Chapter 101 - Challenges (Patreon)

Quick Character Cheat Sheet:

Gilly SunderhallBlonde and slender. Competitive, energetic, and very serious about magic. Daughter of Kevin Sunderhall. Fire and Water Aspects.

Madri SunvalleyCurly, fluffy hair. Bookish and curious, with a strong interest in artifacts and how magic works. Daughter of inventors. Earth and Fire Aspects.

Leli VathanDark complexion, attractive. Confident, socially ambitious, and from a wealthy shipping family. Has shown a particular interest in Arien. Water and Light Aspects.

Sebastian VinteyBlack hair and grey eyes. Reserved, analytical. Comes from a wealthy aristocratic family and is currently ranked just behind Reyna. Water and Earth Aspects.

Matt StonewallBrown hair, tall, broad shoulders. Combat focused, stubborn, grounded, and loyal. His father is a general. Fire and Earth Aspects.

Meliana “Mel” RathHoney colored hair. Quiet, shy, and diligent. A close childhood friend of Pori. Water and Air Aspects.

Reyna VoltoreyLong red hair. Sharp, composed, and currently the top ranked student in the year. Comes from one of the Old Houses and is already deeply familiar with their politics. Fire and Air Aspects.

Porietta “Pori” MileyLong, fluffy chestnut hair, a round face, and hazel eyes. Gentle, well mannered, and socially perceptive. Sole heir to an aristocratic family and a close childhood friend of Mel. Earth and Air Aspects.

The last month had been exhausting even by Reyna's standards.

She had known what fifth year would demand, yet she was still struggling to keep up. Classes, training, reports, meetings, and the projects she had spent years building all competed for the same limited hours. At this point, sleep, concentration, and stimulant elixirs were the only things keeping her functional. Several students in her year had already suffered nervous breakdowns, and she felt she wasn't far from joining them.

If she could have focused solely on classes and training, things would have been manageable. But the networks and projects couldn't simply wait until she had more time. Reading reports alone sometimes consumed an hour every day. Even inside the Portal, she had spent most of her time working out strategies for identifying promising students and securing contracts with them rather than admiring the unfamiliar world around her.

Not that the first levels were particularly mysterious. They consisted mostly of plantations of magical plants and mines rich in rare minerals. The mana density was extraordinary, but everything accessible there had been explored long ago. She didn't need her Skill to know that.

And then there were the people making everything harder.

Efie constantly demanded attention. Meytrand blundered through one situation after another while dragging the Voltorey name with him. Celestine was pushing into Reyna's contacts and territory, and even Sebastian and Pori had begun reaching well beyond what their status should normally allow. And that was only her own year. The seventh-years had recently decided it was their turn to rule the Academy as well.

Reyna felt as though all she did was extinguish fires that erupted spontaneously in the most inconvenient places imaginable.

Today, at least, Reyna intended to deal with one problem she could actually control. Their group would probably fall apart eventually. She knew that. But she wasn't ready to let it happen yet. Partly because she had grown attached to them, and partly because the group was still useful.

They gathered at her invitation in a training room she had rented. It was the first time all of them had been together since Matt's outburst in Arien's room, and Reyna couldn't remember speaking with most of them outside class since then.

Everyone arrived on time, but instead of talking and gossiping as they would have two months ago, they simply waited for her to begin.

That alone told her how much had changed.

"I know it's been a difficult month for everyone," she began. "I know you've all been giving it your best. I'm sorry if it seemed like I'd forgotten about you, but honestly, I barely knew where to start with everything."

"Levitation. Disruption. Fusion. Transmutation. Shield." Arien spoke in such a convincing imitation of Vizimir that several people visibly flinched.

Everyone started laughing. Reyna smiled at him. She hadn't realized how badly the room needed that.

"Exactly," she said after a moment. "Sometimes I dream those words."

"You're not the only one," Gilly replied, and several people nodded in agreement.

“Well, I didn't gather you here to practice the Five. I think we've all had enough of that.” Reyna straightened and smiled. “Yesterday I finally found a little free time, and I have a present for all of you.”

She handed each person a parchment covered in writing and watched as they read. Confused expressions quickly gave way to smiles.

Reyna was rather proud of the idea, especially considering how little it had cost her. Pori and Sebastian studied their copies more carefully than the others, probably because they already had similar lists or were working on them.

She doubted theirs were this thorough.

“Dark Abyss,” Matt said first. “This is amazing, Reyna. Seriously.” He gave her a slightly wary look, then rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away.

“So much information,” Madri added. “Where did you get all this?”

“I have my ways,” Reyna replied.

The dossiers covered sixth-year students the group could realistically challenge and beat, including their favorite spells, fighting styles, strengths, weaknesses, and assigned Aspects. To most of her friends, the reports were priceless. To Reyna, they had cost almost nothing. She hadn't even needed to use her family's network; a friendly ninth-year broker had sold her the material for next to nothing.

Reyna still couldn't understand why so few students made use of the Academy's information market. She occasionally sold things there herself, mostly because it helped her keep track of what people were interested in. Of their group, only Pori and Sebastian seemed to understand how useful the market could be, though neither knew it as well as she did.

"With this I actually have a chance of reaching the Eighth Division if luck is on my side!" Matt exclaimed excitedly. "Rey, you're amazing!"

For the next several minutes everyone became absorbed in the reports, giving Reyna time to watch their reactions.

Matt and Leli seemed the happiest, which made sense. Both were struggling badly in Advanced Mana Manipulation, and without major financial support from their families, Arena points mattered far more to them.

Madri looked pleased as well. She wasn't performing badly, but she disliked fighting, and the dossiers would let her choose safer opponents.

Pori and Sebastian studied the reports with the kind of attention that suggested they were already trying to work out Reyna's source.

Mel, as usual, gave away nothing.

Gilly's and Arien's reactions were stranger. Gilly held the parchment in one hand and kept glancing away from it as though reading something she shouldn't.

Arien, meanwhile, looked interested but hardly excited.

“Something wrong, Gilly?” Reyna asked.

“I don't know if I should be reading this. It feels like cheating.”

Reyna closed her eyes for a second. She had forgotten how peculiar Gilly's sense of honor could be.

“Gilly, if a scout investigates an enemy camp before an attack, is that cheating too?” Pori asked.

“Well... that's different.”

“So you're never going to watch any higher-league Arena matches? You might face those people later and learn how they fight.”

“Okay, okay, I get it already.” Gilly sighed. “I'll use the information. Thanks, Reyna.”

Reyna turned back to Arien. He was stretched out on one of the beanbags, levitating the parchment above his head using Vizimir's method.

She had mastered it herself a week ago, but only after many hours of Great Mage Savitus correcting every mistake she made. As far as she knew, Arien still wasn't taking private lessons from anyone, which annoyed her more than she cared to admit.

A week earlier, he had asked her only for a package of mana elixirs and a few artifacts as partial repayment of the loan he'd given her. Together, they weren't even worth a single point. She'd obtained them the next day.

They spent another fifteen minutes comparing opponents and planning challenges before the conversation drifted to other topics.

“Did any of you see Magnus fight Caelrick?” Sebastian asked, setting his dossier aside.

Gilly nodded. “His control over the Lightning Aspect is incredible. Shame he lost. I would've preferred him as Champion.”

“I heard Caelrick deserved the win,” Matt said. “I wanted to see the title matches so badly. Curse Vizimir and his Levitation.”

“There'll be plenty more chances,” Gilly assured him, looking slightly concerned.

Pori shook her head. “I don't know if anyone from the Second Division will risk losing the points. Arvennors don't usually become Champions by accident.”

“You don't think Lysandra or Edras will challenge him?” Sebastian asked. “Even Caelrick might have trouble defending against those Blood Aspect spirals of Lysandra's.”

“You saw her duel too?” Matt asked in surprise. “You didn't say anything.”

Sebastian scratched his head and glanced away. “I didn't want to distract you from training.”

“I'm surprised you have that much time to watch fights at all,” Reyna remarked.

She found herself wondering how long Sebastian had been practicing the Basic Five before fifth year. According to the information she had gathered, Vizimir had taught two classes from the same year at the same time only once in the last decade. Reyna had originally assumed only Efie's class would get him, and it was not until two weeks before the semester began that she learned their class had been unlucky as well.

Sebastian smiled and shook his head. “I only saw three fights. But yes, I got lucky. The Basic Five are recommended for the Mana Master path, and my Mentor had me practice them throughout the last year.” He paused. “Though I think Vizimir cares more about improvement than actual skill. Madri's Levitation is better than mine, and that still didn't save her from being thrown out of class.”

Madri muttered a curse under her breath. “Did you have to remind me?”

“Do you really think that madman is guided by any kind of logic?” Leli asked. “As far as I'm concerned, he's just an old man who's bored with life and enjoys tormenting students.”

“An old man who's an Archmage,” Pori pointed out.

“Exactly. He probably hasn't reached a new Specialization in a decade and has gone insane from boredom,” Leli insisted.

“I think whichever one of you is right, it doesn't change the fact that we're screwed,” Matt grumbled.

For a second, everyone was silent.

Then Gilly snorted. Sebastian started laughing, and within moments most of the group had joined in.

Reyna shook her head, though she could not quite keep herself from smiling.

For the next several minutes, they joked, interrupted one another, and argued over things that had nothing to do with rankings. The group finally felt normal again, and Reyna hadn't realized how much she'd missed that.

Eventually she moved over to sit beside Arien. He had spent most of it quietly practicing his Levitation while listening from the sidelines.

“Do you think it's cheating too?”

“What? Oh, that.” He glanced up from the floating parchment. “No. Thanks for the help. It was actually really interesting.”

“In my opinion, you could probably reach the Seventh Division. Challenging Jedrick might be difficult, but if he accepts and you give it everything you've got...”

“Probably.”

Reyna frowned. “But?”

She had spent more time analyzing his options than anyone else's.

“You know all my opponents have surrendered, right?”

“I heard. But I doubt older students would do the same.”

“Good. Ever since the Reznan Forest, I've wanted a proper duel. I didn't expect fighting there to teach me as much as it did, so I'm not interested in picking only the easiest opponents. I actually want to enjoy the Arena.”

Reyna stared at him. That was new.

In previous years, Arien had usually taken the easiest path available whenever it achieved the same result. Somewhere along the way, perhaps getting beaten by her brother, her father, and Efie had convinced him that difficult fights were fun.

“Would you like me to prepare another list, this time ranked by how interesting the fights would be? Including opponents you might actually lose to?”

Arien immediately sat up.

“Rey, have I ever told you how wonderful you are?”

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews! Arien's first fights in the Arena are coming this Monday!

Have a great weekend, everyone! :)