by Colin Daumen
Chapter 7 – Improvement
Warm rays of sunlight shone down from the sky, heating up and illuminating a large clearing on a mountain cliff. The mountain cliff spanned a kilometer, and families of fauna were littered across. Bees buzzed through the mountain, pollinating the area in return for some sweet nectar. Butterflies danced together in pairs as they flew around aimlessly. An intoxicating atmosphere was given off by the animals and plants in the vicinity, and the summer weather only added to the inviting nature of the area.
The joyful and carefree vibe that should have been acting like a contagion to any life in the area was starkly contrasted by grim faces filled with exhaustion. After a long journey filled with unexpected setbacks, all of the initiate mages had finally reached their destination; a dead end. After the cliff, there was only a drop spanning for kilometers. Exhaustion was exchanged with confusion after they reached here.
All of the initiates could be easily made out, as they were all no older than 16, and no younger than 14. Favian himself was currently 16 years old, with a pretty tall height for his age, and a below-average build. Had he been given more nutrition at the orphanage, then he would have been a lot taller, and instead of a height of 175cm, he would have been about 190cm.
Groups of friendships had already been formed by many of the kids here, with them lending each other mental support throughout the arduous journey. However, there were five individuals littered around who, similarly to Favian, stood next to a professor from an academy. These were easily identified as having a good enough potential to immediately be taken under the wing of a fully-fledged mage.
‘System, bring up my stats.’ Favian ordered nonchalantly in his mind.
[Ding! Constitution: 0.8, Strength: 1.0, Intelligence 2.8, Agility 0.8, Arcana 1.4. Mana pool 140.]
Favian had continuously been monitoring his stats ever since his first session of meditation. Another five days had passed in which he meditated whenever he had the free time. ‘My intelligence and arcana have both increased by 0.4 points, and my strength, constitution and agility have increased by 0.2 points each. It seems that my first ever meditation had a much stronger effect on my body in a single go, however, I am still increasing in power pretty rapidly,’ he thought to himself. His constitution and agility were still under the level of an average man, however, it would only take some more time for his body to become booming with vitality. He could feel that the more he ate and the more he meditated and worked-out, his body steadily became a stable foundation, something he would need to become a magnificent magician.
‘Bring up the information on my spells.’
[Ding! Innate Protective Shield – (Level 1), can sustain moderate amounts of damage before being rendered useless.
Necrotic Touch (Level 1) – 30 mana. Laces palms in dark energy which will speed up the death of any living cells being touched.
Bend light (Level 1) – 10 mana. Refract light waves in a 5-meter vicinity of host.
Net of shadows (Level 1) – 70 mana. Coat an object within a 60-metre radius in a viscous net made out of shadow energy.] the system chirped monotonously.
Looking at his current list of spells, Favian felt sad that they would only level up by using experience. The game system could only improve them if he put in an increasing amount of experience into them. As of now, he still hadn't enough experience to just flaunt around and upgrade his spells. His spells were limited in their uses, however, they could still be used effectively as long as he could think of a good plan.
His most powerful spell was his Net of Shadows, however, it cost half of his whole mana pool to cast. He had used it multiple times to catch some rabbits, and each use would leave him worn out. On the other hand, bend light seemed a lot more like a utility spell, and its uses could come in handy if he needed to quickly distract his opponents. Necrotic touch seemed pretty useless to him. It was a spell that required his target to be within punching distance of him, which didn’t seem likely to occur with his current skill set and body stats. He couldn't close the gap between him and an opponent quick enough to make use of it effectively.
Spells of a higher level from the book he discovered were currently locked until he broke through to higher levels. The book did bring more boons to him than he'd expected. Aria had been pleased with him finding the book and didn’t even bother questioning him on the subject of how he found it. She was more than willing to take it out of his hands for ‘safe-keeping’. Favian believed that she would probably go on to sell it to the academy, but this didn’t matter to him a tiny bit. As long as it was out of his hands, he didn’t have to fear for his life over it. Aria had even been so pleased with the book that she fed him more magical herbs than usual, which had increased his body’s vital stats; strength, agility and constitution.
Aria was currently standing tall next to Favian, enjoying the weather and the wildlife surrounding her. She would usually spend most of her time meditating in the carriage, however, Favian noticed that ever since the attack happened, she would spend the nights acting as a sentry for the camp. She did not seem fatigued at all, and her skin looked as flawless as it always did. Her face lit up in a smile suddenly, as she joyfully exclaimed, “They’re here. Took them long enough."
Electrical currents surged through the air, and it abruptly became very windy. The heavens aggressively parted as a group of figures warped into existence in the clouds 100 meters above the clearing on the cliff. Slowly these figures moved down to the ground in their own unique ways. One lady, with bright blue hair, was the epitome of calmness and levitated towards the ground as if she were strolling through her back garden. Conversely, a boulder of a man with striking flames of hair soared to the ground like a meteor, creating a small crater as he landed.
“Attention everyone. We, the big 6 academies would like to thank you all for making the voyage here to Culling’s Cliff. We know that the journey hasn’t been easy. The journey onwards for you all as a magician will be even harder. Many of you will not have what it takes to even graduate your first year, so we created this voyage to strengthen your wills, and show you exactly how difficult it will be to become a master of magic.” A bald old man, with a long grey beard, who had a slight hunch in his back boomed this message so that all those present could hear. Despite how frail this man looked, Favian could sense that he was filled with vigor.
“Your journey is only just beginning, is what my dear old friend Azul is trying to tell you all. Now, let us get this whole process over with quickly. I know how much you all want to finally settle into the academy of your choice. Let me be clear with this. You will all have your magical talent assessed if you haven’t already.” As that last sentence left his lips, he quickly gave a glance to Favian and the 5 other individuals who seemed to be with professors of their own.
“This testing process is to decide on the resources we will put into every individual student. You are free to choose from whichever academy you wish to join.” He explained.
Taking a closer look at all of the academy representatives that had just appeared there out of thin air, Favian could notice that there was a dwarf (the man who had just spoken), an elf (the calm lady with blue hair), and four men, which included the old man and the red-haired man with the oppressive aura. Two other men stood more inconspicuously to the back, making their presence unknown.
A slow process of testing the talent of all the initiates took place, with them all waiting patiently in line for the school they wished to join. This process was completely foregone by Favian as he had already been chosen to be a part of the Dusk Academy. Instead, Favian decided to spend his time by chatting with Aria.
“So, you finally decided to take on a student Aria? I’m impressed.” A voice suddenly emerged out of nowhere.
Chapter 8 – Confrontation
A woman slowly walked towards Aria and Favian. She strutted with an elegant sway in her hips and made absolutely no noise as she walked over. Her long hair fell all the way to her waist, revealing
obsidian curls from root to tip. A scar pierced across her face, starting from the left of her forehead, and extending all the way towards the left part of her lips. Without this scar, she would have looked like a princess with her toned cheekbones and her naturally pouty lips, which were covered in dark red lipstick. Favian could faintly make out that she was wearing some form of amulet under her collar. Her attire was a robe adorned with jewelry and embroidered almost everywhere.
Aria looked at her with disdain, ignoring her presence after giving her a glare. If a stare could kill, then this woman would have already died a thousand times over. The animosity which Favian could feel was thick like coagulated blood. These two loathed each other.
"Now now, no need to act so uninviting. I'm just here to introduce myself to that cute student of yours. Well what's your name?" she looked at Favian, waiting for a response.
"F-Favian madam!" he replied quickly, lowering himself to a bow.
The woman was quickly taken aback by Favian's curtsy. He looked unassuming and was still wearing tattered and worn-down clothes. He had yet to have the chance to change his look with a new wardrobe as Aria only had clothing appropriate for women in her closet.
"My oh my, how adorable you are Favian. How unfortunate it is for a gentleman like yourself to be stuck with that poisonous witch," she spat. Her elegant air vanished and was replaced with venom.
Aria was furious, blood boiled through her body, and veins could be seen emerging on her face, giving her a ghastly appearance. Her snowy complexion was now filled to the brim with red. Energy undulated around her, and dark wisps started to circulate at a ferocious speed, aimed at none other than the lady with the scar.
Suddenly a man warped in between Aria and the woman. Favian had blinked at the exact moment when it happened, which startled him, making him fall to the floor. The moment the man entered the area, Aria's channeling of magic dispersed. She quickly knelt to the ground, and so did the other woman.
"Aria, Evelynn, what is the meaning of this?" he asked, his voice charged with authority.
"Nothing Master Egast, we were just exchanging some pointers," Evelynn replied, after which she winked at Aria and Favian, and quickly scurried away.
Egast was a rather tall and skinny man, who only looked to be in his mid-30s. He wore a charcoal colored button-up shirt, with its sleeves only reaching his elbows, and he matched this with black trousers and polished black shoes. His attire looked like it came straight out of an aristocratic family from Earth's Victorian England. He also possessed a long grey cane, which was adorned at the top with a skull head and rubies for its eyes.
The scowl that had been present on his face was rather quickly replaced by a smirk after Evelynn had left, his eyes twinkling with a mischievous light.
*Cough* "How I detest those brats from the Dawn Academy, always trying to one-up us just because we are the big bad wolves using dark magic. If only they would realize that light and dark are just two sides of the same coin, then maybe they'd not be ranked last out of all of the Big 6," Egast mumbled.
"Oh Aria, didn't see we had company there," his face blushed quickly, and he rubbed his head in shame after he noticed Favian standing upright behind Aria.
"Don't worry about that, this here is Favian." She spoke nonchalantly, having gotten up from her kneeling position. Aria seemed to have calmed down by a large amount, and the ferocious atmosphere around her dissipated.
She moved closer to Egast and whispered in his ear, "He's the one I sent messages about to the Academy, his magic core is indigo, but there's some sort of irregularity in it. It's almost as if there's some chaotic force within him. I was hoping you could help figure this out."
Favian tried hard to make out what they were discussing but to no avail. After a couple of minutes of hushed tones, they finally finished their conversation. Egast slowly walked towards Favian and started to look him up and down. Favian became fidgety at how much he was being concentrated on at this moment. Suddenly the system in his mind rang out an alarm, and he could feel his whole body being pierced through.
[Ding! The host being scanned by a foreign object. Countermeasures unavailable.]
Favian had no time to react, he could feel pins and needles in his brain, and a wave of exhaustion completely took him over. Egast's face scrunched in confusion as he scanned Favian.
"Boy, let's get going from here. It's just going to get more boring the longer we wait around, so we'll get you to the academy first along with Aria." Egast turned around and walked towards the edge of the cliff, with Favian and Aria walking close by his heels.
As they moved towards the edge of the cliff, Favian noticed the different emotions on the various initiates' faces. Some were ecstatic, jumping up in joy, whilst others were completely dejected and looked like they wanted to jump down to an early death. Clearly making it into the academy with as many resources as possible meant a huge amount to them.
Slowly, Egast stopped about 2 meters away from the cliff's edge. The ground in front of him was devoid of any grass, unlike the rest of the cliff. A huge symbol able to accommodate a whole horse was carved into the ground in black. It looked like a hieroglyphic a large black sun. The summer breeze was completely halted in the vicinity of this hieroglyph, and the noise from the outside world stopped.
"Favian, jump," Egast said as he motioned for Favian to jump off the cliff.
'WHAT? Did I just hear that right?' he screamed in his mind. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't quite catch that, did you just say I should jump?" he asked, trying to verify whether he was just hearing things.
Egast looked at Favian impatiently, and simply repeated his previous statement, however, it sounded more like a command now, "Jump!"
Favian's heart sank. So, he did hear right, this crazy man wanted him to jump down into an early grave. Frozen to the spot, Favian couldn't decide whether to run away or to actually jump. This choice was taken out of his hands after he hesitated for too long. With what seemed like a gentle nudge at first, he was flung almost 10 meters forward into his impending doom.
The ground beneath him disappeared, and his guts felt like they flew straight into his mouth. The sound of the wind rushing seemed to muffle his loud screams. His heart was beating in overdrive, and the urge to piss himself almost took over. With a THUD, Favian hit the ground.
Instead of darkness as he would have imagined it would be like if he died again, Favian found himself to be in a dimly lit room. He quickly stood up, checking himself to see if he had broken anything, as the lack of pain left him confused. 'I'm somehow okay,' he thought.
As he looked around the room however, his heart sank once again. He was currently surrounded by cell bars. Only dim light was able to illuminate the area, and he seemed to be inside some form of a cavern. The air was damp and musty, and dust formed around the bars.
'Fuck! Where am I? Why am I in a prison cage?' his thoughts sprinted as he tried to figure out what was happening. Did the Academy figure out that he was reincarnated? Would they now use him for their own perverted experiments? Was he reborn again into the body of a prisoner or slave? These questions continuously went through his mind.
A cackle erupted from within the cavern. A female voice echoed through the cave, "I finally have you alone here. I have been waiting for you to be separated from your little mentors." A hooded figure walked towards the cage Favian was standing in. He couldn't make out what this person looked like under the hood, all he could tell was that the voice was very feminine and that a necklace was hung from the person's collar.
The symbol looked like two back to back half-moon crescents, parted in the middle by a thick line. An ominous aura was being given off by this symbol alone, and the longer he stared at the symbol, the more his mind fogged up.
Chapter 9 – A new quest
Favian was suddenly snapped out of his delirium by the usual DING sound that his game system would make when it was sending him a notification.
[DING! The user under the influence of an un
known aura. It is suggested that the user does not look at the necklace being worn by the woman in front of you.]
Unlike usual, the game system almost seemed like a person here worried for his safety. Or maybe this was all just in his mind or part of some illusion, Favian thought. The game system was artificial intelligence; it had no consciousness nor emotions according to his knowledge.
Favian realized what sort of predicament he was currently in. He was trapped in a dungeon, alone, and was fully incapable of getting himself out of this ordeal. He hadn't learnt enough magic to be able to defend himself, and even if he had, he doubted he would be able to escape from somebody who had been able to snatch him away from the likes of Aria and Egast, who both oozed with the power he craved.
'The best I can hope for is that somebody has noticed my disappearance. I'll have to stall for time here.' This was what Favian was pinning all his hopes on. If he could stall for time and somehow find an opening, that would be the best-case scenario for him. The other choice was to submit and probably become some slave to this crazy individual, or worse.
Fear gripped onto Favian, and his palms became sweaty, however, he was able to ask the person in front of him, "What do you want with me?"
The mysterious figure did not answer until almost ten minutes passed. What ensued was a cacophony of laughter which did not stop until almost another ten minutes. This person had clearly gone crazy already, Favian thought, his knees weakening as he realized that trying to stall for time might not even be lucrative.
Almost an hour had passed and there were still no signs of rescue coming for him. Favian's mood plummeted, and his face became dejected. He realized that whatever the case may be, he would probably rot to death here with this maniac confining him.
