Chapter 138 - Aether Points and Training Grounds, oh my!

{Enough stories of our glory days, snow rat, I mean look at you! Turning yourself into a majimonster?! You're the only girl I know who would be crazy to come up with a ritual like this!}, Belladonna exclaimed excitedly. A rich comment coming from someone who's a ghost...in a box.

"Well, one tends to get rather...creative when they're left alone in a magically enhanced ice box for couple centuries. Also, that's rather rich coming from a ghost in the box".

Thank you Voxea.

"How did you come up with this anyway?", Voxe a asked curiously as she began to poke at her friend's ghostly form, "Most spirit form maji have to stick to a location in order to maintain their form for prolong periods of time".

{Oh come now Voxea. You know necromancers like me have all sorts of tricks to cheat death and find loopholes if necessary. Just didn't think I'd have to do this one}, Belladonna sighed while gesturing to herself.

"Hey, none of us could've predicted that the Dragon Storm would happen", Voxea said while comforting her friend, "well, except maybe that weirdo oracle, wonder if he's still alive...".

{Hmmm, you're right Voxea. No use getting glum over it. Now tell me, is this girl your apprentice? She's adorable and has a decent foundation to boot!}, Belladonna said as she floated towards me and began pinching my cheeks. It seems to be a trend for spiritual beings to pinch at my cheeks and I don't know why.

"Speaking of apprentices, your descendant here is rather strong for his age. Upper fourth tier"?

{Lower fifth actually. Managed to break through to that point after mastering my old sword and making use of an old aether point we found}, said after having her fill of pinching my cheeks. Meanwhile, Malgorious just watched on with amus.e.m.e.nt while sympathetically rubbing his own cheeks. I got the feeling Belladonna pinched his cheeks quite often.

"Wait, that means...", Voxea said with a look of growing excitement on her face.

{Correct. Welcome back to the Garden, my friend}.

"WOOO!", Voxea cried happily as she began to fly around.

"Uhh Voxea, what's the Garden? And what's an aether point"?

"The Heavenly Garden Academy! This was our old stomping ground back when we were apprentices. Oh, I knew this place looked familiar. Good on that Zarasul for recognizing this place's worth", Voxea explained, "And as for the aether points... Belladonna, did you happen to find any lighting, ice or arcane ones that were still active"?

{Hmmm...Actually, we did find a hybrid one awhile back, we just didn't have the aether to start it up. We can go look at later tonight},Belladonna said after a moment of thinking, {We can't exactly show you it now due to, well...}.

"Obvious reasons"?

{Obvious reasons}.

"Well then", I said interrupting the two maji, "I suppose now would be a good time for us to go. I still have to meet with my friends. Thank you for the tea, Professor Undrax".

"Oh please, we're fellow maji. No need to be so formal", Malgorius said whilst sipping his own tea, "consider me a senior, not a teacher".

I nodded non-committally at his request as Voxea and Belladonna made their good-byes. After a minute or so, we left.

[Be honest with me, is using the aether point going to hurt]?

[Probably not].

[Great...].

_________________________________________

[Ok, weren't we here literally four hours ago?], I asked Voxea as we followed Malgorius and Belladonna to the academy's training grounds.

After leaving Malgorius' office, I got to the training grounds and met up with my friends to see what the big deal was.

Honestly, it was impressive.

The training ground had everything from a target range to practice ranged techniques, battlefields that could be magically altered to make a variety of terrains and some crazy magical dummies that could mimic majimonster techniques. With all these crazy training methods, I could understand why and how students who come here end up becoming powerful binders...granted, I'm pretty sure none of the binders had to deal with a wild Amphare in their bedroom before.

{Alright, we're here}, Belladonna said as we got to an empty corner of the training grounds. I was about to comment about nothing being here, but I had feeling Voxea was about to change that.

"Oh! I remember this one, it's an Illusionary Frost Shadow array! This is perfect for Silvia", Voxea exclaimed, "it just needs a little... frost power".

Voxea suddenly clasped her hands together and began to mutter a spell chant.

The air suddenly got colder as little purple balls of light suddenly blinked into existence, only to be absorbed into a ball of energy forming in Voxea's hands. A moment later, she threw the ball of magic at the ground, causing a strange array to flare into life.

"Okay, it's ready. Now just step in", Voxea said with a smile while staring at me. At a point that felt routine, I gave her a withering stare before letting out a sigh and stepping in.

{Your apprentice seems mildly reluctant}, Belladonna commented.

"I can understand her concerns", Malgorius followed up.

"Before we begin, this array won't electrocute, burn me or knock me unconscious, right"?

"No".

{Probably not}.

"Don't think so".

"Okay then", I said as I sat down and began meditating.

"Might tingle a little though".

"Wha-nyaaaa", I said as my skin began crawling. It wasn't painful, but it felt...weird.