Chapter 18: The Bluefire Academy II

Chapter 18: The Bluefire Academy II

Orodan descended down to the classroom, the hole leading skyward still awkwardly present. The atmosphere was silent for a moment, but was soon broken by whispers and muttering which slowly grew louder.

“The walls should be able to take Master-level-”

“So him beating Claridin wasn’t a fluke?”

“-will want to hear of this.”

The chatter continued for a bit as Orodan simply gave Astiphus an uncomfortable and apologetic smile at having destroyed what was undoubtedly an expensive setup.

The head-instructor didn’t appear too bothered however and still had a smile on his face. Soon, Orodan found out why.

It was a weird sixth sense he was starting to develop, but he could somehow instinctively tell when someone was dangerous. And it was a feeling he uniquely got from Grandmasters nowadays.

A rather grumpy looking ancient woman made her presence known with a loud grunt, walking out to stand near Orodan.

“Sigh... prodigies and their damned destructive habits. Always interrupting my meditations...” she muttered. “You, boy. From now on restrict your destructive experiments to the private training chambers at the top of the Bluefire Tower. They’re capable of taking the full power strikes of a level beyond Masters.”

The training chambers at the top of the Bluefire Tower?

“The rest of the private chambers aren’t similarly reinforced?” Orodan asked. “I thought they were all the same?”

“No, they aren’t. The overwhelming majority of students aren’t ever going to reach the Master-level, so most private training chambers across the academy are reinforced only to that level,” she explained. “Of course, in the rare case that we get a prodigy among prodigies like yourself... we have specific training chambers at the very top of the Bluefire tower.”

“Wouldn’t they be in use by important people?”

“When someone at your level of power shows up, they are the important people. Just walk in and tell someone that Yallista sent you, and if they hassle you just beat them up,” the old woman casually explained. “After all, given what I’ve heard, you certainly like fighting don’t you Orodan Wainwright?”

“Does everyone know about me now? I haven’t even been here a day...”

“Blame yourself for brawling a worm in the wild depths for two weeks straight. Did you think the earthquakes you caused wouldn’t be felt?” she asked pointedly. “Young men... no thought for the consequences of their actions,” she muttered and sighed.

“Alright... I understand. I’ll use the training chambers at the top of the tower from now on... but how am I supposed to experiment in class then? I don’t want to just sit around and wait till nighttime to train in the chambers.”

“You aren’t even supposed to be frolicking about in a first year course with these regular people. I bet that old codger Arvayne put you in here so he could have some entertainment. He’s probably watching through the scrying eyes as we speak,” she said, and then promptly shot a glare towards the nearest glowing scrying eye orb in the room. “What rarity is the skill you just acquired?”

Orodan didn’t think the old general was apt to get his kicks in such a manner, but when you were two-thousand years old... who knew how bored he got?

“Doesn’t the old man have Grandmaster things to do?” Orodan asked.

“Sigh... you have no sense of tact or manners... you can’t just go around openly blabbering about the fact that Grandmasters exist. These common students will feel inferior and have their sense of self-importance shattered, and then they’ll go crying to their sponsors about how they can reach such a level, and then their benefactors come to us whining about how we're hurting their feelings and causing emotional disturbance in their house,” Yallista remarked in a tone that implied she didn’t care a whit about it. “The headmasters and headmistresses will then give you a stern lecture about it. Anyways, rarity.”

Of course, the fact that she was lecturing him about it in conversational volume in front of a room full of a thousand students was a bit ironic.

“Exquisite.”

“And you acquired this in... six hours of experimentation and training?” the old woman asked with a serious tone.

“...yes? Is that outside the norm? I instinctively attempted to combine what I saw of two separate skills and this was the result,” Orodan explained.

“So you didn’t even acquire the two skills... you just ‘saw’ them and somehow experimented and came to a combination which granted you an exquisite rarity skill?” she asked, a bit of incredulity in her tone.

“Yes, precisely so.”

“Boy... give me your schedule, let me see what other stupid junior classes that old fogey tried to have you attend,” she demanded, and Orodan handed it over. “Trying to squander the potential of a little monster like you... has he truly gone so senile?”

“Erm... headmistress... perhaps we should dismiss class before you have such a conversation with Mister Wainwright?” Astiphus interjected and asked deferentially all while Headmistress Yallista looked over Orodan’s schedule.

“Hmm? Yes, go ahead and disperse the rabble,” she said with an utterly dismissive and disrespectful gesture which the student body looked quite offended by, but wouldn’t dare to do anything about. “Now let’s see here... soul and mental defense classes? All these crafting courses that you elected to take yourself? Were you perhaps dropped as a child? Hmm... Arvayne did say you were stupid... perhaps such is the price of talent?”

Orodan did his best to remain quiet in the face of her casual remarks about his mental capacity. Concurrently, Astiphus ordered the students out of the classroom saying class was dismissed for the day.

“Hmmph... well we might as well get this farce out of the way before classes officially start for you tomorrow,” Yallista said. “Go ahead and attend all these classes you have today. If you exceed all expectations in a class, it’ll be changed moving forward. Who knows? Perhaps we’ll find a weakness somewhere. I expect the mental defense and soul defense classes will likely challenge you at least a bit.”

Orodan didn’t think they’d challenge him at all. Not the first year courses on the topic at least.

“Alright... now how is this damage going to get fixed? Do I need to compensate the academy?”

Turns out he didn’t need to compensate the academy. Damages were expected during the course of the students’ education. And the exorbitant tuition fees covered everything. Especially in the case of people who displayed ridiculous talent like Orodan did.

Orodan had never encountered chronomancers before, but this was one of the rare moments he found himself somewhat wary, intimidated and thankful for his Mana Resistance.

Because Yallista was a scarily powerful dual-Grandmaster in chronomancy and telekinesis.

As she worked, she explained the rules and limitations of the chronomancy she used. Using chronomancy to affect local areas was possible, and it could be selectively applied to certain objects, with the mana cost increasing depending on what was being restored.

Things such as restoring lives and priceless artifacts was impossible even for her as the mana cost would be near-godlike. Something which gave Orodan ideas for far later down the line.

But when it came to repairing a building and the enchantments placed upon it? It was well within her purview. Additionally, she used telekinesis to ensure all the destroyed pieces of the building were within the local area before she began using chronomancy to revert time for the building itself.

Within moments, the damaged Agathor’s Sanctum building was completely restored. Time dilation wards included.

“So is the mana cost higher because you’re also restoring the wards to before they were destroyed?” Orodan asked.

“Yes, without a doubt. If I was just restoring material, it wouldn’t be so tiresome. The more mana something had, the costlier it is for me to revert time and restore it.” she explained. “It’ll also be a severe cost and likely push me to my limits if I try to bring all the students back to the building as well, as the cost increases if I extend my chronomancy to them since they’re farther away.”

“That’s... incredibly powerful. But if you’re saying you have to pay the mana cost to restore something in time to when it was whole, depending on how much mana it had... can you then gain mana by reverting something to when it was destroyed or lesser? Let’s say someone you’re fighting decides to empower themselves or restore their own mana or vitality with a potion... could you revert that and just... pocket the difference?” Orodan asked.

Yallista looked at him strangely for a moment and then just smirked. “Well, turns out there is a brain in there after all. Yes, I suppose that might be an apt way of looking at it, and why a chronomancer would be feared.”

“How does anyone beat a chronomancer without the Mana Resistance skill then?”

“How do you even know about that skill? Wait... don’t tell me...” she muttered and then sighed. “And here I was... looking forward to bullying you a bit. Go ahead and ruin a woman’s fun why don’t you?”

Orodan preferred not to be subject to whatever bullying or pranks this old hag had in mind, so he was grateful for his Mana Resistance.

“Your unprofessional fondness for pranking a student aside, how would someone beat you? Surprise attacks?” Orodan asked once more.

“Well, roguery and ambushes aside... chronomancers are often countered by skills that can drain mana or counter and reflect spells and magic. Additionally, having a massive pool of energy or being a tier above the chronomancer tends to help,” she explained. “An Elite-level chronomancer isn’t taking control of and winding a dragon back in time.”

“Even still, the ability to counter you seems... limited,” Orodan remarked.

“We chronomancers aren’t all-powerful boy. If we could act with impunity, you would see a society ruled by nothing but chronomancers,” she said. “Plenty of places are warded heavily against time manipulation, and anyone worth their salt has at least one item that protects against chronomancers directly manipulating them. Plus... mana costs are always a limitation we face. Even an hour of rewinding time is quite mana expensive.”

Orodan nodded in understanding, having learned more about these fearsome mages. Well, fearsome for anyone but people like him who had a high level Mana Resistance skill and could just act like mages were casting imaginary play-spells on him.

“Don’t let my self-denigration fool you, chronomancy is probably one of the most powerful magical schools in existence. But it’s also one of the hardest to learn given the extreme mana costs for even the simpler acts. This school has one other student with even the first level in chronomancy, and she’s the second strongest student at Bluefire,” Yallista spoke. “Across the world... I maybe know of a hundred other chronomancers, and this includes the fledglings who are in the early levels. Besides, there are plenty of dangerous things out there... have you ever tried fighting a soul mage? Or worse... a psionic? And Gods forbid you run into an Eldritch creature... the very nature of those things is a vile corruption.”

“I’ve faced psionic attacks before, and I’ve fought the Eldritch. But I haven’t faced a soul mage yet, are they rare as well?”

“You... how have you even faced the Eldritch without standing before me as a ravening and corrupted abomination?” she asked honestly. “I can see why Arvayne himself stepped in as your benefactor. Caused a rather big stir among us... a Chosen hasn’t directly acted as benefactor for someone in hundreds of years. I won’t pry into your story much then... but to answer your question, soul mages are second only to chronomancers in rarity, mainly because training the soul is incredibly dangerous and requires tremendous amounts of willpower and focus to avoid irreparable harm.”

Orodan continued questioning the woman for a while longer, and despite her brusque attitude, she answered every question earnestly.

He asked about where he might find soul mages to study under at Bluefire, where he might find a good psionic to train his defenses against and where he might look into researching the depths of Weapon Aura and soul energy based enchantments. He basically gave a whole list of his priorities and learning targets to the woman, and while she had jabs and retorts here and there, she took it seriously the entire time and actually seemed to prioritize his education and growth.

“You... are seeking to learn too much all at once. You realize that graduates of this academy continue to return and hone themselves in their free time yes? We have former students who have been going back and forth for hundreds of years,” Yallista spoke. “The heights you have in mind... Masters and above take decades, and even centuries to reach. That you’ve come even this far at your age is utterly unfathomable and makes me suspect you’re the most monstrous reincarnator I’ve ever seen, but perhaps your expectations of yourself need to be a bit more realistic?”

Orodan didn’t entirely agree with the sentiment. Whether it was the Blessing of Agathor or just the talent of hard work and indomitable willpower, he was certain he could achieve all of these targets. Definitely in less than a century overall too.

It just wouldn’t be in one loop at the academy. He knew that, but the reason for asking for so much was so that he could hit the ground running in future loops.

“Fair enough. I don’t completely disagree with you, but I wish to learn this all the same. Even if you think my attempts at learning alchemy, enchanting and the blacksmithing crafts are a waste of my time and talent... I still think they’ll be useful all the same.”

“And why exactly do you think it will be useful? What’s your end goal in all this?”

Aside from getting out of the time loops some day? Orodan had another goal he was slowly coming to develop.

“I have a goal... it’s a very long-term one, but something I’ve come to want over time, and especially now that I’ve been having my horizons broaded at this academy. I’ve kept it secret so far...” Orodan spoke. “There are Grandmasters, and even those who’ve reached level 100 in three skills, triple-Grandmasters. But what if... what if I could achieve that level in every skill and craft?”

He spoke epically, a grandiose desire that had been slowly growing within his heart for quite some time!

And Yallista laughed in outrage and mockery.

Entirely understandable given nobody had ever achieved it, and might not even be close to achieving it. He still had a long way to go.

But he had time.

He had all the time he could ever need to reach his secret goal.

The other first year courses he took went similarly.

Yallista was wrong to think that the soul defense class would challenge him.

He embarrassed the instructors in the class when they tried gently prodding his soul and gradually escalated things from there. The head-instructor for the first year course - a Master soul mage - called upon the headmaster for the school of soul magic to tutor Orodan.

For this was who he was, a warrior.

And Orodan Wainwright remembered who he was.

The people in the room around him looked on in shocked silence. And the old man Arvayne Firesword who definitely wasn’t here to begin with, had a smile on his face.

Orodan’s first reaction however was to immediately rush over to the woman who had helped him for so long, giving up so much of her own time for it.

Only to see her with a content smile on her face as her screams subsided.

“Sorry... I may have gone too far...” Orodan muttered in embarrassment and shame. “Are you alright?”

“Why... I’ve never been better...” she muttered with a pleased look on her face. “Come here child.”

She then wrapped Orodan into a hug.

“Eh?”

“Thank you... I was at the bottleneck for so long in my Psionic Mastery, it had been at level 99 for decades... but then you come along and give me the perfect target to practice endlessly on in one uninterrupted session,” Ilevida explained. “So thank you... truly. If this old woman can ever help you in any way, all you need to do is ask.”

She had achieved Grandmaster-level in another skill thanks to him?

“Shall I break out the Novarrian vintage I have? It’s at least three-thousand years aged,” spoke the ancient Arvayne Firesword. “Rather apt for celebrating a new triple-Grandmaster in our little Republic.”

Triple-Grandmaster?

“You’re a triple-Grandmaster now? With only a few days of practice on a hapless student?” Orodan asked.

“Ah yes... the hapless student who can best a Grandmaster... not quite as hapless as you want us to believe. And it’s been over a week,” Arvayne quipped back. “Ilevida here is a friend of mine, so I’m quite happy to see her join our little club. At only twelve-hundred years old too... quite the talent you are Ilevida.”

“It’s all thanks to Mister Wainwright here,” she praised with genuine gratitude in her voice, which was something unexpected coming from a Grandmaster. People who were notoriously reticent. “I might have struggled for another few hundred years if not for the insights I acquired from weathering that incredibly powerful mental attack you sent at me. What even was that? There’s no way you’ve suddenly become a psionic capable of launching an attack of that caliber.”

“I don’t know... I just returned the attack. I’m not even sure of the exact specifics of it. All I know is that you sent attacks my way, and I returned them,” Orodan explained. “It’s a Mythical rarity skill.”

Ilevida and Arvayne both went silent for a moment at that revelation.

“Gods damn it Orodan... you can’t just say such things so casually...” Arvayne muttered while giving Ilevida a probing look out of the side of his eyes. “While Ilevida here can be trusted to keep such things secret, you really shouldn’t go around broadcasting the fact that you have a Mythical skill.”

“Don’t Grandmasters have Mythical skills? I recall old man Adeltaj telling me he knew of someone with one who was forced to flee, but I take it they didn’t have the protection of a Chosen?”

“Orodan... Adeltaj likely didn’t tell you out of respect for my wishes... but I also have a Mythical skill. But I only have one,” Arvayne explained. “There are only two other wielders of a Mythical skill in the Republic and they also have one each. But you... this would make it-”

Arvayne suddenly cut off mid-sentence as he went silent and had a pondering look on his face.

Then his eyes began glowing orange.

“That would make it three Mythical skills you possess now, Orodan Wainwright. For someone who is such a phenomenal warrior... this meeting between us is long overdue.”

The voice utterly boomed in a way Ilyatana’s never had. It sang to his heart, to his blood. It made him stand taller and desire battle, it made him want to conquer the heavens themselves and participate in eternal battle and glory forever.

This... was Agathor, descended unto his Chosen One.

Around Orodan, everything had completely frozen, unnaturally. Ilevida Balmento included. This was... time magic?

“I thought you’re the God of War? How can you freeze time?” Orodan asked.

“A trifling matter once you wrestle time into submission,” the God of War casually explained. “It’s a far more advanced application of a realm of power that you are just beginning to explore with that new skill of yours. How did it feel? The oneness with the warrior within? Feeling reality itself bend to allow things which should be impossible?”

“It felt... dissociative... as though I was there and wasn’t. It was still me doing the meditations... just a part of me I didn’t even realize was there all along,” Orodan spoke.

“The warrior itself... even I do not fully understand what it is or where it comes from. Some say you must be born with it, others say you develop it over time. But what holds true is that only those with a truly warrior-like disposition are the ones to have it,” Agathor explained. “Arvayne is my strongest Chosen upon this world, but even he isn’t in touch with the warrior within. Nobody on this world was... until I saw you.”

“Surely I’m not that unique?”

“From what you spoke of regarding the time loops... who else would valorously commit to dying like a dog to perform the feats of legend you have? Ask yourself if rushing to death against impossible odds on your first life was a normal course of action.”

Orodan found himself seeing the point Agathor was making. “What’s the next step then? How can I push this ability even further?” Orodan asked.

“Continue to focus on training it... focus on demanding reality bends to your will with naught but your warrior spirit. In time you may find that there is a level beyond even Mythical rarity.”

Beyond Mythical rarity? It sounded utterly ludicrous given how much of a target he became with just a Mythical skill. If he achieved something even greater, would the entire world begin hunting after him in every single loop? Perhaps consolidating his own power and getting stronger before doing that was a good idea.

“Is it similar to how the second Blessing you gave me works?”

“Very much so. That Blessing of mine which prevents cravenly foes from escaping their honorable fate, it bends reality itself. Continue honing your skill, and in time you may be capable of similar things. Now then... descending unto him is still somewhat uncomfortable for Arvayne, no matter how gentle I make it, so I will leave you in his care with one final decree. Strengthen your soul before the eve of the year, I wish to grant you another Blessing and make you a Chosen of mine.”

Arvayne’s eyes stopped glowing and the presence of the God of War left the old Firesword Grandmaster.

“Ahh... always leaves me a little sore whenever he does that,” the old man said while stretching. “To think he would descend just to talk to a rockhead like you.”

Rockhead? That was an insult, a verbal attack.

The warrior returned all attacks.

Without thinking about it, Orodan instinctively activated the skill... and Arvayne grunted and his eyes narrowed.

“What was that? It felt as though you deeply offended me... was that some sort of social skill?” the old man pointedly asked.

“No... it’s my Mythical skill... apparently it can return all attacks... even if they’re verbal.”

“We’re testing this immediately.”

The private training chambers at the top of the Bluefire tower were quite durable. Which was a good thing because they’d caused enough destruction in their experimentation with Orodan’s new Mythical skill that even the walls of that absurdly tough chamber were left with cracks and tears.

Old man Arvayne had brought along all manner of experts to test Orodan.

Arlin Colton’s soul magic assaults were rebounded with twice the power whether he empowered them with mana or soul energy. Yallista Arthurius’s chronomancy was peculiarly reflected back causing her to revert herself back in time and even hostile tracking magic, insults, curses and the like were all rebounded back to the caster.

The attacks still hit Orodan. He still had to experience their negative effects. The headmistress of the school of curses was particularly painful once she started using soul energy to fire curses at Orodan.

The warrior just insisted on sending them right back twofold to the sender, even at level 1 of the skill.

It was now level 2 from all the experimentation, and Orodan felt that the skill’s ability to return any and all damage was absolute even at level 1, but level 2 increased the amount of damage rebounded.

Orodan could see his enemies essentially killing themselves by hitting him at higher levels.

It sounded utterly unfair.

“Thank you all for assisting Mister Wainwright,” Arvayne spoke. “For now, that will be all.”

The assortment of headmasters and headmistresses from differing schools then left with pleasantries, and Orodan and Arvayne were left alone.

“That was informative, that skill of yours is... powerful,” the old man muttered. “I’ve been thinking about this for a little bit... but near the end of the year when that Eldritch Avatar descends, I’d like you to join the battle against it. Your new skill might prove more useful than you think if you can stay alive to receive some of its damage.”

“I was planning on fighting it regardless, how else will I grow if I don’t struggle against the strongest enemy I’ve ever encountered to date?”

“Fair enough, I shouldn’t have been concerned about your willingness to fight it seems,” Arvayne replied. “Anyhow, as I’m sure you’ve heard, your classes will be different moving forward. I may have decided to entertain myself by seeing you run roughshod through the first year classes.”

“Does that mean I can skip the politics and world history classes as well?” Orodan asked excitedly.

“No. You’ll sit down and read your books, or I’ll have personal tutors sent to hound you. You’ve missed more than another week of classes, which is fine given that the academy expects this and the value of obtaining a Mythical skill outweighs some mere book learning,” he explained. “But it’s time for you to take your education seriously.”

Orodan sighed but nodded. There was no getting out of reading it seemed.

How horrible.

“What’s this?” Orodan asked as Arvayne handed him a metallic badge with the logo of a blue fire emblazoned on it.

“What you should’ve gotten initially if I wasn’t interested in watching those first year rabble get humbled a little,” Arvayne explained. “It’s a pass which marks you as being in a mentorship, under myself. You won’t attend regular classes anymore except for your crafting and educational ones. Your lessons in things related to fighting will now be given by personal tutors which I’ve requested.”

“Isn’t this a bit-”

“Look, I know you’re not used to this sort of treatment, but this is just how it is in our society,” the old man interrupted. “A talent like you can’t be wasting time in regular classes, it’d cause too much disruption for the rest. You’re also operating on a deadline till the end of the year, and if we fail... then it will all rely on you. You have a rather large responsibility to shoulder, so get used to special treatment because you’re in special circumstances.”

Fair enough. Orodan wouldn’t complain or bring up that line of thought again.

“Now then, your crafting classes start next. I’ll also be waiting for you in this chamber once classes have ended for the day, and we’ll train your Combat Mastery throughout the night until the sun rises and you need to head to class once more. You’ll also report any breakthroughs you’ve made in class to me so we can focus on how best we can accelerate your growth,” Arvayne said. “You don’t need to rest anymore so we’ll make every single second of your time count. Only on the two rest days of the week are you allowed to leave campus and do as you wish, be it visiting that predatory widow or helping little Ignatius and his people with whatever they need. I might also ask you to accompany me to fight some rather dangerous creatures from time to time, it’ll be good experience for you and broaden your horizons.”

It sounded utterly insane and demanding beyond reason, but Orodan loved it! He wholeheartedly agreed with every bit of this educational plan.

This was exactly the sort of training he needed.

Continuous and endless grinding and growth.