Chapter 96 - The Basic Five (Patreon)

You have entered a special location (Rank: Rare) — The Tower. While inside, you gain: +15 Perception, +15 Intellect, +15 Vitality.

So the upperclassmen had been telling the truth. Arien felt the additional Attributes immediately. Colors seemed slightly brighter, sounds clearer, and his body felt far more energetic. Several students actually staggered from the change.

Supposedly, that was one reason students below fifth year were forbidden from entering the Tower. At lower levels, such a sudden increase could be dangerous. Arien, however, felt wonderful. His own Attributes were already high enough that the difference was noticeable without becoming overwhelming.

They continued several minutes later, once everyone had adjusted. Several older students passed them on the way, offering words of encouragement.

Inside, the Tower looked surprisingly similar to the rest of the Palace, with granite arches, carved ceilings, and murals depicting Wyndor’s history and the Radiant Pantheon. The only obvious difference was how empty the corridors seemed.

They climbed to the second floor and found their classroom with the door already open. They entered hesitantly, but the Master had not arrived yet.

Everyone quickly began claiming desks, most fighting for seats in the front row. As usual, Arien settled all the way in the back. The classroom itself was not particularly different from any of the others. The only unusual feature was the empty wall at the far end of the room, preceded by a large stretch of unused floor space. 

Then an elderly man walked in. His Academy robes were clean but badly wrinkled, as though he had pulled them from a pile that morning. Wild grey hair surrounded his head, his eyes were slightly bloodshot, and his cheeks were flushed.

Arien recognized him immediately.

Vizimir Grond.

Besides the Rector, he was the only Seventh-Circle Mage at the Academy. Rumors about him were everywhere. Depending on whom you asked, he was insane, a genius, only pretending to be scatterbrained, or the worst teacher in the entire Academy.

What everyone agreed on was that he was extraordinarily powerful, well over a hundred years old, and apparently incapable of arriving on time. Pori claimed he had taught her grandfather.

“Put away your textbooks and worksheets. You won’t need them in my class,” Vizimir said, looking over the room.

Arien picked up Advanced Mana Manipulation Secrets: The Archmage’s Path by Finrey Goldtroy and dropped it into his bag.

“Completely, Master?” Reyna asked. As usual, she had assumed the role of class representative, especially during lessons with Masters who intimidated everyone else.

“Completely. Better yet, throw them away or use them as kindling.”

"Uh... then why did Master recommend we buy them?"

“The Academy requires every course to have a textbook. I chose that one because the title matched the subject.” Vizimir waved dismissively. “I knew Finrey. That idiot couldn’t teach a dog to fetch, much less turn someone into an Archmage.”

He walked toward the empty wall and pressed something between two stone blocks. The room went dark. Arien glanced toward the windows, where sunlight was still streaming through the glass. A grinding sound came from somewhere beneath the floor, followed by a brief flash of blue light. When his eyes adjusted, the walls and ceiling were glowing faintly, and the wall behind Vizimir had moved several meters farther away.

“Much better. Move your chairs to the other side of the desks. I’ll teach from here.”

Furniture scraped across the floor as everyone rearranged themselves.

Arien stared at his new position.

Wonderful. Front row.

“Good,” Vizimir said while several students were still moving their chairs. “Let’s begin. I’m afraid most of you won’t get much out of these classes, but that’s hardly my fault. You’ve spent years being lazy, and I have to work with what I’ve been given.”

He pointed directly at Arien. “You. Show me your Basic Five. Levitation.”

The Basic Five? They had learned those spells during their first year.

“Well? Are you deaf? Or stupid? Levitation!”

Arien looked around, trying to figure out what he was supposed to levitate.

A pen flew toward Arien before he could ask. He barely caught it before it hit him in the face.

Maybe Vizimir really was a little crazy.

Fortunately, Levitation was one of Arien's favorite aspectless spells, and he had practiced it often over the years, dreaming that one day he might reach the level where he could levitate himself, a feat that was supposedly possible.

He raised the pen to eye level and looked questioningly at the Master.

"Disruption!"

Arien hesitated. The pen was a basic artifact. Using Disruption on an artifact was considerably harder than dismantling an ordinary spell matrix, but Vizimir merely waited.

Arien focused on the pen and ignored everything else.

The artifact pulsed with internal magic, thousands of tiny connections packed into an object barely longer than his hand. Arien had always admired the precision required to build artifacts, even if Introduction to Crafting had convinced him that he lacked the patience to make them himself.

Destroying one was considerably easier.

He released a small amount of mana and destabilized the connections he could sense. Three seconds later, the pen broke apart into dozens of fragments that remained suspended in the air.

“Fusion, Master?” Arien asked.

Vizimir smiled and nodded.

Of course.

Fusion reversed what Disruption had done, but Arien rarely practiced it outside mandatory lessons. He began reconnecting the severed structures one by one, and roughly ten seconds later the pen floated before him in a single piece again.

Its magical functions were gone. Vizimir’s expression made it clear he had noticed.

“Transmutation. Three primary colors.”

The pen turned yellow, blue, and red before returning to its original color.

“Rainbow colors. Faster.”

Arien obeyed.

“Shield. The pen.”

He had expected that one.

Shield itself was simple when cast around the mage using it. Anchoring the spell to another object was considerably harder, and Arien had never managed it successfully during their earlier classes. 

His Mana Manipulation had advanced enormously since then. Magic Explorer also granted him far greater control over magic.

He wrapped mana around the pen, slowly constructing the barrier while it trembled and threatened to collapse. His temples began to ache, but eventually he managed to stabilize the final connection.

A smile spread across his face.

Then a thin thread of foreign mana touched the Shield. The entire structure shattered.

“Pathetic,” Vizimir said.

Arien’s smile disappeared.

“Improve your Shield and Fusion before the next lesson. If I don’t see progress, you’re out of my class for a month.”

Arien nodded and sank into his chair while Vizimir moved on to the next student. Four classes a week with this man suddenly sounded far less appealing.

For the remainder of the lesson, Vizimir tested the same five spells again and again.

“Levitation. Disruption. Fusion. Transmutation. Shield.”

Arien had still performed better than most. Eight students, including Matt and Leli, were ordered to leave and return the following week ‘when they stopped disgracing the title of mage.’ Gilly broke down near the end of her test and was dismissed as well.

By the time Madri finished, several students had tears in their eyes.

Vizimir appeared completely unconcerned.

"Levitation. Disruption. Fusion. Transmutation. Shield."

The cycle continued for over an hour.

Finally, after Madri collapsed into her chair following a failed attempt to place a Shield around the pen, the Master returned to the center of the open space before them and glared at the class from beneath his bushy eyebrows.

“I won’t pretend this is unexpected,” he said, looking across the class. “You’re a bunch of lazy little wretches unworthy of the title of mage. You can’t even cast the most basic spells properly. With foundations like these, you’ll stall at the Fourth Circle and wonder why anything difficult falls apart in your hands.”

He folded his hands behind his back.

“I expect improvement the day after tomorrow. Anyone who cannot perform the Basic Five to my satisfaction by the end of the semester needn’t bother showing up for my exam.”

He turned toward the door.

“Goodbye.”

The whole group gathered that evening even though nobody had called a meeting. Everyone was so exhausted after the first day that, looking for company, they gradually drifted toward their usual gathering place: Arien’s room.

Pori sat on the sofa with Gilly curled against her, alongside Mel and Madri. Reyna occupied Arien’s armchair, lost in thought as usual, while Matt sat cross-legged against the wall with his jaw clenched. Arien had ended up on his bed between Sebastian and Leli, who was gripping his arm tightly.

For nearly ten minutes, nobody spoke.

"Rey," Gilly finally said, wiping her teary eyes with her sleeve. "Isn't there some way to change teachers?"

"No," Reyna replied after a long pause, looking around the room as though she had just awakened from a dream. "Students don't have any influence over who teaches their subjects. Besides, he's a Master, not some assistant."

"But how can they allow someone like that to teach us?" Leli protested. "He's obviously insane."

"I know it wasn't an easy experience," Reyna admitted. "I'm dreading the next lesson myself. But Vizimir is known for his brutal methods, especially at the beginning. It's his way of motivating students to learn. Supposedly it gets a little better later."

"That's supposed to be motivation?" Matt growled. "Throwing me out of class and banning me from attending the next one?"

"I'm not defending him, Matt. I'm just telling you how it is."

"Easy for you to say. He didn't throw you out."

"That's true. He didn't," Reyna answered in an oddly calm voice.

"I wonder why? Surely it has nothing to do with your family, right?"

Arien looked at Matt in surprise. The boy was clearly looking for a fight, but why was he picking one with Reyna of all people?

"Matt, that's unfair. He threw out other people besides you. It's not Reyna's fault," Pori said.

"Of course. It's never Reyna's fault. We always do everything she tells us to, but she couldn't warn us that Vizimir is obsessed with the Basic Five. Miss Know-It-All, whose Basic Five just happened to be the best in the entire class."

"I'm not all-knowing, and lately I've had other things on my mind besides researching the preferences of Masters," the girl replied sharply. “Nobody was stopping you from practicing basic mana techniques instead of waving a sword around like an idiot.”

Matt stared at her for several seconds, furious, then stood and left without another word, slamming the door behind him.

Arien looked toward Reyna. Arguments happened occasionally, but nothing like this. Especially not within a group she had spent years holding together.

Sebastian stood from the bed. “I’ll go after him before he does something stupid.”

“I’ll come with you,” Gilly said, wiping her eyes.

The two of them left, and the room fell quiet again.

“Does anyone have any ideas for how we’re supposed to survive Vizimir without killing each other?” Arien asked.

“I’m afraid practice is the only answer,” Pori replied. “But not tonight. I’m exhausted. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to bed."

Mel immediately agreed, and Madri silently followed them out.

Soon only Arien, Reyna, and Leli remained.

Leli shifted nervously, watching the departing girls. "Rey, are we going?" she asked uncertainly.

"No. I'm comfortable here. I'll stay a little longer," Reyna replied, settling more comfortably into his armchair. "Leli, you'd better go do some practicing."

“You’re right. I’ll go practice.” Leli reluctantly released Arien’s arm.

Whew.

He rolled his shoulder, trying to get some feeling back into it. She had been holding on far harder than he realized.

They sat in silence as the minutes passed, and Arien began to worry that their entire group might fall apart because of their new Master. Normally, they helped and supported one another in situations like this.

What had changed?

“Why didn’t you stop it?” Arien finally asked.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because I can’t.” He shrugged. “I’m not good at that. Half the time I don’t know what to say. You do.”

Reyna sighed. “The next few years are going to be different, Arien. The gaps between people will keep growing. Some will find better teachers, better training groups, different priorities. We can’t keep pretending nothing will change.”

“You knew about Vizimir, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

He stared at her.

“It wasn’t secret information. Anyone could’ve asked older students. Leli knew. Pori, Mel, and Sebastian knew too, and it still didn’t save them from today.”

“What?”

“Arien, for the gods’ sake. Sometimes I genuinely wonder how you can be this naive. Or do you maybe have some trait that makes you cling so desperately to your imaginary world?"

He said nothing.

What bothered him was that she wasn’t entirely wrong. He had known the Academy would become more competitive as they grew older, but knowing it in theory was different from watching Matt walk out furious while half their friends quietly followed.

He liked what they had built over the last four years. He didn’t want it to disappear simply because they had entered fifth year.

“I’m sorry,” Reyna said after a moment. “I didn’t mean to be that harsh.”

“No. You’re right. I know things change.” Arien looked down at his hands. “I just liked spending time with all of you.”

“We’re not suddenly going to stop seeing each other.” She shifted in the armchair. “Maybe less often. Some people will find different friends or start spending more time with partners. That’s normal. But four years together don’t disappear because our schedules change.”

Arien looked at her.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just the first time I’ve heard you say something like that. You almost sound like a human being.”

He laughed and caught the pillow she threw at him with Levitation.

A moment later, another stream of mana latched onto it.

Arien looked toward Reyna. She was staring intently at the pillow with one hand extended.

He smiled and tightened his control.

Apparently they were training after all.

When Reyna finally left his room half an hour later, Arien was drenched in sweat and his head was pounding.

But a triumphant smile refused to leave his face.

The girl had failed to take the pillow back.

Hi! I don’t usually ask for things like this, but unfortunately, some of the things I’d heard about what can happen once a story gets a bit more visible turned out to be true.

If you’re enjoying EoN and want to help it keep growing, please consider leaving an honest review on Royal Road. Reviews have a pretty big impact on the rankings, and having more genuine ratings and reviews also makes it much harder for unpleasant tactics to push the story down.

No pressure, of course. Just reading and supporting EoN here already means a lot to me. And if you do decide to help, I’ll try to find some way to properly thank you all for it.

On a more positive note, I managed to write three chapters over the weekend, so there’s a chance I’ll be able to maintain, or even grow, my backlog. If that keeps up, I may be able to increase the number of advance chapters available at the same price. :)