The teen is a rge simple hall, with tables filling the tre of the room, and a window to the kit along the opposite wall to the transportation circles. The tables have a simir soundproofing barrier to the library and offer the ability to request food from the kit. The food is also delivered through flight, creating the odd se of a silent hall with trays of food occasionally floating above.
Emily and Juliana decide on a lunch of fried meats and eggs on toast while making small talk. After eating they head back to the dorms, finished with their tour.
“Thanks for showing me around,” Emily says as they stop in front of Juliana’s door.
“No problem! I’m gd I picked up the mission. It's not every day you get to earn points and make a new friend. You wan diogether ter?”
So she was here for a mission?
A little more of Emily’s remaining caution slips away as she responds.
“Sure, what time?”
“Like 7 or 8?”
“Let’s go with 8, I prefer to eat ter.”
“Okay,” Juliana says while turning and opening her door, “I’ll e grab you then!”
Emily smiles and waves goodbye, walking away as Juliana’s door shuts behind her. Heading into her room, Emily takes off her shoes and leaves them by the door, before opening her suitcase and unpag into the wardrobe and drawers below.
She takes her toiletries, towel, and dirty clothes from her trip into the bathroom. She deposits the towel over a small rail on the wall, aoiletries on a shelf above the sink. Then she drops the dirty clothes on the floor in the alcove, pces her hand against the engraving, and is mana into it, keen to see the clothes-washing spell Juliana expio her over lunch. The engraving quickly lights up with a pale glow, a mixture of green and indigo. Stepping back, she watches as the clothes on the floor float up a few inches and begin spinning around each other while a light spray of water appears to douse them.
Oivated the spell sts for twenty minutes, and the clothes e out and dry. The luxury of not having to handwash clothes makes Emily bitter that magi’t widespread.
She moves bato her room, leaving the spell to do its work, and checks the suitcase for anything else. She ighe nightgowns she will never wear but takes out the small leather pouch sitting itom. Opening it up, she lets out a small gasp as she sees five small golden s.
Woah, that’s a lot. I’d have to sell, like, one hundred and fifty pocket watches to make that muobles really are rich.
A malicious grin spreads across her face.
Very kind of them to give me some starting capital to make ons with.
She pulls closed the drawstring on the poud pces it safely into the drawer of the bedside table furthest from the door. Doh the suitcase, she closes it again and pces it beside the wardrobe.
Emily sits down cross-legged in the tre of the room.
Time to see if they spy on people here.
She enters a meditative state and expands her magical seo cover the room, unsurprised by the immense magical fluctuations all around her.
Hmm, this may take a while.
She methodically is every surfad obje the room, pausing on every mana crystal and entment to check for familiar runes from the surveilnce spells she saw in the Mandrago mansion.
After several hours of iigation, Emily opens her eyes, mostly satisfied that her room is secure. She walks over to the desk, where she has noticed several unfamiliar ented objects, and finds a note lying on top of it. She sits in the fortable padded wooden chair and picks it up.
Wele, aspiring young mage, to The ant of the Blessed.
The ant has great expectations of you and looks forward to your tribution to magical society.
Please find a few wele gifts within this desk to get you started.
We wish you lu your pursuit of knowledge.
The moment she finishes reading the bursts into fmes. Startled, she drops the burning paper bato the desk and watches as it disies, not even leaving ashes behind.
“Huh, I guess that’s what those entments were for.” She mutters while looking at the two sets of drawers that make up the desk’s legs.
Each set of drawers has three slightly rger drawers at the bottom and two shallower o the top. She begins by opening the drawers on the left, starting at the top and w her way down. Disappointingly, she finds all the drawers to be empty. Moving on to the right-hand side with low expectations, she opens the top drawer to find three items ly positioned inside.
First, she lifts out a delicate feather quill with a vane so bck it appears to absorb the light around it. Around the shaft of the quill is a small silver metal handle, shaped perfectly to be held fortably between three fingers. As Emily turns the quill in her hand, she ts six unique bck runes engraved around the handle.
Why ’t they just use pens? Though I don’t see an inkwell, so I assume its magic will gee ink or something.
Pg the quill down on the desk and moving on to the item, she lifts a thick leatherbound book out of the draces it on the desk in front of her. The cover is bnk, so she opens it up to look inside and finds hundreds of bnk pages as she flicks through it.
A notebook, I guess it would be to have to sort through random stacks of blueprints again.
With a satisfied nod, Emily looks at the st item in the drawer. The st item, a small -sized milky white crystal, causes a shiver to run down her spine. With slight apprehension, cautious of how remi it is of the crystal used in the Mandrago family’s brainwashing spell, she raises it to her eye. Rotating it slowly and gazing at the plicated weaving of runes c its every surface Emily is left awestruck.
These runes are incredibly delicate, how long will it have taken to engrave this mu to this tiny crystal? Though they could have at least written an expnation on their wele note so I’d know what it actually does. Ah, uhese gifts are only given to the B-grade mages ing from noble families who would already have been told what they’re for.
Sighing, Emily pces the crystal down on the desk o the notebook. She leans ba her chair and taps her fingers against the desk and her while sidering the gifts.
Do I have to wait and ask Juliana at dinner? Wait, what about the system?
She focuses on the feather quill while calling out for her system in her head.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Nighthawk Quill]
[Rank:] E
[Stats:] +1 dex
[Description:] A quill made from the feather of a Nighthawk. The runes engraved on the handle absorb the ambient mana released by a mage and el it into the Nighthawk’s natural ability to vert mana into darkness.
[Effect:] Passively gees liquid darkness.
_____
After reading the quill’s details and finding them to be as she expected, other than the bonus stat ierity, she eagerly ges her focus t up the notebook and crystal’s descriptions.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Leatherbound Book]
[Description:] Ay book with a leather binding.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[Rec Crystal]
[Rank:] D
[Description:] A mental attributed mana crystal carved with a spell for rec memories.
[Effect:] Record up to thirty minutes of the user's perspective.
_____
Emily is disappointed by the pin description of the notebook, having hoped for there to be something special about it. But her excitemeurns as she sees the rec crystal’s details.
his is probably given for rec lectures.
She happily pces the crystal bato the drawer and opens the notebook to the first page.
I o work out my priorities for now. Let’s have a look at what I o increase my circle and stage first.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Progression]
[Circle/Stage:] First
Requirements:
-Intelligence 23/35 (Not plete)
-Create 5/5 unique F rank maes (plete)
-Create 0/1 E rank mae (Not plete)
-Learn 0/5 first circle spells (Not plete)
-Learn 1/3 basic magiowledges (Not plete)
_____
Emily siders the progression requirements before her and begins writing a few notes.
Meditate a minimum of four hours a day.
Work out what affects the grade of items.
Learn spells (csses?)
Work out what current knowledges told me.
Learn knowledges (csses and library?)
Collect tools and materials for creating maes in my room.
Cheunication crystal, market token, css token and my crest with the system.
Check when csses are.
Look through the tribution market.
Let’s start with w out what electrical theory and mana formation taught me, there’s definitely more information in my head, but I don’t know what.
She turns the page and pces her quill against the paper while fog on the cept of mana formation in her head.
Mana is everywhere throughout the universe. The density of mana in an area vary based on many variables and some areas even ck mana pletely, though rare and usually sparse of life as a result.
Every p has els that mana flows through more easily, these are called mana veins. The majority of mana veins are deep within the p, but occasionally they stray close to the surface. When a mana vein is close to the surface of the p, areas of high-density mana are formed. Sometimes mana veins will meet each other close to the surfa vergence points, f areas of ultra-high-density mana that form into dungeons or spawn mana-depe lifeforms.
In areas of high-density mana, minerals and materials exposed for extended periods of time often gain magical attributes. These include high magical ductivity or resistance. Along with affeg existing minerals and materials, mana will often crystallise.
Lifeforms living within high-density mana are often affected, experieng extended lifespans and sometimes mutations. New lifeforms are often formed ting from beasts to elementals.
The information that seemed hazy when the knowledge was first granted suddenly flows clearly through her mind as she writes. Further details on the variables for may, and information on the on aia crystals and magical materials that form fill her thoughts. Emily pces the quill down the moment the page is full, while massaging her brows, feeling a light ache as her mind adjusts.
Weird, I would have thought that should happen when I was given the knowledge. My knowledge of steam power and clockwork definitely became more plete the moment I gaihe knowledge, but not the other three. Maybe it’s because they were granted pletely by the system initialisation, and I knew nothing about them before.
As the ag subsides, Emily picks up the quill again and pces it against the other open page.
I don’t his much detail written down, so let's try fog on key points and see if that activates the knowledge properly.
Electrical Theory is the study of the flow of charge, referred to as electric current.
In a circuit: V = IR
Electrical current flows from positive to ive and takes the path of least resistance.
When voltage is geed by a source of energy, or by varying the magic field, it is referred to as eleotive force. The forove eles and form current.
If there is a magic field and a ge in current, a force is produced, referred to as eleagic force. This also be used to induce a current, as when there is a ge in magic field across a ductor, the force that is produced is eleotive force.
As she had hoped, segments of knowledge on particles and forces slot into p her mind as she writes. Once again pg the quill down and reag up to massage her ag head, Emily is surprised by a new system notification.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Knowledge acquisition plete!
[Reward granted]
Quest geed: The Four Fual Forces
Sub-system unlocked: Quests
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
[The Four Fual Forces]
[Rank:] C
[Description:] Learn and uand the four fual forces of physics
Requirements:
-Learn 1/4 Forces (Not plete)
Rewards:
-Blueprint: Universal Transmitter
_____
She stares at the windows before her with a fused look on her face.
How am I meant to learn about these fual forces when the first of them is something I’d never heard of before today? Maybe there’ll be information in the library. If not I have to hope I work them out myself. And given that the rating of this quest is higher than the rec stone, I’m probably fine leaving it till ter. Important goals first!
Blinking the quest out of her vision and looking back to her notebook, Emily’s expression shifts back to a satisfied smile. Fuelled by her new knowledge, ideas for iing maes flow into her mind and she is eager to get to work.
“If eleagic force requires a magic field, how was I able to use it without a mag on The Clock?” Emily asks herself aloud while pig up the quill again.
She circles the ‘magic field’ i paragraph on the page and writes a question beside it.
Does lightning attribute mana have a magipo?
Nodding, she turns back to the first page. She crosses out one of the lines and makes a note brang off another.
Work out what affects the grade of items.
-Level of knowledge used?
Work out what current knowledges ged.
Emily pulls out the two tokens she bought earlier, along with her crest and unication crystal, and drops all the objects onto the desk in front of her.
Finally, let’s have a look at these four before dinner.
