. Now let's move on," Camila stopped and showed the next slide. The picture of one of those small olive-sized sprites was on display, "Now, this is what we have in this room. Sleep Sprites, creatures made out of sleep mana. This ans that they can control well, sleep magic for one, but also things like nightmares, tiredness, recovery, and basically anything that has to do with sleep. We theorize that they might even be able to use so sort of psychosis… wait, no. Not psychosis, what is it called again?" Camilla rummaged through so of her notes, "Depersonalization! Yeah, that's it."
"What's that?" Blue asked.
"So the definition is the feeling of being disconnected or detached from one's self. From what I know, it is that feeling of just watching your body moving. Like you are not in control, and your body is just doing its own thing. Even if that sounds kind of interesting from a scientist's point of view, it seems like it's among the worst things possible to happen to you. I an, it's a given since this is also part of stage 4 of sleep deprivation. In that case, it ans you're a step away from just dying," Camila looked up from her notes and saw the grim expressions on the group, "Oh, that doesn't an that the sprites can kill you like that. Just because their spells can cause those symptoms, it doesn't an that they can force your body to get sleep deprived because of a spell. You would still have to stay the actual three to five days awake to actually be in danger. But as other elental spirits proved, they can influence anything related to their own elent. Like fire spirits who should be able to use lava spells. Well... That's just a theory since we still don't know where we can find fire spirits to study them. Maybe I should say water spirits that can control rain, but rain is just water, so that's not a good example. Wood spirits that can make grass fields? Sort of. I an, people call forests 'woods' sotis, so maybe we have a wrong understanding of what the wood elent is… Got it! The iron spirits! They are these armadillo-looking creatures that can control not just iron but most tals. That includes gold, silver, platinum, and even using heat, mass, or hardness type spells. Basically, as long as you can make a direct connection to their elent, the sprites can use that type of spell. On the other hand, if they don't have a connection, they cannot use that type of magic at all. Like, not even a little. That's why you can, for instance, expect the Sleep Sprites to use sothing like a spell that takes away your drowsiness and improves your focus, but you can't expect them to make water out of nowhere. Well, maybe if you have recurring nightmares about water, but even in those cases, they are mostly illusions, not actually tangible things."
Even if they weren't the ones talking, Camila spoke so fast that Hera and the rest had to take a deep breath after she finished speaking.
"Hum… Camila, I couldn't understand most of what you said after 'they can't kill you like that.' Could your repeat that last part and speak a bit more slowly?" Hera asked.
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