Chapter 79 - The other world  (Patreon)

One major downside of not allocating any free points into Agility was that even when Arien’s high Perception allowed him to see a blade coming straight for his head, his body was usually too slow to simply step out of the way, forcing him to waste mana on a Mana Shield instead.

He stepped backward while simultaneously casting an Earth Spike, intending for the pillar of stone to erupt from the ground and skewer his charging opponent.

Without breaking stride, the attacker twisted slightly to the side, letting the spike pass by within inches of his body before swinging low toward Arien’s ankle. Arien hopped over the strike, already shaping a small Fireball in midair.

His opponent used the momentum of the swing to spin around and accelerate. Before Arien could release the spell, the sword pommel slammed into his solar plexus, scattering the mana he had gathered and knocking him backward.

The protective layer granted by Guardian of Life absorbed most of the impact, preventing broken ribs, but he still let out a long groan as he hit the grass.

"That was stupid," Will said.

"Don't worry. I'm fine," Arien replied, staring up at the blue sky dotted with fluffy white clouds, resembling flocks of sheep. 

The brutal heat of the past few weeks had finally begun to fade, and at that moment, he felt like he could spend the entire day lying in the cool grass.

“The moment you left the ground, you lost any chance of dodging,” Will continued. “You opened yourself up.”

“If you hadn’t used Acceleration, I would’ve turned you into a roast,” Arien shot back while forcing his breathing to slow.

The duel had lasted perhaps three minutes, yet he was drenched in sweat, adrenaline still pounding in his ears.

“Arien, you always have to assume your opponent has an ace up their sleeve.” Will folded his arms. “When you put everything on a single move, you’re gambling with your life.”

“I know, I know.” Arien waved a hand dismissively. “You don’t need to tell me that story again about your master fighting ogres and not expecting one of them to know False Step.”

“If I don’t need to tell it again, why did you lose?”

“Because you’re several times faster than me, stronger than me, and spend every day fighting?”

“Arien.”

“Alright, alright.” Arien raised both hands in surrender. “That’s why we’re training, isn’t it?” He rubbed his chest. “These aching ribs will help me remember not to jump around like an idiot against a faster opponent.”

When it came to training and combat, joking with Will was nearly impossible. His friend took every lesson seriously.

Still, Arien was improving. Every week he grew a little more comfortable fighting Will one-on-one. When they had started sparring half a year ago, he tripped over his own feet, frozen in panic, or instinctively raised his hands to protect himself, despite knowing Guardian of Life shielded both of them from serious injury.

Sometimes he felt guilty about how much more he seemed to gain from their sessions, but Will disagreed. He claimed that fighting a mage at close range taught him how to dodge Fireballs and react when walls, spikes, or other obstacles suddenly appeared in his path, even if most real mages would never let him begin a fight only a few feet away.

Training against ranged attacks would come later.

Will merely sighed and sat down on the ground beside him. For several minutes, neither of them spoke.

To Arien, Will was like the brother he'd always wished he'd had in his previous life. They differed in both personality and age, though Arien had long since stopped seeing much sense in adding the years of his two lives together. He no longer felt twenty-five, much less whatever age the numbers added up to. In his own mind, he was still somewhere in his early twenties.

More than anything, Arien simply enjoyed Will's company. Their classes rarely overlapped, and sometimes days passed without them seeing each other, but that hardly mattered. Both knew that once the Academy was behind them, they would set out into the world together.

"What do you think about Gilly's story?" Will finally asked.

"I think what she said could be true." Arien thought for a moment before continuing. "At the same time, it doesn't change my decision to recover our families in any way. If anything, if things are really still that chaotic over there, it'll be even easier to slip in and free a few slaves."

Will nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. If we don’t have to worry about larger organizations, we might be able to try at lower levels than we originally planned. Not immediately after graduating, obviously, but after a few years of gaining experience.”

He noticed Arien’s expression and added, “I’m not suggesting we rush into it.”

“By then, I want to have reached a Third Specialization in Life Magic,” Arien said. “With that, I’d feel a lot better about our chances, even if we ran into someone much stronger than us.”

"Arien..." Will said, giving him an odd look. "I know you're talented, but a Third Specialization? You were the one who told me how difficult levels become after the First Specialization, not to mention the breakthrough afterward. Some people spend decades trying."

"You have to aim high," Arien replied with a smile, though inwardly he wasn't nearly so certain.

Compared to the other students, Arien knew he possessed a respectable amount of magical talent, but he wasn’t a genius. He had the advantage of higher Attributes and an earlier start, but he had no idea whether that would be enough. Since reaching his Second Specialization, his levels had been advancing painfully slowly. Repeating spells he already knew had long since stopped producing meaningful gains. If he wanted to keep progressing, he needed new spells, harder applications, and problems that forced him to use magic in ways he had not before.

“Do you think we’ll be able to join a Ten during our eighth year and fight Monsters?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Will replied, shaking his head. “Copper Tens would probably take us, but they don’t see much combat. As for Silver Tens...” He hesitated. “That could be difficult, even with your Life Magic. Faster regeneration and protection are useful, but without spells capable of treating serious injuries? Malbek is still a reserve member of his Ten, and they only take him on easier missions. We’d have to work really hard over the next three years.”

Arien considered that. One drawback of avoiding Spellcasting was that, despite his high levels in Mana Manipulation and several Aspects, complex magic still took him much longer to learn.

At the Infirmary, Lamaral only trusted him with lighter cases. Life spells were especially unforgiving; he could force out some Third-Circle Fire magic, but comparable Healing spells were still beyond him.

For now, healing gravely wounded companions on a battlefield remained out of reach, and Will was probably more useful to an Explorer team than he was.

He still had three years to change that. If no Silver Ten wanted him during the eighth-year break, they could try again after graduation.

"Alright, fair enough. I guess I really do need to train harder," he said, pushing himself up from the grass. "One more spar?"

Will's grin was an answer enough.

Arien had always known that the Old Houses were wealthy, but when you grew up at the very bottom of the social ladder, almost everyone seemed rich. The years at the Academy had given him some sense of the prices of artifacts, real estate, and incomes, but it was only after traveling for half an hour along the private road belonging to Reyna’s family that he truly began to grasp the gulf separating ordinary people from the elite of this world.

He was riding in a carriage borrowed from Gilfra, who had nearly suffered a heart attack upon hearing that he was going to the Voltorey estate. She had ordered her finest private carriage prepared and had simultaneously bombarded him with hundreds of pieces of advice on how he ought to behave.

The journey from Wayhold had been pleasant and comfortable, especially since the carriage was air-conditioned through several interconnected artifacts, allowing him to devote himself to reading one of the many texts assigned by Master Terynheim: The Laws Governing Unstructured Magic, Volume 4 by Jedlik. It was just as dull as the previous three volumes, though every few hundred pages there was usually something useful to be found.

When they passed through the gate guarded by the family’s private soldiers, where he had been thoroughly inspected using several different artifacts whose purposes he could only guess at, he set the book aside, thinking he would soon have to get out anyway.

Half an hour passed, and he was still traveling through old-growth forest without seeing a single building.

They weren’t even that far from the capital.

How much could all this land possibly be worth, especially when so much of it seemed to be nothing but forest? Maybe there’s some kind of tax exemption involved?

He remembered hearing back on Earth that the truly rich had always been remarkably creative when it came to avoiding taxes. Perhaps some things were universal across dimensions.

Eventually, the forest opened onto the summer residence of House Voltorey.

Arien lowered his book completely.

The estate might as well have belonged to the King. An enormous pale stone mansion rose beyond rows of ancient trees, large enough that Arien needed a moment to take in the entire facade. Tall windows covered several floors, separated by carved columns and wrought iron balconies. Statues lined the roof, more stood among the gardens, and stone carvings covered the walls around the entrance.

A broad paved road crossed the grounds between fountains, trimmed hedges, flower beds, and rows of trees that looked as though someone had personally decided where each one should grow. 

For a moment, Arien remembered the cramped room in Three Meadows that had been his home during his first years in Erador, thick with cooking smoke and the smell of too many people living in too little space.

They rolled up to the entrance, where Arien was relieved to see Reyna waiting for him in a simple blue dress decorated with tiny flowers. She looked wonderful.

He stepped out of the carriage and hesitated.

At the Academy they addressed each other casually, but here Reyna was the daughter of an Old House, standing near the very top of the social hierarchy. Technically, etiquette demanded that he kneel, but even after all his years on Erador, Arien still couldn’t get used to the idea that someone was supposed to be “better” than him simply because of the circumstances of their birth.

Before he could decide what to do, Reyna stepped closer and squeezed his arm lightly.

“Hey, Arien. I’m glad you managed to come,” she said. “Welcome to my home.”