Chapter 57: A Sorted House

Chapter 57: A Sorted House

Whatever response the white-robed teenager had been expecting to his dismissal, it hadnt been mockery. His face scrunched up as if constipated and he looked at Nathan in confusion. Then he blinked and shook his head as if resetting. You cant see a sharp joke, can you? Then he brought his hands up in a spellcasting gesture.

[Paralysis]

Nathan had thought about how he would play off his antimagic in the Academy, and there seemed to be one obvious solution. He brought up his own hands in a sweeping motion and poked the slowly forming spell with a wisp of antimagic.

Dispel.

The clumsy spell promptly fell apart and was sucked into Nathans antimagic. The jaws of both students dropped at Nathans casual display of fake spellcasting.

Dispel.

Nathan swept his hands again, slashing a tendril of antimagic across the mid-tier students [Mage Armor]. It shattered, visible shards of force magic flying away and dissipating. He stepped towards the bully, gasping to pretend the two spells had winded him instead of slightly replenishing his Stamina.

The would-be bully shrunk back, suddenly aware of the seven-inch height advantage Nathan had. Then he rallied and stopped retreating. A sneer appeared on his face. A spell of power, for a low-tier student. But can you cast anything else? He held his hands out wide, as if inviting an attack.

Nathan closed the distance with a step and punched him in the face, careful to moderate the strength of the blow so he didnt cave the guys skull in. He still had had to grab the boys robes so the backwards fall onto the stone balcony didnt crack his skull. Nathan lowered the insensate boy to the ground and turned to regard the younger kid - Hibor - who still had a death grip on his soup.

Hibor gaped at Nathan, mouth working for a moment before he figured out what to say. By the Giant. You punched him. Why?

Nathan shrugged, flexing his [Noticeability] to make him seem like another student. The Giant gave me hands, it seems a waste not to use them. [Dispel] is also pretty much my only spell, and I cant cast it very many times. I didn't want to let him cast again. He indicated the corridor that led deeper back into the Academy. Should we go back in? Hes going to get up in a minute, and I dont want to be here when he does. His stomach rumbled. Maybe we can go eat together?

Having people vouch for you is the best disguise you can ask for.

Hibor looked down at the soup, then around the balcony that seemed to be his hidden retreat. Yeah. His voice was dejected. Then he glanced at the bully sprawled on the floor and smiled. Yeah! He set the soup down on the bench and turned to leave without a second glance.

Nathan followed him inside, getting his first glimpse of the interior of the Ascendant Academy. All of the surfaces were polished stone in various colors, decorated with carvings and occasional statues or paintings. The ceilings were fifty feet high and vaulted, with pillars standing out from the walls.

It felt like a cathedral, or a grand Buddhist temple. Nathan felt small and out of place in the huge spaces they walked through. He tried to keep the gawking to a minimum as he followed Hibor. They came out into a grand oval hall that would have been a good place for a kings coronation. It was totally empty.

I found this area a couple of weeks ago. It's near as high as low-tier students can do, and theres not much to want. But its a way to make space from people, like Eban back there. Hes been pulling me away from my suitemates to sit with his friends at meals. They cut me with their jokes, the one low-tier amongst them. His voice dropped to a whisper. "I think Eban's been trying to get me to snap back, so he can duel me and set the terms."

Then the younger boy brightened up again, grinning at Nathan. But you - you splintered his spell and knocked him flat. His gleeful expression grew curious. Who are you? I havent seen you before. Did you just join? Where is your suite?

Nathan smiled slightly and held up his hands defensively to stem the flow of questions. Its good to meet you. Hibor dho Pacva, right?

The other student nodded and Nathan continued, lying through his teeth. Im Natad dho Asna, and Ive only been in the Academy a few weeks. Im from down south, outside of the settlements. My family has a compound on the edge of the desert a few days from Ardglass, but were pretty private. We have some Insights of our own and keep to ourselves.

Then he frowned demonstratively, being very obvious with his unhappiness. Im looking for a new suite, since Im not on good terms with my current suitemates. Is there an empty spot in yours?

[Disguise] dont fail me now. I have the feeling itll take at least a few days to figure out how to crack the Academys defenses. Id very much prefer to hide in plain sight while I do that, and this guy seems like a bit of a sucker.

Hibor seemed taken aback. Why dont they like you? You can cast fifth-tier magic!

One of them made fun of my family. Nathan replied with a snort. So I punched him. Now they wont let me forget I cant cast any other spells. They soaked all my robes and laughed about how I dont know spells to dry them. N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

Cant you just task the domestic slave in your suite? Hibor asked confusedly, but then waved the question away without waiting for an answer. You can move in with us! Weve got three spare rooms right now! Its just me, Roni and Yelun. He leaned in closer, like he was sharing a secret. Yelun dha Declan, you know.

It took Nathan a second to place the name. When he did, he made sure to pretend to be suitably impressed.

Like archmage Heyo dho Declan. Who Sarah killed with a bullet to the head. Faline said he was the archmage who ran Ardglass, which was another satellite city down south. Close to where I just said I grew up. Damn.

Wow. Nathan said, as if unable to believe his fortune. Then he turned towards Hibor. It would be amazing to move in with you. Lets get food and then I can come with you to grab a room. Maybe if I dont tell my current suitemates they wont know where I went, and theyll stop bothering me.

Hibor seemed thrilled, and walked straight towards the far wall of the grand hall. When he was ten steps away the wall irised open to reveal a grand staircase spiraling down a wide shaft.

Nathan was keeping a careful eye on the magic around them, trying to figure out how the wizardry that controlled the Academy worked. As far as he could tell, there was a moving bubble of attention focused on Hibor. It had interfaced somehow with the wizardry on the portal to get it to open. Thered been a similar one for Eban as well.

Its always watching everybody. Except me. I think between my antimagic, [Antimagic Stealth] and [Mage Infiltration], Im invisible to the Academy. Which means I wont set off alarms but I also cant open the walls to get around unless I can hotwire them somehow. But this stuff is not simple. I cant even tell where all the doors are yet. Im halfway convinced that the entire Academy can reconfigure itself at will. But at least this is a good place to practice messing with wizardry. Its everywhere here.

He followed Hibor down the staircase as the young mage chatted about his suitemates. He told stories about them and their escapades together, then mentioned that theyd been planning a way to embarrass Eban badly enough hed stop bullying Hibor.

But hes got a bunch of mid-tier friends, and they all walk around with [Mage Armor] all the time! Its a heavy task.

Nathan grunted his agreement, still mostly paying attention to his surroundings, both mundane and magical. The staircase went down quite a distance, but he was pretty sure it didnt go all the way to the ground level. There appeared to be some kind of magic occupying the center of the staircase that could levitate people up and down the shaft.

Im glad Hibor didnt, or cant, use that. I would have to fake it with [Airwalking] and after busting through the exterior barrier Im a bit too low on Stamina for that to be comfortable.

After a few floors another wall parted before Hibor to provide an exit from the stairs. The corridors here were similar to those above, but with more students. They wore robes of gray and white for the low-tier and high-tier students respectively, and walked in cliques. Some seemed relaxed, others harried. Down the hall a woman in an orange robe strolled with a purple-robed student at her heels, and everybody was quick to get out of their way.

Hibor led them through a series of sharp turns, and Nathan memorized the path. He saw more and more students walking to and fro, gossiping and laughing together in a way that wouldnt be unfamiliar to any American high school student. Except Nathan hadnt seen any high schools made of marble with fifty-foot ceilings. Or where the students played with each other by juggling little orbs of light.

They turned a corner into another large space, with a crowd of students gathered around a broad oval marked on the ground in shining metal. Nathan could see over everybodys heads and into the circle, where two mid-tier students faced each other across a thirty-foot distance.

[Wind Blast]

[Force Block]

[Earth Orb]

They traded spells back and forth with intense focus, actively seeking to knock each other over while the crowd rooted for one student or the other. The circle on the ground seemed to be blocking the effects of the spells from impacting the bystanders, and Nathan slowed down to figure out what was going on.

This looks like a duel of some kind? No teachers in sight, and theyre being a bit vicious for practice. The audience also seems too excited for this to be an everyday occurrence.

Get her Stei! Teach her the Giants lesson for the insult! cried one boy, seemingly egging on one of the duelists.

Yup. A duel. Over some kind of insult. Note to self: Try not to insult people, or else Ill get challenged to a duel that I don't have the tools to fight in. Well, with [Spell Redirection] and my faux dispel I might be able to fake it.

Nathan had to hurry up to catch up to Hibor, who glanced at the event but didnt stop moving. They entered a huge dining hall with a domed ceiling and a set of weirdly curving support columns. It seemed to be split into eight identical dining areas spaced around a central hub where huge tables groaned with food.

The design of the hall itself caused Nathan to pause. Streamers of fire mana flowed through the air overhead, dodging between invisible panes of force. They gave off an ambient heat that made the entire room comfortably toasty. The mana was invisible to the naked eye, but the pattern of the swooping mana flows reminded him of a spell.

Each of the eight sections is in the general shape of a fireball. The mana youd use to make one, at least. If you recreated this structure with your own mana, itd be a pretty good approximation of a fireball. Probably more efficient than the fireballs Im used to Stella casting, actually. The force is used differently.

His attention was caught by the center of the room, where the food was. The mana flows there included air, and they seemed to spiral in on themselves in an oddly recursive manner.

If each section of the room represents a fireball, what happens when you cast the spell represented by the whole room, with eight fireballs linked together by that central region? A [Grand Fireball] spell?

Wizards Intuition 6 achieved!

Right away, mistress. The slave said, moving with alacrity back into the kitchen and what looked like a storage area beyond.

The students walked deeper into the apartment, flopping on a series of comfortable couches next to a broad window that looked out over the waterfall and park below. Hibor groaned and started kneading his feet. I swear by the Giant, I will become a mid-tier student just for the quickstep hallways. Any Path necessary, I just dont want to walk so much.

Yelun settled primly into her own seat, reaching into her bag and pulling out a scroll. Dont forget that lecturer Brardan assigned reading.

We arent golems! protested Roni. After dinner.

Nathan was distracted by the slave-woman emerging from the room with a pile of blankets and pillows. If the master would follow me? She said, then walked towards one of the six doors and opened it. It was also controlled by wizardry that reacted to her presence, but the magic seemed more basic than the complexity Nathan had witnessed elsewhere.

The room beyond was a large and comfortable bedroom, and the slave set the space up for habitation quickly and efficiently. His private room had its own bathroom and desk, and Nathan had to stop himself from thanking the slave as she left.

He tossed a towel into the bottom corner of the door so it wouldnt close all the way, then blew out a breath. The light turned off, since the Academy thought the room was unoccupied.

Into the Giants maw. At least its a comfy place.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Aura of Antimagic 9

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 10

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level309

Deepened Stamina: 4390/9570

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Magekiller level 145

Regenerative Focus: 1550/1550

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 10

Inspiration 1

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 5

Alertness 6

Wizards Intuition 6

Effortless Dodge 2

Mental Fortress 9

Tutoring 2

High-tier Tumbling 10

High-tier Noticeability 4

Mid-tier Disguise 5

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 7