“You’re back already?” Madam Varin asked in surprise. She’d just left the hall on her way to her office, not expecting the students back a mere twenty seconds after the start of the battle.
“We ran out of opponents,” Tailyn said with a sigh. He and Valia burst into laughter — it had worked.
That same evening, there was an emergency meeting in the magic card dean’s office. The central figure was the card lying all alone on the table.
“How is that even possible?” Madam Varin asked. Creating cards was her life, but she still had no idea how a card could have two creators. That ran contrary to everything she knew about how cards were made.
“Magistrate, we were hoping you could explain that to us,” the dean said as he eyed the card like some kind of viper. If they weren’t able to figure out how the kids had pulled it off, he was going to have to go see the provost and ask for help. And that was complicated — the provost would almost certainly demand payment for his assistance.
“We need to study it,” Varin said, her voice worried. “Figure it out. Record it.”
“I suggest we approach this much more decisively,” said yet another guest calmly. Everyone, including the dean, jumped. “We need to isolate the children. Crobar can’t find out about this.”
“The security service is always seeing shadows. Even where there aren’t any,” Forian replied coolly. “And I won’t let you — ”
“The mentor of those two unique characters is the last person I’m going to ask for an opinion,” Sadil said. “They’re dangerous. Not now, but they will be in ten or twenty years. What else are they going to invent? An armageddon? And what will they do with it? We can’t just think about this in terms of today.”
“And your suggestion?” the dean asked reluctantly.
“Let them finish the arena, after which I’ll take them. It’s the only way. If I decide they’re dangerous, I’ll have to eliminate them. Magistrate Varin will study how cards can be made by two creators in the meantime, though I’ll have my people keeping a close eye on her. Yes, I get that you had plans for them, but I don’t like how they’re standing out from the crowd. Forian, not a word to them about what we’re discussing here. And that’s an order. You need to swear.”
“I won’t tell me students what we decided,” the mage said firmly, and a white glow appeared around him. The System had accepted his oath.
“If there’s something else you all need to chat about, go for it. I have things to do.”
Sadil left, and the meeting came to a close on its own. Regardless of the result, the dean felt relieved — he wasn’t going to have to ask the provost for help. Better have the security service deal with the problem.
Forian went back to his room. The mage’s face gave nothing away, only Valanil had learned how to read her partner. Waiting for him to get into bed, the woman cuddled up to him, placed her head on his chest, and began speaking quietly.
“Tell me about it. We’ll figure out how to deal with it together.”
“Sadil’s going to take my students. Right after the arena. He thinks they’re becoming too dangerous and difficult to control.”
“And all because of a card?” Valanil asked in surprise, even pulling herself up when she saw the look in Forian’s eyes. “What’s so special about it? Just your basic icy rain. There are all kinds of them out there, and Valia’s definitely isn’t the best. I’d change a few things about it.”
“The card doesn’t have anything to do with it. At least, the only reason it does is because it has two creators. You can delete your name from the properties, but adding someone else’s is impossible. Tailyn and Valia actually did create it together. And I have no idea how.”
“What are you going to do?”
“They’re probably going to win the next battle. First-year students, even battle mages, are no match for them. They’ll pick up a level for winning this round, and then we’ll see who they’re up against from the other years. If it’s the second year, we can let them fight. If not, I’m going to try to get them out of the academy as soon as possible.”
“Good idea,” Valanil said thoughtfully. “And then?”
“No clue. I need to think. Everyone came at me for so long about not having students, and now that I have them, they want to take them away... But I’m not letting them go!”
“It’s no business of mine, of course, but do you even know what mentors do? Want me to surprise you? They train their students. In all the time you’ve spent with Tailyn, all I’ve seen you do is teach him about alchemy and help set up his interface. Oh, and you went to the library together. Don’t you think you’re kind of stretching the truth a bit by calling yourself a mentor? You don’t do anything about them. Maybe, it would be better to hand them off to someone else and forget about them like a bad dream.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Forian said as he flashed a glare at Valanil. “But I’m not giving them up! There’s a reason the god brought our paths together. This is a trial I’m supposed to see to the end. Sure, I had to agree to keep Tailyn from unlocking the attributes and skills he needs to create cards, but have you seen his sketches? He can’t even draw a straight line! No, Sadil is right — Tailyn isn’t cut out for creating cards. But what, then? I still haven’t found the answer, but I can’t believe the god brought the boy here just to hide him in the depths of the academy.”
“What about Valia? You’re always forgetting you have two students. Or is Forian Tarn subject to human weaknesses like jealousy? Are you jealous of a student who already surpassed her mentor?”
“There’s nothing to say about her — she’s a genius. Much stronger than I am. Much more flexible and mobile. At her age, all I could dream of was a simple card, and in less than six months she’s come up with two epic templates. It’s not jealousy. It’s — ”
“Yes, it is.” Valanil brushed her hand across the man’s cheek. “You need to decide who she is to you. Is she a rival or a student? Everything will fall into place then.”
“Everything will fall into place in a few days if I don’t think of a way to get them out of here.”
“So, you can’t tell the kids about this, right? But since I know about Sadil’s plans now, and I wasn’t part of the original conversation, I can tell them. I need portal cards for your residence. Really, two or three copies, so I can give them to the kids just in case. and you need to have Patrick activate the portal twice a day, once at noon, and again at midnight. Every day for two months. Make sure that happens tomorrow before the final battle. Okay?”
“Okay.” Forian even sat up, mentally berating himself for not thinking of portal cards.
“How’s your mysticism? Anything happening there?” Valanil asked in a sudden change of topic.
“Nope. There are no tears of Alron in the store, and nobody knows the recipe. From what I can tell, I need to head to the city Tailyn mentioned and find a bath of that red acid there. We need samples. It’s possible our alchemists will be able to figure out how it works. The plan was for me to head there right after the arena, but now I have no idea when I’ll be able to. Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I have to wait here — Sadil and the dean are both going to be keeping an eye on me. Tomorrow, go see Patrick, and give him my instructions. And as for you...”
Valanil listened to her man without saying a word, not even trying to correct his obvious mistakes. The plan the mage had come up with was never going to work. But that was fine — she could fix it. Really, the important thing was whether she should get more resources involved. Finding Crobar agents wouldn’t have been a challenge, as they were even there in the academy. But did she need them? And what would they ask for in return? Ultimately, she decided to go it alone for the time being.
Group set.
Cards verified, no comment.
The battle will begin in 30 seconds.
For the third battle, the System handed the pair an unpleasant surprise by dropping them in a forest. It was thick with dense undergrowth, there were
half-rotted fallen tree trunks, and fallen hazel branches made it impossible to get anywhere. The terrain made icy rain useless — the crowns of the trees were so tightly interwoven that they would have stopped just about all the icicles. Of course, a few would have made it to the ground, but they wouldn’t have been enough to get the job done. Their opponents would have been left alive and well. Ultimately, they decided against using the card — why waste mana? But the worst part was that the pair had no idea where the enemy was. Visibility in the forest was limited to thirty or forty meters.
“Let’s head right,” Tailyn said, and that was when the air was pierced with a bird call. It was a scout. The battle mages had scout among the cards they’d been given. Grabbing Valia by the hand, Tailyn dashed toward a fallen tree twenty meters ahead of them. And they made it just in time. Right after they dove under the trunk and covered themselves with branches, they heard five scouts fly overhead, wings flapping.
But we can’t just sit here forever, Valia thought. Why this move? Let’s attack! We’re stronger than they are.
We can always attack — that’s not what’s worrying me. Look, I have a crossbow, but there’s no using it in a forest. We came up with icy rain, but it’s useless here, too. And we won’t be able to throw alchemical bombs around. Doesn’t it strike you that this is the worst possible battleground for us? Think that’s a coincidence? I don’t. I think somebody wants us to lose.
Okay, but we’re still stronger than they are.
Are you sure? Our other opponents didn’t have scouts. The battle mages do. And that begs the question — what else do they have that we don’t? Wave of fire? Hey, do you have any salamander potions? Just in case.
Yes, I have everything.
Valia thought to herself. Tailyn was making sense — the elite department was presumably outfitted in kind. And that was why they always won. The day before, she’d checked the statistics for the previous few years, and the battle mage team had won every round for seven years running. Scout very well might not have been the only card they had that differed from the set she and Tailyn had been given.
Don’t move! They’re getting closer! Okay, I think I know what to do.
Raptor worked beautifully in the arena, continuing to scan the area and pick out enemies. And one of them had just come within range. Hacking didn’t even come up against any resistance — the first-year students were wearing complete level one suits with protection of just ten. And none of them had protection against hacking... Incidentally, it struck Tailyn that he didn’t, either. That was something he was going to have to resolve in the very near future.
You gained access to Makr Nitnar’s equipment.
Tailyn blocked everything to turn the other student into a statue. Suddenly, a strange voice piped up in Tailyn’s headset.
“Makr, what did you stop for? Keep moving! We need to find them. Get your cards ready — they should be somewhere around here.”
Device control let Tailyn go beyond blocking his opponent’s armor to also gain access to their internal communication system. But that wasn’t the most valuable discovery the boy made as he dug through the settings open in front of him. Along with a variety of functions for blocking and even destroying the outfit, there was an intriguing option called cleansing. It initiated every time the owner took the outfit off, getting rid of all the dirt that had built up inside. Once, Tailyn had seen to his horror how Vargot’s system worked — it used hot steam and scary-looking brushes. Without thinking trice, the boy activated the functionality. But the costume began to push back.
Attention! You’re trying to initiate the cleansing system with the user inside.
Confirmation required before initiation.
***
Verifying access level...
Your Hacking level: 36.
Level of protection from diversions: 30 (standard х 3).
Cleansing system initiated.
Opponent killed. Remaining: 14 of 15.
“He’s here! Burn the forest!”
Even with Makr dead, his outfit was still whole and intact, meaning Tailyn still had access to the other team’s communications.
Get your potion ready — they’re using fire. Okay, I’m going to try to get closer. You wait here. I don’t think we’re going to have to use cards, Tailyn thought. Pushing the branches aside, he nearly jumped back when he saw the wave of fire coming at him. But that was perfect. The fire would burn for a whole minute, and that was going to give him time to get closer without them seeing him in the inferno.
It just took twenty meters for Tailyn to see fourteen red dots show up on Raptor. The battle mages were in a circle, turning the entire area around them into a sea of flames. And that elicited a grunt from Tailyn — he’d been right about them having wave of fire.
Regardless of the fire raging below, the treetops remained pressed up against each other. Using icy rain to finish off their opponents wasn’t going to work, and that left just one option. Setting up shop behind a blazing tree to make sure nobody could see him, Tailyn got to work with his hacking. Connect — initiate cleansing — move on to the next one. Each battle mage took about ten seconds. By the time the fire died away, four had already been sent back out of the arena, their cursing resounding to high heaven.
“What’s going on? Where is he?! Where are the logs? What are they shooting at us with?!” Panic settled over the rest of the students belonging to the academy’s elite department. They were up against something their professors hadn’t prepared them for. Once again, the area was bathed in flames as they couldn’t think of anything better than squeezing as much as they could out of their waves of fire. Once upon a time, Tailyn had also thought it the perfect weapon, though he’d very nearly paid for that mistake with his life. And that was his real life, not the artificial one the arena gave him. By the time the fire died away a minute later, Tailyn had dispatched seven more students. They’d trapped themselves — inside the ring of fire, there was nowhere for them to go. All they could do was watch as their teammates dropped dead one by one. Meanwhile, Tailyn was doing his best not to think of how painful the death he was inflicting on them was. It was a competition, and they’d known what they could be in for.
The team of healers from the magic card department’s first year won!
Congratulations! You’re the best in your year!
Level +1 (26).
***
Your team won a battle in the arena without using cards or weapons.
Level +1 (27).
All team members receive +1 to a random attribute.
Marksmanship +1 (2).
***
Your team won for your year with only two members. That has never happened in the entire history of the academy.
All team members receive +1 to all attributes and skills.
***
You used free attribute points.
Enhancement +2 (17).
Next opponent: the winner among third-year teams.
Tailyn and Valia had an audience when they left the arena. An enormous crowd of students studying in the magic card department was there to congratulate the first-year students on their stunning victory. But not all of them had the chance. After pushing her way through the horde, Valanil grabbed her two trainees and pulled them away to begin training for the next battle. Only instead of heading for the arena, she took them home.
“You’re in danger,” the woman said. First making Tailyn check the area to see if anyone was listening in, she told them all about the conversation that had been had the previous day in the dean’s office, also handing the pair some cards — teleports to Forian Tarn’s residence as well as Tailyn’s dragon.
“They can’t do that!” Tailyn gasped. “The provost promised!”
“They already did, my boy,” Valanil said with a sigh. “Sadil insisted you’re too dangerous for the academy. And the decision is made — you’ll live out the rest of your days in the academy cellars. Nobody will pull you out of the competitio
n, but the moment you falter, they’ll grab you.”
“And what are you suggesting?” Valia was taking the news in stride. Over her twelve years in the Carlian clan, she’d seen her share of unfair decisions made and covered for by saying they were in the best interests of the clan. “You’re here because you have an idea, and not just to scare us, right?”
“Of course. Before anything else, we need to decide if there’s any point in you staying here until tomorrow. Forian can’t help you — he’s bound by an oath. I’ll be heading to his residence tomorrow to get things ready to make a break for it. We’ll need horses, a high-speed wagon, supplies, communications. But I’m not sure I’ll have everything ready by the evening. Since the academy mages will be watching all the ways out of the city, we’ll need a workaround, and I need time to make that happen. So, Forian’s question — can you beat the third-year students? Can we leave you in the academy for another day?”
Tears of Alron (The Alchemist Book #3): LitRPG Series Page 23
