Chapter 39 – Ascension

Chapter 39 – Ascension

A few hours later, Emily and Juliana leave the dorms to head to dinner. Emily’s heart feels a little lighter, relieved to have finally talked to someone about her pent-up rage. Juliana is wrapped around Emily’s right arm, the left hanging in a makeshift sling Juliana made her while Emily was icing her various bruises.

As they walk through the cafeteria, they quickly spot Tom and Hester sitting together and make their way over to join them.

“What on Ulea happened to you, and why does Juliana seem so happy about it?” Tom asks incredulously as they sit down.

“Haha, two different questions,” Emily responds with a grin. “I got into a fight before my class.”

“Wow, they really did a number on you,” Hester comments dryly, focusing on the sling.

“You should see the other guys.”

The twins both laugh before Hester turns her attention to Juliana.

“And why are you so happy then? I would have thought you’d be upset about Emily getting battered, even if she’s not.”

“We’re dating!” Juliana chirps with a grin, ignoring Hester’s second comment.

Tom looks slightly shocked, glancing between the two of them seeking confirmation; whereas Hester nods sagely.

“About damn time. You’ve been all over each other since we met.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault Emi’s so oblivious!” Juliana cries.

“I’m not oblivious.”

Emily’s words are met with three unimpressed stares. Thinking back on it briefly, Emily remembers Juliana’s incessant need for physical contact and repeated use of any excuse to spend time with her. She decides not to comment further.

“Anyway,” she says with a slight embarrassment. “Are you guys ready for the test tomorrow?”

Her question is met with three groans.

“You can’t seriously expect us to pass basic maths after only six lessons, right?” Tom asks while dropping his head onto the table.

“Why not? I’m pretty confident I can pass it after only four lessons, so it should be fine for you,” Emily says with a sly grin before settling her gaze on Juliana. “As for you, you should have passed ages ago! Don’t think I didn’t know that you were skipping classes before I came here.”

Juliana blushes and looks away, refusing to comment. Rolling her eyes, Emily makes a suggestion.

“Why don’t you guys come over to my room tonight and I’ll help you revise?”

Everyone at the table perks up immediately, looking at Emily with gratitude.

***

Following Emily’s tuition, she and Juliana are the only two to pass basic maths. Tom fails miserably, and Hester narrowly misses the mark. Juliana scrapes by, doing justice to her several-month advantage. Emily achieves a perfect grade, adding to her reputation as a prodigy within The Dome.

Given the state of Jeremy, Kyle, and their friends after their fight, nobody else is inclined to challenge Emily. It takes a full week of recuperation before they return to class, where they give Emily a wide berth, not even daring to glare at her across the room. As a result, two months pass without incident, and Emily relaxes into her new relationship and spends her free time inventing spells, weapons, and armour.

Sitting in her room one morning after an intermediate maths class, Emily stares at a newly finished creation before her, along with a series of system windows. She grins.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Claws {Gen.1}]

[Rank:] E

[Stats:] +2 Str, +2 Dex, +3 Agil

[Description:] A set of magical steam-powered wrist blades.

[Effect:] Provides armour to the forearms and extends blades from the wrist when activated.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Status]

[Name:] Emily Coldstone

[Race:] Human

[Age:] 16

[Magic Circle:] First Circle

[Machina Cortex:] First Stage

[Attributes:] Strength 7 > 8, Dexterity 17 > 19, Agility 13 > 16, Vitality 8, Intelligence 27 > 34

[Health:] 120/120

[Stamina:] 200/200

[Mana:] 510/510

[Machina:] 510/510

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Skills:

[Intrinsic] Magic Network (passive)

[Intrinsic] Technomancer's Breath (active)

-Parkour (passive)

-Basic Machine Construction (passive)

-Intermediate Melee Combat (passive)

-Basic Spellweave (active)

-Mental Fortitude (passive)

-Overdrive (active)

-Basic Metalworking (passive)UppTodated from nô/v/e/lb(i)n.c(o)/m

-Basic Mana Manipulation (passive)

-Basic Runesmithing (passive)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Knowledge:

-Basic Clockwork

-Basic Steampower

-Basic Electrical Theory

-Basic Mana Formation

-Basic Particle Physics

-Basic Material Science

[Rank:] E

[Description:] Ascend to the second circle significantly faster than the norm on your planet.

Requirements:

-Ascend within three months of awakening (Complete)

Rewards:

-Sub-System: Notebook

_____

Woah, that’s a lot of stats. And a new sub-system?

Navigating her system, she quickly pulls up the new notebook tab. The window shimmers and turns a darker shade of blue, becoming slightly harder to see through, as a blank space labelled ‘Notebook’ appears.

Well, that’s disappointing. At least I can move my important notes out of my notebook and remove the security devices from my room.

A new thought occurs to her.

Actually, since this is part of the system it shouldn’t reset with time-travel, right? I take it back – not disappointing at all.

Taking one last breath of the dense mana in the gathering array, Emily stands up to disable it. As she rises, she feels an odd dissonance between her perception and her body. Frowning, she reaches for her breast pocket to check The Clock. Staring at the timepiece’s face, she watches the seconds hand tick and quickly realises the issue.

My perception of time is off. I’m processing things too quickly, so it feels like time is moving at half-speed.

Assistive processing off.

The moment she sends the mental command, the strange feeling disappears, and her perception returns to normal.

That will surely be helpful in the future.

With a slight skip in her step, she quickly moves to the internal control panel in the training room and disables the gathering array. She watches her point count on her crest decrease to ‘84’ with sadness, confirming her resolve to complete a mission soon.

Before I leave, I should check for any extra information the system will give me after my ascension. I still have ten minutes till Jules should be back from her trip to Threads. Why don’t I test what this second core can do?

Core two, search the system for any post-ascension changes.

Less than a second later, she feels a smooth flow of information transfer between her cores.

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[Machina Cortex]

The mechanic’s power organ.

A mechanic's brain, optimised and compartmentalised by machina, that displays a mechanic’s stage of development.

Generates [Machina] and allows a mechanic a connection to machines around them.

Split into two [Cores].

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Cores]

Each core that forms a mechanic’s cortex is an individual processing unit, capable of performing billions of microprocesses per second.

Each core carries a number of [Threads], equal to the number of cores currently formed.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Threads]

Individual parallel processes a core can use at once.

_____

Each core should have two threads then. Wait, does that mean I can do perfect silent casting now?

Excitedly, Emily raises her hands in front of her and begins trying to form the mental image and magic circle of burning hands at the same time. Unlike her failed past attempts, a glowing orange and white magic circle forms above her hands and soon begins to rotate, fading away as a sheen of flames appears across her palms.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

Skill created: Perfect Silent Casting (passive)

[Perfect Silent Casting (passive)]

User can proficiently form a mental image and magic circle simultaneously.

-Grants +10% casting speed when casting spells mentally.

_____

I guess gesture casting is kind of obsolete now. Wait, is it?

She tries silent casting again, this time while trying to perform a few basic martial forms Agnes taught her and finds herself tripping over her feet as her focus falters. The spell still forms, but much weaker than before. She tries it again, this time while weaving together gestures and trying to form a mental image, she finds herself able to perfectly follow her forms while casting the spell.

“So, one of core one’s threads is handling the mental image, and the other is handling body movements which includes the gestures,” she mumbles to herself while cutting off the mana flow to her hands, ending her spell early.

Gestures still have their uses then. Now to test out multicasting.

With a grin, she stands still and lifts her hands in front of her, palms facing away.

Core two cast air blast.

After giving the command, she quickly silent casts burning hands, watching the two magic circles form on top of each other. The constructs of mana meet but never join, and as they both start rotating, a layer of fire forms on her hands before being shot forward a few metres. Her eyes light up with joy and expectation.

“I can double cast! And it also looks like I can mix spells in the process.”

She proceeds to test mixing gesture casting and silent casting, managing to perfectly cast two spells while following her martial forms. With a grin, she moves on to mixing spells, finding a few intriguing combinations that she adds to a mental list for further investigation.

After finishing her tests, she checks her mana pool.

̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄

[Mana:] 2916/3240

_____

I can cast so many spells now, but double-casting so many first-circle spells at the same time still adds up.

Happy with the results, she starts to leave while pulling out The Clock. Seeing twenty minutes have passed since she was meant to meet Juliana, she freezes on the spot, a chill running down her spine.

Shit, I got too engrossed in my testing. Actually, how would The Clock react to my ascension? If I reset, will I keep the skills I’ve gained since? I guess so because skills seemed to transfer with me... Only one way to find out.

With a choice made for the sake of research, and definitely not just to avoid upsetting her girlfriend, Emily presses the button on The Clock, watching as time slows to a halt. As time winds back, she feels more than she ever has before, yet still fails to glean any information from the gap between time.

Instead of a sudden jump to twenty-four hours prior, she finds herself shifted to the centre of the gathering array, having just finished her ascension.

I see, I guess my ascension marks a point of no return. I’ll have to make sure I’m careful when I progress in the future, I couldn’t bear getting stuck in another inescapable situation.

Emily shivers slightly at the thought while standing up. Checking the clock again as she deactivates and pays for the array, she confirms she still has ten minutes till Juliana returns.

“Better take no chances this time,” she mutters, leaving the training room to make her way back to the dorms.