Chapter 58: An Ascendant Tour

Chapter 58: An Ascendant Tour

It turned out there was another dining hall close to the low-tier residential area, and Nathan followed his new suitemates there for dinner. As they went he scoped out the layout of the Academy. It was a huge building that didn't seem to have an obvious organization, but he was still only starting to build a mental map of its layout.

They sat together in a secluded corner of the dining hall, eating the excellent food. It was just as good as the food where they'd had lunch, and Nathan understood why so many mages were fat. Instead of [Fireball] the room itself focused on force magic, with the various dishes moving around on mobile panes of magic. The spellwork was carefully constructed so that it could be controlled with simple force magic, to allow the students who knew the basics to summon their desired food to them if they wanted to avoid running across the hall following their desired dish.

Nathan fell into an easy pattern socializing with Hibor, Roni and Yelun. The two boys werent the most suspicious people, and had already accepted Nathan at face value. The same couldnt be said for Yelun. She seemed a little suspicious of him, but mostly she was judging him, trying to figure out what he was worth to her and what levers she could use to influence him. He was also pretty sure she had a social skill that predisposed people to like her, and she was using it at full blast on him. It wasnt doing much.

Shes got nothing on Faline.

The daughter of the archmage wasnt the overt leader of the group, but it was clear that she had Roni and Hibor wrapped around her fingers. If she ever decided that something needed done, they'd do it for her.

Nathan shrugged internally. He didnt care about the social dynamics of the young Giantsrest mages beyond what would let him disguise himself in the Ascendant Academy. They were good cover, and that was enough.

That fact was driven home as they walked back to the living space with a crowd of other low-tier students returning from dinner. A giant golem with divine musculature was walking the opposite direction, fifteen feet tall and adorned with only a loincloth. It was as if the statue of David had come to life and started prowling the halls. The golem seemed to be scanning random people, then checking in with the Academy to be verify their identity. Nathan worked his way to the far side of the corridor, passing by the golem without incident. The proximity let him get a sense of the magical construct. He was surprised to find it was different from the normal Giantsrest golems, powered by wizardry. It even seemed to have its own mana pool. Discover, Devour, Delight: N♡vεlB¡n.

Thats more advanced than any of the other Giantsrest golems Ive encountered. It also seems smarter and stronger. I don't have a way to fool one, so I need to stay away or hide in a crowd. Its not fast enough to scan everybody.

They finally returned returned to the suite, where Nathan's suitemates bitched about climbing back up the staircase after the heavy meal.

Nathan begged off further socializing, claiming he needed to catch up on work. He went to his room, taking a breath before closing his door all the way. The lock melded with the wall, and he was sealed in the room.

I hope I can figure out how to open that later. I can probably get the caretaker slave to open if I really fail. I I dont even know her name.

Schooling his thoughts, Nathan sat down on the bed. It was enchanted, along with the sheets. He shrugged and lay down anyway, feeling the mattress and sheets becoming coarser as the magic in them broke from contact with him. But he wasnt about to sleep on the floor when the bed was right there. Hed just have to hope nobody noticed that the bed wasnt enchanted anymore.

Nathan stared at the ceiling for a little while, turning over the events of the day. His mission had changed dramatically today, and hed lost a powerful ally. But he wasnt sad about it.

No more nibbling around the edges of Giantsrest, messing around with politics and depending on Falines political interpretation. Im here to kill Badud and the archmages, and for that I need to climb this tower. But first, Ive got to figure out the wizardry that makes the Academy run. And for that, I need to pretend to be a student for a little while.

He awoke some hours later. Hed gone to sleep right after dinner, so it was still the middle of the night. Nathan tossed aside the sheets, sliding out of bed quietly.

His first priority was to figure out how to open his bedroom door. The lock on it was the simplest piece of wizardry hed seen in the Academy, but it operated off of the same basic parameters as the rest of the place. When somebody who was authorized to pass through the door approached, it opened automatically. The rest of the time it was closed and melded with the wall.

Unlike other places in the academy, where a random wall could hide a passage that would open up when the right person approached, this door was always a door. But it had melded into the frame as a solid unit, making it rather impossible to open via normal means. There wasnt even active magic holding it closed - the door and the frame were solid, and an act of wizardry was necessary to separate them.

As far as the academy was concerned, the room was empty. He didnt think hed be able to fool the part of the Academy that tracked all of the inhabitants. As far as he could tell the Academy had some kind of access level assigned to each person, and did some kind of computation to decide when to unlock a door.

Does it track their mana pools? Ive got a fake one of those, though I think its for fooling people, not giant ancient dungeons. Regardless, whatever it tracks is hidden by my antimagic. So if I cant fool the tracker, Ill have to hotwire the door.

He busied himself poking and prodding at the wizardry in the door. It was in there, ready to act if the door needed to be unlocked. The problem was that he didnt understand the wizardry the way he did mana. That needed to change, and this was his chance.

Nathan investigated the wizardry in the door for a while before he stopped and glowered at the offending stone and the magic concealed within. He couldn't just stare at the magic, he needed to poke it and see how it responded. He thought he had a pretty good idea what the structure of the wizardry was, but his understanding was pretty half-baked. The problem was that he might very easily break the wizardry on the door. Then he really would betrapped in here.

Nathan glanced around the room, looking for a substitute. His eyes settled on one of the lights along the wall. There were ten of the magical crystals scattered around the room, and they'd provided a soft ambient glow when the slave was in the room. As soon as shed left it they'd all dimmed because the Academy thought the room was empty.

Its not a big problem if I break a few lights, right?

He moved over to the wall and examined the spellwork. The magic that emitted light was mana-based and extremely basic, but each light had a small piece of wizardry that seemed to be what turned it on or off when it recognized somebody was around and not trying to sleep.

An hour and six broken lights later, Nathan thought he understood the very basics of the wizardry used in the academy. It reminded him of playing with wires on a breadboard, but more dependent on sympathy. Different areas that didnt seem to be connected at all could interact, so long as they were shaped similarly, or were symmetrical across a spatial axis.

Wizards Intuition 7 achieved!

He twisted one portion of the wizardry and pinched off another with his aura, and the light flickered on. He pumped his hands into the air, then lowered them.

Can I revert it? I dont want to permanently break things that can be tracked back to me.

Unfortunately, the light seemed to be stuck permanently on. He completely disenchanted it and moved onto the next one. Two more lights later, he figured out how to turn it on and off reversibly, leaving the light in the same state hed found it.

Nathan stood there for a moment, grinning widely as the light in front of him flicked on and off at his command.

Congratulations! I can work a lightswitch. A marvelous achievement. Truly, my skills are without measure. How will Giantsrest ever hope to stop me?

With that success he returned to the door, carefully manipulating it with his antimagic. Portions of the wizardry were similar to the activation section of the lights. He moved carefully, slowly, poking his aura into the more complex enchantment with a delicate touch, then sighing in relief when it surrendered to the same basic manipulation as the lights. The door clicked open, and he looked around the empty common area to be sure there was nobody else around.

And now I can open doors! Amazing. I wonder if Ill learn to work the toilet next.

Nathan turned back from the open door to examine the enchanted toilet in his private bathroom. It was a fiddly enchantment with air magic to block smells. It seemed to automatically detect when it had been used, at which point it disintegrated the waste.ds

Yeah, that's not happening. I guess my first crime in the Academy is going to be using their cool waterfall pool for an unintended purpose.

He padded out of the suite on the soft carpet, taking a moment to admire the waterfall out of the wide window. The lights in the area had been turned down, and the falling water was illuminated from within by a silver radiance that cast a gentle glow across the huge chamber. It was a calming view that would be nice to just sit and watch for a while.

But that wasn't the plan for tonight. Nathan slipped through the entryway, silently passing the slave on her cot and moving towards the opening beyond. The lack of a door allowed a comfortable breeze into the common area. When his suitemates approached the opening the staircase had appeared, spiraling down towards the greenery below. But that didnt happen when it was just Nathan, and looked out of the doorway to the park below. He stepped out into empty air and began descending quickly, trying not to be spotted.

The park wasnt fully deserted, with a few students taking late-night strolls or necking behind illusions in secluded areas. Nathan ignored all of them, using his stealth skills to descend unseen to ground level before fulfilling his earlier promise regarding the central pool.

Then he left the living area, taking one of the open corridors away from the low-tier residential area. His goal was to climb the tower, finding the places where Badud and the archmages lived. He wasnt sure if he was going to take time to find multiple targets before striking, or if hed be greedy and immediately kill the first valuable target he found.

On one hand, dead archmage good. But then theyll respond, maybe even by destroying Gemore. Right now they dont know Im here, and if I can kill Badud and half of the archmages in one night that would be a crippling blow.

But first he had to learn how to climb the stairs, or more accurately, open the door to the stairs. He found the spot where hed first descended to this level. There was a flat wall where the staircase had been, and the knot of wizardry was significantly more complicated than his suite door had been.

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 level312

Deepened Stamina: 4390/9660

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 151

Regenerative Focus: 992/1610

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 6

Alertness 6

Wizards Intuition 8

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