Chapter 21 – Taking Stock
Gazing at the four items before her, Emily wills her system into activation.
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[Contribution Market Token]
[Rank:] E
[Description:] A mobile terminal for accessing the contribution market within The Isle of the Blessed.
[Effect:] When mana is channelled, opens a limited link for the user’s consciousness to the contribution database. Only works within The Isle of the Blessed.
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[Course List Token]
[Rank:] E
[Description:] A mobile terminal for accessing the class list within The Isle of the Blessed.
[Effect:] When mana is channelled, opens a limited link for the user’s consciousness to the course database. Only works within The Isle of the Blessed.
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[Mandrago Family Crest]
[Rank:] E
[Description:] A crest of the Mandrago family, engraved to allow for the tracking and transfer of ‘contribution points’.
[Effect:] Tracks the user’s contribution point total. When mana is channelled, allows for the transfer of contribution points.
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[Communication Crystal]
[Rank:] D
[Description:] A space attribute mana crystal engraved with a communication spell.
[Effect:] When mana is channelled, creates a link with a partner crystal irrespective of the distance between them.
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The descriptions of the tokens match Emily’s expectations, confirming her theory of the clerk in the information hub using crystals to connect to a large data hub. However, the description of the communication crystal catches her off guard, with the rank being higher than she expected after the first three items.
Are communication spells high level? I would have thought the tokens should be higher rank if that’s the case. Maybe space attribute crystals are higher level and that affects it?
She quickly adds an extra note to her notebook.
Work out what affects the grade of items.
-Level of knowledge used?
-Level of materials used?
Learn Alchemy.
-Beast studies first.
I can look at more courses later, first I should get through the ones I’m already signed up for.
She quickly pulls up the token’s menu again, this time going into the ‘Registered Courses’. The six expected courses appear in a short list with four columns, ‘Course’, ‘Current Grade’, ‘Highest Grade’, and ‘Modules’.
All six courses are at the current grade of basic. Etiquette, geopolitics and English all have the highest grade of basic, with maths and hand-to-hand combat going up to intermediate. Magic theory alone is the only course Emily is currently registered for that goes up to the advanced level.
This is also reflected in the module count for each course. The three basic limited courses all only have one or two modules each, but Maths has three and hand-to-hand combat has six. However, far outstripping all the others, magic theory has twelve. Curious, Emily focuses on magic theory and watches the list before her shift to a detailed screen on the course.
The twelve modules of the course are split into two groups. The first group is a group of four, all of which must be completed before she can advance: elemental selection, chants, natural mana formation and mana manipulation. The second is a group of eight: the six common elements, plus ice and lightning. Here, she only needs to complete one to advance.
These modules are displayed before Emily in a scattered chart with the two groups bundled together. As she focuses on each module, it expands to give the time and location of the next class. Emily checks all of her courses and finds that her next lesson is elemental selection in two days. Opening her eyes, she places the course list token down in the open drawer.
Two days until magic lessons start... I guess I can use this time to draw up some ideas for an E rank machine. I’ll probably need to leave the dome to buy materials though, maybe I should ask Juliana to show me around the city later.
As she begins pulling the map out of her pocket to look it over, she hears a knocking at her door.
“Speak of the devil.”
She tosses the map onto the desk and stands up to leave.
Guess I can ask her now.
***
At dinner, Juliana eagerly agrees to show Emily around the city in ten days' time when neither of them have any classes. The next two days pass by quickly, with Emily and Juliana meeting up daily to eat meals. Emily spends the rest of her time meditating, spellweaving, and drawing up blueprints in preparation for her trip out into the city.
On the morning of her third day in The Dome, Emily eats breakfast with Juliana before her first lesson.
“Why don’t you ever seem to meet up with other friends?” Emily asks a question that has been on her mind over the past few days while taking a bite of her toast.
“Ah, most of my friends are away from The Dome on missions at the moment, and the ones that aren’t are all too busy studying,” Juliana answers with a grumpy pout that makes Emily chuckle.
“Speaking of, your first class is today, isn’t it? You’re not gonna start ignoring me too, are you?”
“Nah,” Emily snorts and rolls her eyes at the huge puppy dog eyes Juliana uses to emphasise her question, “as long as I still need to eat, I’m happy to match schedules with you to have company.”
“Good,” Juliana responds, smiling with smug satisfaction. “But you should probably get going now if you want to reach class on time.”
Emily pulls out The Clock to check and finds it’s already 8:50, ten minutes left till her class starts.
“Yeah, I should,” she agrees while standing up and collecting her notebook and quill from the table in front of her. “I’ll see you at lunch.”
“See you later!”
She turns with a last wave to Juliana and walks towards the transportation circles to leave the cafeteria. A short dimensional jump later Emily finds herself walking through a hallway with significantly more foot traffic than she is used to seeing in The Dome.
Passing by her on either side are dozens of robed mages with varying colours accenting their robes and differing crests on their chests. A large majority of the crests bear silver or bronze accents, with only a few people wearing gold. Of the people she sees with golden crests, all of them have two or three silver and bronze crests following them closely like protective guards.
Emily quietly makes her way through the hallway and soon comes to a stop in front of a large dark wooden door with the glowing words ‘Elemental Selection’ emblazoned on the silver plate in the centre of it. She raises her hand and grasps the smooth silver doorknob. Twisting it, she pushes the door open as a grin spreads across her face.
Time to play with magic.