It wouldn’t be the first time that Dallion had snuck through the corridors of the Learning Hall. As long as he vaguely looked like he knew where he was going, no one else seemed to care. Venturing into a mage’s section was a different matter entirely.

The novice section building he and Raven were to enter was located on the crossroads of two main corridors. From a logistics point of view that made sense: it was convenient to the mages and apprentices and at the same time, as far as possible from the novices.

“What about Palag?” Dallion whispered as he and Raven walked casually towards their destination.

“What about him?”

“A fury will catch me. Even with my trait levels, I won’t be fast enough to fool him.”

“Really?” There was an untypical moment of childish disbelief in Raven’s voice. “Either way, he’s in a meeting with mage Tisaku, the real one. It’ll be hours before he’s anywhere close.”

“You mean there’s no one guarding the cubes?”

That sounded suspiciously easy, and as experience had shown, when something was too easy, it usually wasn’t.

“Nope. There’s an apprentice or two, but even they don’t stay in there all the time. As long as you can work a lock, we’re good to go.”

So that’s what it is, Dallion said to himself. The black-haired was using him to get something from inside. No doubt it was something he shouldn’t get. Then again, every alliance had its cost. As long as it was something innocent, Dallion could go along with it. If it wasn’t—he’d have to make a new alliance.

Hey, Dallion said as they approached the building. He could sense the guardian of the lock. That was a good thing—if there was a guardian, he could be reasoned with. Are you locked?

Yaa? the lock replied.

The accent was strange—not one Dallion had heard before. Regardless, the guardian seemed curious, which was always a good sign.

Are you locked? Dallion asked, using his music skills to create a sense of calm and understanding.

Yaa, am. You’re an empath?

Yeah, a rarity I know…

There’s another one at the Academy.

Dallion almost froze mid-step. There were supposed to be a handful of empaths in the world. Excluding dragons, there were supposed to be no more than three in the empire. The chances of Dallion coming across one of them were extremely small… unless the Green Moon had lied to him.

Oh? Is he here now? Dallion casually asked.

Not for a while. Maybe a month.

A month? That means he’d been here when Dallion had arrived at the Academy. There was a real chance that the two of them had crossed paths. In that case, why hadn’t he felt anything? More importantly, why hadn’t Felygn said something?

Pity. If he comes to visit, can you tell him I’d like to chat with him?

Yaa, the guardian replied.

Also, can you unlock and let us in?

Sure. The lock clicked without delay. That was one of the advantages of having to deal with an item guardian who had been isolated from the rest of the world. Probably no one at the Academy had tried to sneak through him, so he wasn’t particularly bothered about letting people in. After all, everyone here was a mage. If a mage wanted to keep something safe, they could use spells to do so.

“Here goes,” Dallion whispered to the Raven, as he opened the door and stepped inside.

The building was every bit the bureaucratic nightmare as one might expect. Tydiness wasn’t a wizard’s trait, apparently. There were piles of paper everywhere, racks of poorly arranged scrolls, and quite a few doors and staircases leading Moons know where.

“This way.” The black-haired took the lead, going up a wooden staircase, then through the second door on the right.

Dallion had no choice but to follow, taking special care to pay close attention to everything his classmate did. The two then went down a short corridor, then through another door. There, Dallion knew they had reached the right place.

“Wow,” he said. The space was as large as a warehouse and completely filled with large box-sized purple crystals. There probably were hundreds of them, patiently waiting to be used.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Raven asked. “All these will be used up by the end of the month and replaced by more.”

“Where do they get them from?”

“They make them here. No idea how. The Academy really wants to train mages as quickly as possible, as thoroughly as possible.”

Didn’t use to be like that, Nil sighed. Back when I was active, patience was a far greater virtue. Now, it’s considered a weakness. Everything is a rush just for the sake of it.

You’re sounding like an old man, Nil, Dallion added some humor to the situation. Deep inside, though, he was a lot more worried than the echo. Considering everything going on in the world, he could only think of one reason why the Academy would need skilled mages quickly.

“We need to create an open space,” Raved said. “Vertex cages crashing into each other isn’t a good idea.”

“How do you know all that?”

“Privilege comes with knowledge.”

Thanks to a few spells and a bit of physical effort on Dallion’s part. A space was set up in minutes. Without wasting time, Dallion grabbed the nearest cube and placed it in the middle of the cleared area.

“Will you have a go?” Dallion offered.

“No. You go. I’ll keep an eye to make sure everything’s fine.”

Sneaky. While Dallion was inside, he’d be too busy paying attention to his trial to focus on anything Raven was doing.

“Be as fast as possible. The twenty-minute limit is still in effect. And don’t worry about splitting. It’s a different realm inside.”

“Thanks for the tips.”

Extending some magic to the palm of his hand, Dallion

VORTEX CAGE – LEVEL 1

The familiar purple rectangle appeared, followed by a second one.

You are in a VORTEX CAGE.

Defeat the guardian to ABSORB the vortex.

You have 20 minutes before the VORTEX becomes too weak to absorb.

At least it was a guardian this time. Summing his harpsisword, Dallion split into instances.

COMBAT INITIATED

Barely had he done so, when a purple leopard emerged from the floor itself, and slashed at one of his instances, creating several deep scars. Several red rectangles stacked up, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Moments before the instance faded away, Dallion noticed that the scar marks were forming symbols.

VORTEX GUARDIAN - AETHERCLAW

Species: STATICARD

Class: MAGIC

Health: 100%

Traits:

- BODY 0

- MIND 20

- PERCEPTION 20

- REACTION 40

- MAGIC 40

Skills:

- SPELLCRAFT

- ATTACK

- ATHLETICS

- CARVING

Weakness: NONE

For the briefest of moments, Dallion was impressed. This was the first time he had seen a magical creature with the carving skill. Seeing how it combined the two, it had to be pretty fierce. However, its lack of speed was its major weakness.

Dallion infused his weapon with magic. More instances emerged, half of them charging at the creature. In one or two cases, the staticard managed to evade the attacks, but far from all.

TERMINAL STRIKE

Dealt damage is increased by 1000%

AETHERCLAW has been defeated.

A pair of rectangles appeared as the harpsisword ripped through the creature, bringing it to an end. Without a doubt, as cunning as vortex guardians were, once one learned their tricks, they were pretty much like echoes, at least for someone with Dallion’s skills.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the vortex cage unraveled, turning into threads that darted straight at Dallion. This time, he didn’t even hesitate, extending his own magic throughout his left hand to grab them.

MAGIC ABSORBED

Your MAGIC trait is now 13

“Not bad, right?” Dallion asked.

However, Raven was no longer there. Given that a few minutes at most had passed since Dallion had entered the vortex cage, this was more than concerning. He was just about to go out of the corridor and see what was going on, when the black-haired suddenly emerged from behind a stack of crystal cubes.

“Everything fine?” Dallion asked.

“Yeah? Why?”

“You were gone. I thought something had happened.”

“Just arranging stuff. Nothing serious.” It was an obvious lie, but not enough for Dallion to confront him. After all, he had put himself at a disadvantage by being here. “Are you going for more, or stopping at one?”

“How much time do we have?”

“I’d say half an hour, at most. You never know whether a random apprentice drops by to hide away from actual work.”

“Right.” Dallion forced a smile. “Let’s go, then.”

The next two challenges were as easy as the first. In fact, the fights were so brief that Dallion wondered why he hadn’t done this earlier. It was quite lucky that in all three of the cases, he had guardians to face. That made up for every challenge he had outside of the storage room, where he was plagued with riddles, each more annoying than the last.

After increasing his magic trait to fifteen, Dallion decided to stop. He felt that he’d only tempt fate by pushing on. Three levels were nothing to sneeze at—more than enough to impress his mage instructor, and also to give him a boost for tonight’s challenge.

“Why are you stopping?” the black-haired asked. “We’ve got plenty of time. You can do a few more.”

“Na, this is fine. I don’t want to get stuck in a stupid riddle.”

“Are you sure?” Raven didn’t sound at all happy. “You can always break the vortex if you get a riddle and pick another.”

“Hey, it’s fine. Fifteen should be enough for the challenge, right?”

“Might be a bit close. I really think you should do at least one more.”

“Seriously? Would one make that much of a difference?”

“We’re relying on you and Cheska for the heavy lifting!” Raven admitted, on the verge of shouting. “Please, do more. If we mess this up, we won’t get a second chance. This isn’t something we can just restart on.”

There’s more to this, Nil said.

Obviously. Do you think he wants to keep me occupied while he does something?

That’s always a possibility, but I think you’re the focus of this. I suggest you go for it.

Any reason for your sudden change of heart?

I’m just curious to see if the next two challenges would be vortex guardians. Oh, and let him choose which ones to pick.

“Two more,” Dallion said, firmly. “After that we go.”

“Right.” Relief was written all over the black-haired’s face. “Two more is fine.”

As Nil had predicted, the next challenge turned out to be another creature. The following one, as well. The chances of that happening were the same as getting heads on a coin toss five times in a row—not impossible, but extremely suspicious.

The benefits were obvious. Now Dallion had his magic at level seventeen: not bad for an hour’s work. If someone had told him this was possible before, he’d consider it cheating. It was tempting to think that everything was due to his superior skills and long experience as a hunter, but it would be a lie.

“You could try to go for twenty,” Raven suggested in his typical cold fashion.

“Better not push it.”

“Your choice.” He turned towards the door. “Let’s go.”

“Raven,” Dallion said. “Why didn’t you try to gain a few magic levels? As you said, we have time. I’d have broken the cage if it turned out to be a riddle.”

The noble stopped, then looked over his shoulder.

“Because only you can manage that. You’re different. Your magic is different. No one will say it openly, but you were exceptional even without being an otherworlder. The only way for you to have acquired the magic trait at your level is for the Purple Moon to have intervened. And if that’s so, it means he has plans for you. I’m just one of those that want to take advantage of the fact and be along for the ride.”