2.09 – Discovery

2.09 – Discovery

The endless drudgery of classroom academics wrapped up at three p.m., and—as the schedule indicated—next up was extracurriculars. Despite what the name would suggest, they weren’t optional. Everyone was required to enroll in at least one, though more could be taken if chosen.

Natalie didn’t intend on picking up any pointless hobbies, not in an official capacity. Honestly, she didn’t understand the people who did. Drama, art, band, and so on, weren’t pursuits to be disrespected, but as a delver? Surely people had better things to be doing, considering their profession. Doubly true for first years. Despite that opinion, Natalie knew the art clubs didn’t hurt for members. But she herself wouldn’t be joining their ranks.

Which left practical pursuits to fill the mandatory requirement. In Natalie’s case, that was dueling, or a harvesting discipline.

As a paladin, and a person intending to take up the mantle of tank, she was leaning toward mining. The ores that could be gathered from deposits in the dungeon made excellent equipment, supernaturally powerful, imbued with stat-boosts and other advantageous effects. She would have to pay a fee for a metal-worker to handle the material, but it would be vastly cheaper than purchasing the gear outright from the Exchange.

Today—and tomorrow—was a ‘career day’ of sorts, advertising potential options, since many students hadn’t chosen their extracurricular yet. Undoubtedly most had given the topic plenty of thought before arriving to Tenet, but common strategy was to pick a harvesting discipline that matched your class, which wasn’t received until eighteen. Jordan, for example, never would have gone into herb-gathering without having received a class that seemed—so far—inclined toward poisons. Similarly, Natalie wouldn’t have considered mining if she hadn’t received a class—paladin, a heavy armor tank—that made good use of the ores she’d collect.

For two hours—the alloted extracurricular time block set by the Tenet schedule—Natalie wandered the various stations advertising their clubs. She spent the majority of her time at the mining station, listening to the lecturers and picking through the provided information.

Unsurprisingly, the profession was more complicated than Natalie had first thought. Not simply bashing a pickaxe into veins of material and hauling away the valuable resource, Natalie would need to spend fair effort both prospecting for and extracting the ore. Even so, it had a reputation for not being the most complex task. Jordan’s chosen profession—herb gathering—would require a nauseating amount of memorization: the ten million variations of plants found in the dungeon.

So while not simple, it was simpler than many disciplines, which meant mining was up Natalie’s alley, who didn’t care enough to put excessive effort into her extracurricular. By the end of the informational speeches, she felt confident enough she would be committing to mining that she signed her name on the provided sheet. Tomorrow, she would spend her two hours at the mining hall, rather than continuing to explore the career fair.

With that event out of the way, and with the official school day completed, Natalie set out—reasonably—to practice. She was already drained from the previous nine hours, but delvers needed to be accustomed to long days. Some delves lasted entire weeks. Not for low-rankers, true, but high rankers, much less top rankers?

Apparently, trips to the Lower Reaches, much less The Depths or The Abyss—the last categorization of dungeon levels comprising twenty-one to twenty-four, and near mythical to the general populace—could take entire weeks to explore properly.

So, Natalie needed to accustom to long days. Nine hours of classes—both combat and academic—had been draining, but she would make use of the rest of the day, regardless. Plus, she’d be taking a break in the form of the upcoming start-of-semester party, soon enough. Until then, she had a few hours to keep refining the most glaring weakness of hers. Which was to say, illusions—or magic in general.

She steadied her thoughts, focused, drew mana, and executed a natural-feeling pivot, activating [Illusion] with a swipe of her weapon. The motion was becoming quickly instinctive.

She kept it small, barely the size of her hand, so that nobody saw on the off chance they looked over.

It worked.

Except, it wasn’t a hazy image, hard to conjure and maintain, but bright, clear, and so much better than anything else she’d managed so far.

A naked, hand-sized copy of Jordan hung in the air. Natalie’s brain blanked out, seeing it. She hadn’t meant for it to be Jordan. She’d let her instincts guide her, the first thing to pop into her head.

Panicking, Natalie waved her hand through the mist-like illusion and dispelled the image. Her face burned scarlet, and she frantically looked around, but again, nobody was looking her way. Why would they be?

Still, why had she done that? Tested the idea at all ... much less with Jordan?

Natalie swallowed, then checked the clock hanging on the courtyard wall. She had about an hour before she needed to go take a shower and head to the party to meet up with Sammy.

Enough time to do a little more testing.

Just, probably not here. Too indiscreet. Too likely to get caught, considering what she wanted to try.

Natalie hung up the hammer in the weapon rack, then scurried away, headed for a secluded bathroom in the training facility.

With how easily the first illusion had come into life, how much more could she do?