ELIJAH KNIGHT’S POV:
By the ti the DC officers and Student Council got out of the eting with the professors, it was already late into the night.
I took that chance to tell them all what I couldn’t earlier—that Arthur was alive and safe.
"Yes! I knew it! I knew he’d survive." Claire had sunk down in her chair as she covered her face with her arms, probably to hide the stray tears that were sliding down her cheeks.
Curtis just let out a huge breath of relief as he leaned back against the wall; but it was Princess Kathyln’s reaction that caught off guard.
For once, I could visibly see her face brighten as she studied to make sure I wasn’t lying. I could almost see her chocolate-colored eyes twinkle as they turned up and a rare smikle ford.
"Thank God," she muttered over and over under her breath after I reaffird the information with an awkward nod.
"As expected of my—sniff—rival. Mhmm." The elf that kept insisting that he was Arthur’s rival had a presuming look on his face as though he was the one that saved Arthur or sothing but the mucus leaking from his nose betrayed his expression.
"Heh, I knew the twerp wouldn’t die from just a fall," the bear leaning back on his chair scoffed. Theodore tried to play it off casually but the half-grin he tried to hold back told everyone that he was quite glad.
Kai, I think that was his na, responded very indifferently with a smile that looked superficially drawn.
"Looks like I’ll get my duel after all." The buff midget, too ugly to be deed anything but an "attractive" dwarf, nodded in anticipation, her arms crossed to show off her bulging veins.
Ugh, I’m recalling so unpleasant mories again.
Fairly obvious that they were all relieved, they didn’t mind that he wouldn’t be back to help out with the situation at hand for a bit longer.
Just the opposite—it felt like they wanted this whole fiasco taken care of before Arthur and Tessia got back.
This was odd because, more so than the professors here, I felt like Arthur would be able to do sothing about this ss if our Director didn’t get back in ti.
I had told the Disciplinary Committee officers about Arthur after the Tri-Union Building site was under control. Luckily no one died and only a few students were mildly injured. An emitter brought over from the Adventurer’s Guild healed them and they were taken to the treatnt ward where, before their parents ca, they’d given their account for what happened inside.
The atmosphere within the academy had taken a turn for the worse as there was a clear split between the students now. The newly admitted elves and dwarves were furious, generalizing that all humans were racist brutes, while the prideful human students had no intention of taking the bla for the actions of others.
The few human students that did feel bad for what had happened ended up being ostracized by both sides. In the end, they just took a neutral stance, too afraid to say anything since at this point, the situation was too volatile; everyone was trying to find soone else to bla.
It was weird how people acted more recklessly when they banded together, like they got strength from each other. Both sides beca more vocal after the building was put out and almost turned physical until the professors told them all to disperse.
Restless at this whole event, I ended up stopping by the training room that Arthur had allowed access to. I normally didn’t use it, but since both Arthur and Tessia weren’t here, I decided it would be okay.
The guard eyed funny but the front desk lady nad Chloe was friendly enough to escort personally into the room.
"Haaa..." I let out a deep breath as I felt my mana core tremble in excitent to let loose.
Unlike Arthur, I’d been learning a lot since I ca to this academy; a lot of practical aspects applicable to my magic seed to work differently for compared to others.
One thing I noticed was that ditating didn’t do much for . My mana core developed and strengthened at its own pace and any conscious effort to refine more mana from the atmosphere didn’t seem to help.
Even without any real effort, I broke through into the light orange stage but after reaching this stage, I just couldn’t seem to make any gains.
I clenched my hands into fists and then released, repeating this motion as if my hands weren’t my own.
[Earthen Spear]
I felt mana well up in at the activation of the spell and imdiately a rock spike shot up from the ground a couple ters in front of .
[Earthen Spear]
I cast, this ti with more mana imbued into the spell.
Two thick spears of earth shot up at an angle in front of . To be honest, even casting with the na of the spell was unnecessary for . It just beco a habit for so that I could keep a firm vision of what I wanted to evoke but if I practiced more, maybe I could even instantly cast multiple streams of spells at once.
[Stone Barrage]
This ti, the ground underneath crumbled as chunks of earth began levitating. After a couple monts of concentration, I willed the rocks to shoot forward.
Only four of the ten rocks I shot actually hit the tree that I deed the target, making a bit disappointed.
If I couldn’t ditate to strengthen my mana core like everyone else, I might as well get better at controlling the spells at hand.
I learned in my Mana Utilization class what affinity towards a certain elent exactly ant. For a mage with very little affinity to fire, it basically ant that mage had to be a lot more precise in conjuring the spell, which also ant that the vocal incantation of the spell needed to be longer. Each verse of an incantation that we chanted shaped the type of phenonon we wanted to occur. For the rock bullet spell, a mage with little affinity would need to have a verse for each step he took: beginning from the shape of the rock, the density, where it would be made from; if you added in a spin to the bullet you would need to have a verse for that as well. Not forgetting the initial trajectory of the spell either, or if you wanted the rock bullet strengthened so that it would pierce the target, or explode upon impact—all of these would add up to a pretty long chant.
All these "factors" of the spell could easily just be imagined by a mage that had great affinity to the elent. Mages stuck with the elent that they had the highest affinity towards so that they could best utilize their mana and ntal capacity.
For , the earth below felt like an extension of my body; maybe it was because I grew up with dwarves but I always had this nagging thought in the back of my mind that even amongst them I wasn’t normal. I didn’t an not normal in a genius sort of way like Arthur was, but in a freak-of-nature sort of way.
Well, I guess Arthur was sort of a freak of nature in his own way...
It was an odd little train of thought. Those facts about my body or my disposition weren’t top-secret stuff, but I didn’t explicitly tell anyone either. I considered telling Arthur about the differences in my body, but I always missed the timing and it just didn’t seem urgent enough to pull him aside and tell him.
It was good in a way because I felt like maybe, just maybe, I could so day catch up to Arthur if I trained hard enough.
Yeah, I know he was a solid yellow quadra-elental mage with a dragon’s will and he sohow had freakishly superb skills in close combat but hey, a guy could dream, right?
I conjured more spells, half to practice, half to relieve the pent up frustration. I wanted to catch up to Arthur, not because I wanted to be better than him, but because I wanted to help him. I felt like he always had his own battles he was facing. As his best friend, I wanted to have his back, whether through good tis, or through war. I didn’t know what sort of things he was going through but if I was going to be with him, I needed to get stronger.
ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:
I wanted to turn back, but it was too late; I was already inside the portal. The trip through the transportation never lasted longer than a few monts of unpleasant dizziness but this ti, it felt longer... no. It WAS longer.
"Kuu..." Sylvie, who stuck to my head like glue began trembling.
’It feels wrong, Papa,’ Sylvie transmitted, her inner thoughts traced with worry.
The journey through the transportation gate looked as though you were fast-forwarding to your destination. You’re standing on a platform as a blur of different colors race by as the background gets lighter and lighter until you disappear into the light, exiting out the other end. It was a peculiar sensation that I couldn’t seem to describe in words but this ti, it was different.
The space around us distorted into a blur of colors like usual but instead of getting brighter, the color around of us drained and turned dimr and dimr, until it was pitch black.
’Papa, I’m scared.’ Sylvie’s trembling on my head was the only way I knew my bond was still there.
This was the first ti Sylvie had told she was scared. There were tis when she was on guard, or alert, but she was never frightened.
The sensation of travelling through the gate that normally made nauseous also ceased so I tautly augnted a ball of fla above my palm.
"What the hell..." It was bizarre. The ball of fire that was supposed to be giving at least so sort of vision didn’t do anything. Almost like trying to color in a red ball on a black piece of paper, it had no effect on the pitch black darkness.
An unsettling feeling lood over . I crumbled to my knees and instantly augnted my body with mana.
I was scared.
What sort of monster was here that had a thick enough malicious intent to make fall to my knees?
I couldn’t stop shivering and the mana in my body dispersed, refusing to listen to from the lack of ntal control I had over myself.
For the first ti in a long while, I felt like a child—an actual, helpless child in front of the boogeyman.
"Who’s there?" I tried my best to roar but my shaking voice betrayed .
Just then, a pair of eyes ca into view out of nowhere. I knew exactly whom this pair of eyes belonged to. I was sure of it; yet, it didn’t comfort or help in knowing at all.
The pair of glowing white eyes speckled with stars, that captivated the first ti I saw them, grew close. An authoritative voice that was devoid of emotion pierced through , as if he was speaking directly into my ear.
"At last. We now have a bit of privacy to peacefully converse."
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