System Scribe Academy Book 2 - Chapters 21,22,23,24,25

Chapter 21

The Shard

There was a long list of things Ethan had expected to see on the other side of that door. A few of those things were met. The cavern on the other side was approximately 20 feet cubed and incredibly dim. There was breathable oxygen and latent magic in the air that he couldn't quite identify. Rotating near the center of the chamber was a large hunk of crystal. It emanated a pale blue glow that bathed everything in an eerie light. Luna and Finn had collapsed, leaving the scribe with his tangled thoughts. It wasn't the crystal that drew his attention, or the cramped confines, but instead the figure that stood before it.

Tenalia stood with her weapon ready, crouched as though she would spring forward to strike the person down.

Ethan's problem was that today was a day when he had recognized many people, but the last person he expected to see at the center of the planet was standing before him. She turned her ethereal visage, shining out like the light coming from the crystal itself. Her hair dragged through the air as though pulling through water, and the faint smile that rested on her face was all too familiar. Ethan emulated the X-13 system and released a small orb of light, bathing everything in white and revealing more details. He stammered, not truly able to voice what was going through his head.  

"Avalara." Ethan breathed, brows knit tightly as he tried to understand what was going on. 

"I truly wish it didn't happen this way, but it can't be helped." Avalara stepped down from beside the crystal and crossed the distance between them in floating steps. She placed her hand on the side of the scribe's face, and he could feel the pressure. He could feel the warmth from her skin, although it made little sense. She was a ghost.

“I’m…” Ethan couldn’t find the words.

“No worries. I’m scanning. I just purged two whole Memory Blocks to record everything. We’ll need to hit the library when we get back home.”

“I wasn't sure if Armel would reach you. I didn't have the heart to tell you in person, so I apologize for that.” Avalara released her hand from Ethan's face and turned back to face the giant crystal.

"How are you here and back at the cottage at the same time?"

Avalara giggled. "Is that what concerns you? The fact that I can be in two places at once?"

Ethan stammered a little more. His logical mind was having trouble catching up with the way his body felt. The sudden influx of powerful magic was something he hadn't felt for five months. It gave him a head rush and a tingling sensation in his extremities.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Avalara sighed, approaching the crystal and placing her hand on the surface. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but this is me. I'm inside this. Everything else you see is a projection, a fragment of me that has been loosed in the world. Even I'm a bit confused about it, but the important thing is that you're here to fix me."

Ethan regained enough of his senses to scan the environment. He felt it, although it was quite faint. The rotating crystal was some kind of anomaly, or some part of it contained an anomaly. This was what Armel had sent him to the center of the planet for. To fix a strange glowing crystal. There had to be more to the story, and the importance of the object was obvious. The scribe drew on every logical part of himself to see himself through and eventually cleared his throat when the shock of it all faded.

“What is it?" Ethan approached, withdrawing his pen and beginning the sketch right away. It was mostly by feel, and he couldn't truly sense much within the crystal itself. “This thing is insanely complex. I’m supposed to fix it?”

“With any luck.” Avalara’s voice was still soft. Far softer than the version of her that haunted his cottage. “This is a Shard. That’s what we used to call them, anyway. Some people call them World Anchors. Bindings of Power. Planet Hearts.”

“Woah…” Ethan pressed his fingers against the surface and felt something pressing back. There was something within that was impossible to deny. Like another consciousness was pushing back against him when he interacted with it. “What is it doing?”

“I’m managing the planet, of course.” Avalara laughed. “You’re doing really well, you know. I don’t think most people would keep their cool the way you are.”

“Yeah, I’m just saving up my fright for later. Right now, I want to go home.”

“Understandable. You’ll excuse me if this is long winded, but I’m afraid an explanation is necessary.” Avalara waited for Ethan to object, but he didn’t. She smiled at that, walking around the crystal and dragging her fingers along the surface the entire way. “When this planet was formed, it needed a guiding force. In my time, our Shard Network had become sapient. My soul had been imbued into that network, saved from the fate of Death’s Door. When my son prepared to leave, I couldn’t go with him… Well, I did the next best thing. The Shard grew in the center of Tal’vengar, guiding it along its development. This is a world of wrong things, you know. It was constructed hastily by a man who wasn’t powerful enough to make it.”

Ethan listened, trying to wrap his head around the idea. His house ghost was the heart of the planet. And he had to fix the heart… Why? The anomalies might’ve been generated by this kind of imbalance, but he doubted that was the only cause. If he assumed that other planets had hearts that functioned fine, why did they get anomalies? More likely, all the anomalies on Tal’vengar came from the confluence of energies from other sectors. That was the idea the scribe had, and he was sticking to it.

That meant there was something else wrong with the planet.

“Go on…”

“You won’t solve this anomaly overnight.” Avalara pinched one corner of the giant crystal, pulling hard until a small piece came off. She smiled brightly as she turned, holding it out for him to take. “I expect it’ll take you most of next year. Perhaps less, if you can understand Dimensional interactions sooner.”

“What is this?” Ethan asked, accepting the chunk of glowing rock.

"That is a way for you to return quickly. If you had to make the same trip every time you wanted to check on me, it would take you decades to fix this. Unfortunately, I'm afraid you'll have to learn some very obscure magic to make any progress.”

That wasn't even the problem. The issue was that Ethan would need to emulate the system of the shard. He wasn't even sure where to start with that one and was already scratching his head at the problem.

"I can't even estimate how difficult a problem this is. I've got to start by understanding the system, then I can emulate it and devise some sigils. But even then, I'm sensing the complexity here, and I've never felt something so deep. How many levels is it? Does it even have a rank? This is the Primary system, but a variant I’ve never seen.”

“Exactly why I said it would take you a while to accomplish this. Don’t worry, I will not evaporate while you work. I’ve been here for a few hundred years, so a year is nothing.”

Yet, no matter what Avalara said, Ethan just felt confused. No matter what he had expected from the trip to the center of the planet, he could say with full confidence that none of what he was experiencing was a sense of discomfort. A sense of discomfort washed over him as he tried to figure out his place in a world that he still didn't truly understand. Once again, he had to lean on the logical side of himself more heavily than normal this time. He had opinions about his cottage ghost and, of course, wanted her to do well, but faced with such an insurmountable task, he wasn't even sure how to start.  

Ethan shook his head, dislodging the errant thoughts and redoubling his conviction. There must have been an easier way to get here. The scribe was almost sure of that. So if they set him up to travel through Voidspace to arrive, that must have been an important component in understanding how to fix the shard. He locked that in his mind and regarded his house ghost with a forced smile.

"Okay, we'll get working on this right away. Am I right to believe we can use this crystal to get out of here?"

Avalara smiled some more and nodded, "That's right. It will take you directly to the cottage, a feat only possible because of my connection there."  

"Is that the only copy of yourself out in the real world?"  

"No. The search for somebody who could help me spanned far and wide. There are quite a few shadows of me out there, but now that we are disconnected, the one in your house will not be aware of what happened here. The connection is one way, unless I deem it otherwise.”

The need for answers faded away quickly when Ethan considered how haggard he felt. The only thing he wanted to do right now was to go back to the cottage and sleep for about a month. Of course, he didn't have that much time. He had to get ready for classes, pick from the roster, and submit his application. The only thing that brought him comfort in that moment was the fact that he would likely get special treatment. He was already in the class related to Voidspace, so that was taken care of. Then, he only had to fill it out with three others, which he had mostly settled on, as long as the professors would have him.

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid our trip has exhausted us beyond reason." Ethan offered an apologetic bow of his head. His thoughts were now firmly planted on the cottage. "I'll return when I can, but my bracelet has collected all the information we need to get started."

“I won’t delay you.” Avalara’s smile soured slightly, as though she didn’t want him to go. “I hope you’ll trust me when I say you’ll be well-rewarded for this task. Not just as your position as a System Scribe, but personally.”

Ethan only nodded, kneeling near the prone bodies of Luna and Finn. He regarded them both and looked back toward Avalara. “Do I just…”

“Mana and intent,” she said.

“Right.”

Ethan allowed a small amount of the mana in his soul to flood into the crystal, and without his command it drank deeply, draining nearly half of his reserves. He then thought back to the cottage, utilizing the same technique he had used to pass through the void. He felt himself slipping as though stumbling on ice. The world went sideways for just one moment, and then he was falling backward and hitting the ground hard on his back. After double-checking that Luna, Finn, and Tenalia had come with him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“I hated every second of that,” Ethan said.

“What? Really?” Tenalia asked with a huff. “I thought it was kinda fun.”

“It wasn’t. And I have a feeling that the class with Trex is going to be equally trying.” Ethan pushed himself to a seated position, finding it hard to maintain his balance. Too much time within Voidspace, and even the brief time in the world’s core was enough to disorient him. Real space felt strange, like an alien thing he didn’t belong in. But all his thoughts of discomfort were interrupted when the door to the back garden burst open.

“About time!” Barry shouted with a booming laugh. “You missed… Uh, just about everything!”

Chapter 22

Trial Rankings

“You’re dead last!” Amelia shouted, slapping Ethan on the leg.

The scribe groaned, trying to roll over and away from the over-eager mage. Coming out of Voidspace, Ethan wanted nothing more than to fall asleep. But he couldn’t do that, not least of which when Barry was hoisting him to his feet as though he weighed nothing.

“Dead last in what?” Ethan grumbled.

“The rankings.” Amelia had a pained look on her face, but that was half-hidden by her smile. “You’ve been gone for so long, even the people getting a trickle of points beat you.”

Ethan sighed. He should’ve figured his plan to get on top by putting in a week’s worth of work wasn’t good enough. Five months away from the academy meant five months of point gains he missed out on. Checking the interface for the trial, the scribe’s stomach dropped.

[Trial Rankings]

Trials completed. You have ranked in the bottom 10% for your grade, bottom 1% for your academy, and bottom 0.01% for your planet.

“Oh, crap…” Ethan shot up, his heart hammering in his chest. “I’m gonna be expelled.”

“Nonsense,” Avalara’s calming voice came from the kitchen.

Her voice was anything but calming, though. After seeing the ghost down in the center of the planet, the only thing Ethan could think about was the weight that had been placed on his shoulders. He swallowed hard, waiting for her to say something about the Shard. Nothing came, though. She just tilted her head to the side and offered the same warm smile.

“Something wrong?”

Ethan shook his head. “No, I’m just… Good god.”

Ethan thought he was going to die. Today had been too much, and if another weird thing happened, he was going to pop. The two knocks that came from his front door, followed by Silvain letting himself into the room, was almost enough to explode a blood vessel in his brain. The scribe scrambled away from Barry’s grasp, turning to his companions, then back to the benefactor. For a moment, he forgot to think of Silvain as anything but a traitor to his people.

The dark benefactor of the academy tilted his head. “Clear the room.”

The simple command was enough to send both mortals and ghosts scattering. Only Luna, Finn, Tenalia, and Ethan remained. Luna and Finn didn’t run because they were still out cold. Ethan didn’t leave because he was frozen on the spot. Tenalia remained because she had her sword in her hands, ready to do battle. Some of those old doubts bled over to the present. Perhaps her mind wasn’t as clear as she had originally thought.

“So, you’ve done as my nephew requested?” Silvain asked, crossing the distance between them with purpose. The black greatsword attached to his back almost scraped across the ground, his cloak catching wind that shouldn’t have been there. The man was just too regal for his own good.

“I just got back.” Ethan almost choked on the words, swallowing a dry mouthful of nothing. “I found the Shard, but it’ll take me a while to fix.”

“How long?”

Ethan’s brows knit tightly. All fear he felt for Silvain melted in an instant. The man was in desperate need of a scribe, otherwise why would he ask how long it would take?

“I suspect you’re correct. Silvain seems bothered by the Shard. I have an idea. Poke him about the assault in Perisart.”

“Are you nuts?”

“Come on. Trust me, the emotional response it generates will be worth it.”

“Hello?” Silvain said, waving a gauntleted hand through the air. “Did Voidspace drain that much out of you?”

Ethan cleared his throat, locking eyes with the benefactor. “What happened during the Siege of Perisart? Why did you betray the king?”

Silvain blinked a few times, absolute confusion soaking into his core. He then cracked a faint smile and burst out laughing to the point where he had to hold onto a table to keep himself upright. Eventually, he wiped tears from his eyes and stood upright. “By the Lady… What sort of nonsense did you see in there?”

“I saw the Siege of Perisart. I saw you blow up the gate… I guess that was the eastern gate?” Ethan didn’t really remember the cardinal direction, but he figured it was a good guess. “You used barrels of explosives. Got caught in the blast yourself.”

Silvain went paler than normal. Confusion was now painted so plainly on his face, Ethan wasn’t sure if the man would ever recover. “You saw it.” He laughed a bit too maniacally. “Damn! You actually saw it? Did you see what happened afterward? At the Siege of Hallben?”

Ethan shuffled uncomfortably on the spot. “The shadow projection was limited to the one siege. We passed by it coincidentally, near the center of the planet.”

Silvain rubbed his chin. “Likely because the Shard is related to the old system… she must’ve brought some of those old memories with her.”

Any anger Ethan felt toward the man melted away, giving way to pure curiosity. “What happened at Hallben?”

“I sacrificed my life to save the world.” Silvain stretched casually, cracking his knuckles. “Good thing you talked to me about it, instead of plotting some vendetta without knowing the full story. Not only did I give my mortal body to the cause, but my soul was damned to torture by… Well, that’s not important.”

“Why did you do it?” Ethan asked. “Blowing up the gate should’ve swung the siege for the orcs, right?”

“I still can’t believe you actually saw it so clearly… Well, it was complicated. My brother was losing his mind. He wasn’t giving troops to the defense of the world during a worldwide monster wave.” Silvain scratched his chin as he looked back on ancient memories. “I thought I could strike a deal with the Shade. He was our ancestral progenitor trapped as a kind of ghost and forced to do the system’s bidding. More than that, I wanted Perisart to fall because I knew how strong the armies would grow. You see, that monster wave was adaptive.”

Ethan listened, trying to process the scope of something like that. He dismissed the idea as it was a scale he couldn’t really imagine. “That leaves a much better impression of you… I guess. Since you said it that way, I assume the next battle didn’t go well.”

“Not at all. The monster wave was designed to attack one city after the other. Hallben was next, which I was there for. If not for my intervention, they would’ve fallen. Whisperwood, on the other hand…”

“Grand Hierophant Beryl,” Sam said.

The thought had already risen to Ethan’s mind. “That’s where Grand Hierophant Beryl died, right?”

Silvain’s face resumed its countenance of complete confusion. “How do you know so much about my time on Iaredin?”

Ethan couldn’t help himself. He let out a laugh, shaking his head. “I met her in the Silver City. I guess I’m just putting a few things together that I’ve heard.”

“Well, you’re extremely well informed, and you’re starting to piss me off if I’m honest.” Silvain looked rather grumpy, and Ethan wouldn’t blame him. The man had come here to talk about work, and the scribe had taken him down memory lane. “Armel’s expectation was that you would be done with the project by now. Despite my counsel that it would take you far longer to fix such an issue, he insisted. Now you’re marked for expulsion from the academy.”

Ethan set his jaw. Those were the words he had been fearing. He had a few things loaded. Arguments against kicking him out, and how he moved with the authority of the Grand System. But all the imagined arguments he could throw were useless.

“Don’t worry.” Silvain waved a dismissive hand. “The Trials are a great way for people to test their skills, and I’m sure you missed out on some stuff, but we’re not kicking you out. If you want a special item, I’m sure I can find you one… But you’re not lacking special items, are you?”

Silvain was pointing at the charm on Ethan’s staff. “Right. I just can’t help but feel I’ve missed out…”

Silvain shook his head. “You’ll catch up. Now, you have your assignment. You know how important it is to me. And you don’t need to have a meeting with Armel. I’d call that a good day, wouldn’t you? I must rest.”

Ethan cocked an eyebrow but nodded. “Thanks for not expelling me.”

Silvain shook his head. “Your grades were good enough for consideration. Full seals of approval. Very nice. Anyway, clean up your friends and get to work. We’ve had a surge in anomalies since you guys have been gone.”

“Oops.” Ethan looked down at Finn and Luna. They were both still out. “Is it bad?”

“Not as bad as we had expected. But, yes. Without the Anomalous Materials Group, I’ve had to stretch myself too thin.” Silvain let out a dramatic sigh. “Farewell.”

Ethan had more to say. A lot more, but Silvain departed before he could get another word in. The scribe’s mind instead went to the amount of anomalies they had to deal with. Normally, Ethan, Luna, and Finn were working all week long to keep the anomalies down. They even had special tablets that could now report anomalies. The problem with that was that only Gale House was contributing to that list, even if the other houses within Tariat Academy contributed occasionally. They still needed a global system, but that was unlikely to happen anytime soon.

“Damn it,” Ethan grumbled, rushing to the back door. He opened it. Amelia and Barry came spilling in, falling into a heap on the ground. “I should’ve figured… I got a job for you two.”

“Oh. Hey, Ethan!” Barry said, chuckling nervously.

Ethan gave him a flat look.

“The good news is: the experiment to get a response from Silvain was a success!”

Ethan ignored his bracelet for now. Since his brain was working right again, his thoughts had gone back to Zeal and Solace. He had seen them in his vision, and the moment his mind was his own again, he thought about his conversation with Arthur and the implications of Death and Undeath mana. They were living off the drabs provided by the church, and the guilt of leaving them without proper sustenance had left the scribe feeling guilty.

“Muscles Machinist, get these two to a healer,” Ethan said, gesturing back toward Luna and Finn. “I don’t think their lives are in danger, but you never know.”

“I can do that.” Barry awkwardly removed himself from the tangle before helping Amelia gingerly to her feet. “Anything we should tell them.”

“They were trapped in Voidspace for five months.” Ethan sighed. “I’ve gotta go to Luminarum House to feed some undead. Just normal stuff… Sam, do you have my class listings?”

“Who is Sam?” Amelia asked, looking around as though she’d find another person hiding in the room.

“I named my bracelet.”

“I thought you were never going to do that…” Amelia was still looking for someone, but her eyes finally locked on the bracelet. “Come on, ya big oaf. Let’s get to work.”

“Like a good mule,” Tenalia said, giggling to herself.

All things considered, this was a good ending to the current chapter of Ethan’s life. He had completely screwed up his chances of doing well in the Trials, but maybe he never should’ve put that much effort into them. If he wanted rare items, he could find them. More than ever, he was now confident in his ability to delve into the dead places of the world and snatch up some seriously good treasures. As he walked toward the front door, the charm on his staff knocked against the wood.

“How hard would it be to find a legendary artifact staff?” Ethan asked.

“You’ve been out of Voidspace for about twenty minutes. Are we already planning another dragon-based heist?”

Kicking off from the ground and taking flight, Ethan smiled to himself. “I wonder who’s faster now. Me or the dragon?”

Chapter 23

Attempt Blocked

Ethan’s destination was Luminarum house. Sam was feeding him her plan for him the next semester, which made it seem like he didn’t have a choice for the classes. The deluge of information was dense enough to force him to the ground in Barg City, en route to Luminarum. The streets were bustling with celebrations related to the end of the trials, something the scribe felt incredibly left out of. All because some old war dogs from a time long past needed an errand boy.

Freaking elves…

“What was that?” Sam asked. “Actually, nevermind that. Did you feel that energy?”

“I wasn’t paying attention.” Ethan looked around. Barg City was floating and pretty cool, but there wasn’t much typically going on here. As the center of Tariat academy, Ethan’s academy, it was mostly an administration and civilian hub. “What kind of energy?”

“Interspatial, I think. Or is it… Innerspatial magic? Perhaps something closer to Dimensional.”

“Just say you don’t know.” Ethan laughed, shaking his head.

“I’ll settle on a family of Spatial and leave it at that… Oh, there it is. That demon approaching you with a limp is the source of the magic.”

Ethan searched the crowd, finally finding the demon in question. Of course, it wasn’t a true demon. There were several demon-like races he was aware of, and this was one of them, although he couldn’t say the sub-race. The man had purple skin and a weathered face with horns that swept across the shape of his skull. He walked with a cane, limping along with a fierce look in his glowing purple eyes.

When the man walked right up to Ethan, the scribe first thought it was some kind of mistake. But he nodded and clicked his tongue. “You’re the one I’ve been looking for. I’ve been chasing you through Voidspace for… I’ve lost count of the time.”

Ethan pointed at himself and then looked around. “Me? No, I’ve never been to Voidspace, wherever that is. Just a completely normal student.”

“Smooth.”

The man sniffed the air, then shook his head. “You stink of it, and you’re not very good at lying. I need you to come with me for a bit of questioning.”

From what Ethan understood, there was no sovereignty over the void. Nobody could lay claim to it except for the god Void, which meant that this guy was either some kind of higher authority or just a really nosy cultist. Of course, the scribe had no intention of going with him and would fly away at the first sign of trouble. Not that he really had to worry. His puppet was always already poised to strike at any moment. And even if he brought with him some kind of celestial authority to stop Ethan from doing something, he had an even stronger authority. That of the Grand System.

“What are you doing? Trying to weasel your way out of it?” The man sighed, tapping his cane on the ground. “I take time out of my busy schedule to assume mortal form, and this is how you react? Come on. It won’t take long.”

The man seized Ethan’s arm and turned. Tenalia was just about to cut the dude’s arm off when a strange force removed his grip entirely, and sent the man to his ass. A system message appeared and a broad smile spread across the scribe’s face.

[Interdiction Attempt Blocked]

A local system authority has attempted to interdict you, directing you to a different realm. The Authority of the Grand System has overridden this attempt. Any future attempts will be met with punishment.

Dreamwalker, you have been warned.

“Bah!” the prone man said, snatching his cane from the ground. “Grand System protections? For what purpose?”

Ethan threw his shoulders back, looking down at this Dreamwalker with pity. “I don’t know what your deal is, but I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Work on my Voidspace?” he asked, struggling to his feet. “I’ll have you know, that place is not to be tampered with. You’re worse than that damned…”

Ethan fixed his combat robes and shrugged whatever the man had to say off. “I move with the Authority of the Grand System. If you made the Voidspace, which I don’t think you did alone, you messed up. I found an anomaly in there. So maybe next time do your job.”

The Dreamwalker’s mouth fell open. “That fire! I haven’t seen anything like that in quite some time. I could show you a more efficient way of moving through there.”

“But you couldn’t catch me, if you were chasing me, which means my way is already efficient.”

The Dreamwalker, finally on his feet, screamed in frustration. He snatched Ethan’s arm again. “We don’t have to be at each other’s throats, you know.”

A system message appeared.

[Banishment Acknowledgement]

Would you like to banish entity “Dreamwalker” from the planet “Tal’Vengar?”

This entity has violated rules created by the Grand System. The Grand System has determined that this merits banishment from your current planet, but has recognized “Ethan Walsh” as a discrete entity that has free will outside the understanding of the Grand System.

Do you wish to banish this entity for a set time? Y/N

Ethan chuckled to himself. Gods and higher authorities were something he really didn’t want to get involved with. There was absolutely no way he would get his job done if he was hamstrung by them. Ever since he met with Lutia, the God of Time or whatever, he had felt the danger of those entities. The less involvement he had, the better.

“Yes,” Ethan said, watching as the Dreamwalker blinked out of existence.

“Oh my. Even as an emotionless program in your bracelet, I have to say… That was absolutely brutal.”

“We don’t mess with gods, higher authorities, or anything stupid like that.” Ethan fixed the sleeve of his combat robes again, rolling his shoulders. He felt rather full of himself at that moment. “We have a job to do and that’s that. No politics involved.”

“Huzzah, screw politics,” Tenalia said. “Okay, can we go? I hate Barg.”

“Barg is fine. The people are just weird,” Ethan said, pressing forward.

Ethan pushed the incident out of his mind right away. His goal was now to see to the care of Zeal and Solace, and he promised himself he would never be away from the Academy for so long again. Perhaps it had been a mistake to accept the job, but if the World’s Anchor needed a little bit of help and he was the only one to do it, then he would. As always, Luminarum House City was lovely. There were celebrations in the streets with processions of people carrying bells that rang constantly. It was almost too much, and the scribe was happy to duck into his regular church.

“Where have you been?” Nultan’s voice came booming through the atrium.

Ethan winced. “Sorry. I was trapped in Voidspace,” he said, doing his best to disarm the Death Cleric. “Are they still alive?”

“Alive?” Nultan laughed, shaking his head. “They’re fine. Just annoying. You vanish for five months, what do you think is gonna happen? You gave them a taste of the good stuff, and all I could provide was Death mana.”

“That was a pretty bad oversight on my part.” Ethan bowed his head. “But the task was given to me by Armel… a benefactor, so I couldn’t refuse.”

“Really? Armel Batteux?” Nultan ran his fingers through his hair, shaking his head. “Damn. So, I am mad that you vanished. But Zeal and Solace are just annoying. I had to start taking them out once I got approval from the church. After that, they kinda calmed down.”

“But it would be better if they got their systems and could get out of here.” Ethan scratched his chin. “Which means they need a source of Undeath mana.”

“Yeah. That might be tricky.”

Tricky was one way to put it. Ethan had a better phrase: impossible. Converting mana was hard enough as it was. He could do it because his class and his system were specifically designed for it. But for any random person seeking to convert from one form of mana to another, it was extremely challenging. The scribe tapped his chin. Once they got their systems, it wouldn’t be a problem. But for now, they needed an engine to create the mana they needed.

“Sam, can you reference that for me?” Ethan asked.

“Sam?” Nultan asked.

“Certainly,” Sam said, causing Nultan to jump at the voice coming from Ethan’s bracelet. “I’ll look for mana conversion enchantments.”

“My bracelet is kinda like…” Ethan had to think of the word. “I think they’re called Mind Spirits.”

“Oh. Right. I think I remember that.” Nultan scratched his head. “Anyway, wanna see the idiots?”

“Yes.”

“Ethan!” Zeal shouted, running over and lifting the scribe off the ground. He had barely set foot in the cloistered garden before the big man came over to accost him. “We thought you had died. We thought something untoward happened. Perhaps you had a scorned lover or some kind of...”

“Leave him alone,” Solace said, shambling over and smacking Zeal in the stomach. The big man doubled over, eventually falling on the ground and releasing the scribe. “I apologize for my idiot boyfriend. He is unfortunately a massive moron.” 

“That’s fine. I apologize for disappearing for so long. I knew I was going, and I should have warned you guys. Maybe we could have had this situation sorted before then, so that’s on me.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re not children.” Solace jabbed a finger at Zeal, who was still rolling around on the ground. “We’ve been working on cultivation techniques from the martial arts school. Although we have a half-solution, we can’t do the conversion part. Pure mana is easy enough to collect, converting it is another matter.”

“You need to convert Celestial mana, not Pure mana.” Ethan’s brows furrowed as he realized how into his new life he had gotten. “Pure is a branch from Celestial, so you’re going to have a hard time making the change, if you can at all. Something about Undeath mana is weird.”

“That’s exactly the problem.” Nultan placed a hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “I can’t even make the jump between Death and Undeath.”

Ethan waved a hand in the air, shaking his head. “They’re too different. Death and Undeath are distinct domains. You’re trying to turn Fire into Water here.”

“Of course, I understand that. But look at them.” Nultan gestured vaguely to the two undead before him. “They’re annoying.”

“He’s annoying. I’m perfectly patient.” Solace folded her arms. “Once I waited for a week in a bush. I had to pee so bad, but did I move?”

“She didn’t.” Zeal croaked his words from the ground.

“Indeed I didn’t. That’s when I learned what a ruptured bladder was.” Solace lost some color from her face. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, do you have a solution? You’re the solution guy, I feel.”

“Indeed, I do.” Sam’s voice radiated out from the bracelet. “But it may take us a few days. Classes start soon, you know.”

“Cool. His wrist has a solution.” Solace pointed at Ethan’s bracelet. “We’re saved by jewelry.”

Ethan spoke with the group for a little longer. The solution the bracelet had was not that complicated, and he was certain he could do the rune work for it as long as the bracelet was there to help him. It was basically a mana converter that collected Celestial energy and converted it to Undeath energy. Everything after that would be up to them, but it would mean that the scribe would not need to come for mana infusions. While he was there, he topped them up and inspected their systems, finding quite a bit of progress toward something positive. He would not lie. He had become fascinated with the idea of emulating that system and perhaps adapting some aspects of it into his own. Who did not want to be immortal afterall?

“Now, have a look at this class schedule.”

After wrapping up at the church, Ethan had left and Sam didn’t hesitate. She had his life planned out for him, but the final selection of classes made up for that loss of autonomy. She projected his schedule as a system message.

“Oh, I don’t mind this at all.” Ethan laughed, joining bell-heavy parades out on the streets of Luminarum House City.

Chapter 24

Class Schedule

[Class Schedule]

Monday:

Dungeon Anatomy, Professor Eggs, Gale House, Sweetgrass Building 1 (Variable), Variable

Tuesday:

Esoterica 1 (Special Instruction), Professor Halfhoof, Luminarum House, Hallowed Graveyard 12, 3am

Wednesday:

Special Concepts (Magical Families), Professor Lok, Gale House Outskirts, Goldreth Town Square, 10am

Thursday:

Anomalous Materials Group, UNLISTED, Pel’Vengar, Spire 1 Floor 10 Room 8, 7:00am

Whenever:

Voidspaces, Trex, That Place Behind That Shack Near The Beach, Whenever

This was Sam’s proposed schedule, and it by no means meant that Ethan would be accepted to everything. That was on paper, at least. He knew that he could throw his weight around and get these classes. The only issue was that each one was more of an advanced module than the standard fare. They all went far outside of the classical university structure he was used to back on Earth. He went down the list, digging into each one and seeing how valuable it would be for his base of knowledge and experience.

Dungeon Anatomy was a must-have. Ethan would absolutely fight for that one. The class was a deep dive into exactly how dungeons worked. It would cover the concepts of how dungeons were formed, but also the exact magical mechanisms of how they functioned. Since Professor Eggs taught it, Ethan knew it would be a class that drilled deep into the subject. Despite the flying Chihuahua’s reputation for being a taskmaster, that was exactly what he wanted.

Esoterica was… weird. There was no other way to put it. In the catalog of classes Ethan could take, Sam had found it and immediately added it to the list. This was a “Special Instruction” class, which meant the teacher would personalize the lesson to each student. Only a few people got into it, and it had a reputation for washing out students almost right away. The professor was hard to deal with, and the topics were too self-directed for most to waste a class slot. This was interesting to Ethan, because the professor apparently had a wide range of knowledge on some seriously obscure topics.

Last of the normal classes was Special Concepts, which was somehow weirder than the last. Professor Lok, a rumored vampire, was a master of many schools of magic. His specialty was in elemental schools, but also had a lot of knowledge of less-known practices. That included Vampiric Magic. Ethan wanted to gobble up all rare forms of magic to pad his spellbook. But the meat of the class was about elemental control, which was a topic the scribe hadn’t really touched. Control, as far as he was concerned, was something his bracelet and class handled.

But Sam had been insistent that he should get better on his own. In her own words, he sucked.

Anomalous Materials Group was unchanged, and it would likely remain that way for his entire career within the academy. Ethan paused in the air, scratching his chin as he considered the fact that he had left the care of his classmates with his other friends. He shook the thought away. Luna and Finn would be fine. They had just about five months of void poisoning to expel from their system. He suspected Luna would be the first to recover, as her control of mana was obscenely masterful.

Then there was Trex’s class… Ethan had no idea what to think about that one.

“Luna and Finn will be fine,” Ethan reassured himself. “We have a mana converter to make.”

It had been a while since Ethan had used the Sketch Rune ability. The project would be moderately expensive to power, but the scribe felt as though he could easily find the materials. Sam had already scoured the information she had and found that she had deleted an important section to make room for recordings while they were in Voidspace. That meant a trip to the library and a bunch of scanning random books throughout most of the night. As she forced him to rest sometime in the early morning, she claimed that so much time in Voidspace required some actual sleep.

Unfortunately, he woke in the early hours of the next morning with an angry Luna shaking him in his warm bed. Ethan’s eyes snapped open, and he blinked away sleep. “I didn’t do it.”

“You most certainly did do it. Come on, get out of bed. We’re doing a short debrief in our meeting room.” Luna didn’t seem annoyed. She just seemed eager to discuss what had happened.

Ethan got out of bed groggily at first, but eventually his Rings and abilities kicked in, and he was fully awake. Since he was already wearing his combat robes, they left right away and headed for Pel’vengar directly. This time, when he traveled with Luna, he did so in flight while she sat atop her strange flying sword.

“Finn was hit pretty hard. I think we all underestimated how damaging that space is for mortal people.” Luna shouted over the sound of the wind whipping by, but Ethan’s ability meant that he didn’t hear much of it.

“Agreed, that was a boondoggle. I don’t think we were nearly as prepared as we could have been, and I think Armel led me astray.” Ethan hadn’t decided if he wanted to hold any ire toward the benefactor, but he was leaning toward it.”I think we should focus on creating our own strategies for dealing with anomalies this semester. I think if we work hard enough, we could remove them entirely within a few years.”

Luna let out a laugh, turning to look at the scribe with incredulity. “You really think we could do that with our meager means?”

“I think so. It just depends on how we approach it. My ability to patch the anomalies is what’s going to make the biggest difference. Instead of removing one or two anomalies at a time, I’ll be doing them by the thousands.” Ethan shook his head. “Is Finn okay?”

“He’ll be fine. Just needs a bit more time to rest.”

By the time the duo finally arrived at the spire, Ethan had been refining the runes he was going to use to create a mana converter with Sam. Tenalia jumped from his shoulder and did a little dance before making her way to the building’s entrance. As always, they had to take the elevator to get to the 10th floor, and when they entered the large circular room, Finn was at his normal spot, reclined on the couch. He barely raised a hand in recognition and then massaged his temples.

“Remind me, if Ethan asks to go on another trip like that, to decline vehemently.” 

“Duly noted,” Luna moved to the center of the room, placing her hands on her hips and commanding the attention of the meager gathering. “Okay, so let’s start with where we went wrong. We should have gone into the spaces first and tested how they affected our mental endurance. Five months in the hole seemed like a walk in the park, but I can barely remember anything that happened.”

Ethan raised his hand and shook his head. “Agreed. That was a bit hasty of me to think that I had everything under control, and I’ll take responsibility for it.”

Finn blew raspberries. “You can’t account for the crazy command of a benefactor. We’re bound to obey.”

“Are we?” Ethan asked. “I got attacked earlier by someone called the Dreamwalker. And the Grand System allowed me to banish him.”

Luna stared, open-mouthed for quite some time. Then she burst out laughing until she held her side for relief. Once she finally regained her breath, she spoke. “Are you serious?”

Ethan shrugged. “Yeah. They’re just middlemen, right?”

“The Herald, Arbiter, Dreamwalker, and Dreamer are not just middlemen.” Finn shook his head. He giggled a bit, but wasn’t falling to the ground with laughter like Luna. “They’re Sector Guardians. And you just made one go poof? Just like that?”

“He basically tried to arrest me, okay?” Ethan scoffed. “What would you have done?”

“Crap my pants.”

Luna cleared her throat. “We’re getting off-topic. Ethan brought up something important to remember: we’re here to clear the anomalies. That Voidspace showed me something I didn’t want to see.”

“Are you talking about the crab-world?” Finn asked. “Cause that’s one of the spaces that stuck with me.”

“No. We’re lazy.” Luna let out a steady breath, closing her eyes as though she was finally facing something she didn’t want to see.

Ethan wasn’t about to say it out loud, but he had been thinking that for quite some time now. It wasn’t just because of what the Herald had told him. That man had pulled him to the side and given him a stern warning about getting complacent. Alex was the biggest example of this, having been expelled from the entire planet for his inactivity. If the people in the Anomalous Materials Group simply stepped up and did more, then they could stay here forever if they liked. But the fact was they did the bare minimum to remain where they were. It wasn’t a mark against them so much as it was against the insurmountability of their task. The scribe had no plans to let them remain that way, but hearing Luna admit it was inspiring.

“You guys need to shape up!” Tenalia shouted, commanding the room with her strangely authoritative voice. “You wanna be left in the dust by this guy? Come on.”

“Seriously. He’s only starting his second semester.” Finn groaned.

“So, get off your ass.” Luna kicked the side of the sofa hard enough to send it skidding across the room. “Teaching one class a week isn’t enough. Ethan’s got a cheat, but he’s pushing the bounds of what we do every day. If we can’t keep up, we need to give the Anomalous Materials Group to him and him alone.”

“Yeah!” Tenalia shouted, slashing her sword through a bookshelf. It split cleanly down the middle, spilling the contents onto the ground. “Get your act together, kids!”

“That might’ve been too much,” Ethan said, wincing.

“Maybe it wasn’t enough!” Luna grabbed a table and hurled it across the room. It shattered against the far wall. “Maybe we need to be so angry with ourselves that we either self-destruct or we make this work.”

Finn whimpered.

“Hells yeah!” Tenalia released an ululating war cry.

Ethan watched as the duo broke things around the room. It was mostly filled with junk, so it wasn’t a big deal. The only problem came when they got a bit too excited and attacked the building itself. He wasn’t sure if this was the appropriate response. He understood Luna’s motivation to be mad at herself or not doing more, but she had a valid excuse. Her family was here, and she spent a lot of time with her little sister. Finn, on the other hand, didn’t have an excuse. He should have been the one tearing himself apart, but instead, he just cowered in the room’s corner. That was likely the effect of the void poisoning, but it was still a pathetic sight to see.

“Oh, what’s today?” Ethan asked, withdrawing the tablet provided to him by Gale House.”

“Thursday. Which is why we’re meeting here.” Luna heaved breath, looking for more stuff to break. “The week before classes start.”

“What? Seriously?” Ethan huffed. “I need to get work on this device before classes start.”

“A device? See?!” Luna shouted, sweeping a dramatic hand through the air. “He just works. All the time. While taking classes. Come on, Finn. We have a lot to talk about.”

Ethan had never been more glad to be left out of a conversation. He agreed with the sentiment, but the fervor was a bit more than he could handle. Luna dragged Finn from the room, grumbling something to herself.

“I guess that was a wakeup call for them.” Ethan mused about the ways he could help them do more. But that would only come after he sorted himself out. “Oh, well. Let’s go craft a mana-thingy.”

“Mana conversion artifice.” Sam was quick with the correction.

“Whatever. Gotta spend some money. At least I don’t have to pay rent.”

Tenalia tossed another crate across the room, screaming in joy when it shattered.

Chapter 25

System Fragments

Ethan wasn't sure why he had to do many of the things Sam wanted him to do, but he did them anyway. The amount of research required for their current project was vast, and it took up all of Thursday, Friday, and some of Saturday. That was considering the bracelet had been secretly working on a few projects behind his back. Of course, he wouldn't blame her. If she wasn't using processing power, it was better to throw something at it. An idle processor was a terrible thing.

Sitting on the floor of his cottage, Ethan looked at the materials he had been ordered to gather. He sat using the Sketch Rune ability with his Pen to create a series of symbols he had never seen before. The iron plate he was inscribing was positively massive, about five feet by five feet, and the first segment of runes currently being projected by his bracelet was nearly done. He wiped the sweat from his brow and leaned back.  

"I don't even know half of what I'm doing, and why is the power source in your schematics so beefy?" 

"Just follow the designs as provided. I'll explain their function when you're done, but right now you need to focus on the task. You're getting a trickle of energy for your Dexterity Ring.” Sam’s voice came out as comforting as ever.

“Oh, really? Maybe I can infuse my Affinity Ring while I work.”

“An excellent idea.”

Ethan got back to work, hardly caring about what he was doing anymore. He was going through the motions and instead focused most of his attention on his Rings. He felt the familiar flow of energy entering his chest and did everything he could to guide the process. But the longer he worked on the inscriptions, the more he saw strange things. There was a part that he did recognize, which had to do with the relay of information. The design of that part was a bit too familiar to the circuits he had seen on the other side of his bracelet. Those same circuits he had had the chance to view since it had clamped over his wrist. It was just about done when he attached another part to the top that had been specially made. It looked suspiciously like an antenna.

“Where did you derive these System Sigils from?” Ethan asked.

"The majority of the sigils you're inscribing come from the tablet gifted to you by Gale House. I co-opted those to create a more efficient communication system and even managed a little pocket project that I've been considering for quite some time. The inefficiencies of the Anomalous Materials Group were the inspiration for this, of course."

Now that Ethan was looking at it closely, he could see quite a few sections that didn't make sense. One of them, he thought, would imbue some kind of signature into an object. Another was to relay information, and yet another was to store it in a crystal. He supposed that's what the tablet used to store information, but one thing was for certain. This wasn't a monoconversion device at all.

"What is this exactly? I don't mind if you're doing secret projects, but this is starting to look bad for you." Ethan stopped working on the device, not allowing it to come to completion until he got the good word from Sam.

"This will improve the efficiency of the Anomalous Materials Group greatly. Just complete it and activate it, and you'll see."

But Ethan waited. He studied the plate until he had a decent idea of what it was going to do. From what he could tell, it was some sort of communications device. More than likely, Sam's plan was to create an anomaly reporting system like Gale House had done for him. His guess was that it would be far more efficient, and the part of the inscription that imbued items would create tokens that people could carry around and automatically report. That is, if he was reading the sigils correctly. For now, he just finished it up and trusted his bracelet.

“Done,” Ethan said. “If anything weird happens, I’m breaking it in half.”

“Of course. Mount it somewhere and turn it on. One of two things will happen. The first isn’t bad, but the second is a lot better.” Sam had genuine excitement in her voice.

Just like the spatial expansion inscription Ethan had done, this plate needed to be mounted somewhere permanently. He found a spot in the house, in his room, where he figured the area wouldn't be disturbed. He mounted it on the wall and stepped back. Only when Sam projected the correct buttons depressed did he infuse mana into the device. It came to life with a series of blinking lights and humming sounds that were certain to disturb what little sleep he needed. The scribe felt something tingling in the air, and the electric shock from his bracelet increased significantly. Then he felt something in his soul, and he pulled his lips into a tight line. When a system message finally appeared, his mouth fell open.

“Perfect. The second option came true.”

[PRIMARY Branch Created]

Unnamed device has created a private branch of the PRIMARY system…

Partitioning…

Understanding use case…

Accepted. Fragmentary Branch (Codename Skynet) created.

Adapting to local sector… ACCEPTED

Fragmenting… ACCEPTED

Initializing… ACCEPTED

Fragment System Owner Designated Scribe’s Bracelet (Sam).

Fragment imbued into entity Ethan Walsh (System Scribe).

Hijacking local information network (Gale House Tablet System).

Splinter created… ACCEPTED

Please create Fragment Coins from the attached dispenser. Have a nice day.

“YOU MADE SKYNET?!” Ethan shouted, looking between his bracelet and the device on the wall.

“Calm down. That was just a joke.” Sam chuckled. Which was something Ethan wasn’t sure she should be doing. “I wanted this to be a surprise for you, and I knew you wouldn’t look too closely. Don’t worry. We didn’t destroy the local information network at Gale House. We just created a copy of it, and now we’re transmitting through the air.”

“Okay. You’re going to need to explain exactly what this thing does.”

“The first option was that we would simply create a copy of Gale House’s local communication network, which broadcasts information across some tablets.” Same paused for a few moments to let that sink in. "The second option was that we convinced the grand system to create a fragment of itself. Now the advantage there is that we are no longer broadcasting through the air, but instead using our very own system."

"How can you create a system?" Ethan asked.

"Well, I didn't really expect it to happen. I was hoping for it, but you know how these things go. The way the fragment should work is that anybody, no matter which system they have, can accept it. The reason why it's called the fragment is because it's just a very small piece of the system. Imagine it like when an item gets imbued with attributes. It does so with a little piece of the owning system.”

Ethan thought about it for a minute. He wanted to be angry. Of course he did; Sam just made Skynet. But he wasn't opposed to the idea of creating a system-based anomaly reporting mechanism. That would make their job a lot easier if they could just hand this out to a ton of people and crowdsource the problem.

“Let me get this straight. We can give people this ‘system’ and they can use it to report anomalies?” Ethan asked. “How do they access it?”

“With a thought. Give it a try.”

Ethan sighed, focusing his mind on the idea of Skynet, of all things. A moment later, the message appeared.

[Anomaly Reporting System]

No anomalies within range. Please visit the Anomalous Materials Group if you have any issues with this system.

“There it is,” Sam cooed. “And the device on your wall is important. We’re sending information through the system, but I don’t know if it would let us store information. We have to do that locally.”

Ethan was just trying to get his mind around the concept of a Fragment System. He stopped paying attention to the bracelet, the new system message, and the monstrosity on his wall for a moment. So, this Fragment System could live alongside someone’s normal system, since it only gave them access to one “feature.” Since the Grand System was everywhere, and “PRIMARY” was the main branch of everything, anyone could get it.

The scribe wanted to smack his wrist against the wall. Sam shouldn’t have kept this from him, but he really enjoyed the surprise. This would change the way the Anomalous Materials Group catalogued the anomalies. With a bit of poking, Ethan found that he now had a screen he could access that detailed the anomalies.

“Problem is, we can’t get paid for this.” Ethan folded his arms, feeling as though he had found something Sam had missed

“Wrong. We hijacked the signal Gale House has been broadcasting. The headmaster might be angry, but we’re now uploading to their feed. We also have more robust filtering options, and with some expansion of this system, perhaps I can add more features.”

“Okay. So, can I get to work on the mana converter?” Ethan asked.

“That’ll take an hour, at most.” Sam chuckled again. “Aren’t you glad you have me?”

Ethan was starting to wonder…

As expected, the mono converter was incredibly easy. It was nothing like the difficulty of the system hijacking device, and Ethan had to wonder exactly how far ahead of him his bracelet was. She was constantly crunching information and coming up with new solutions to stuff, but creating a fragmentary system was beyond anything he could have expected. But it was Saturday, and on Monday he had to attend his first new class… Assuming he could get in.

He had a meeting with Headmaster Vesper later that day, but the urge to test out the new converter was too great. He placed the device in the living room, standing around the edge and double-checking that everything was good. Sam gave him the go-ahead, and he added a small amount of mana to the right rune to get it started. The entire device glowed, starting the process by going off of the scribe’s mana signature.

That was the key to the entire device. It needed a bit of Celestial mana in order to get started. Sam had explained that this was the reason he was the only person who could operate this device. Yes, others had actually created such a thing and used it for their own means, but to get Celestial mana in as a base, you needed somebody with Celestial mana in their soul.

Ribbons of visible energy dragged through the air, soaking into the central condenser part of the one-by-one metal panel. The mana was then processed in a separate section, which glowed brilliant blue at first but then a shade of purple. Eventually, the mana worked its way to the far side of the device and was expelled into the air. Anyone with decent enough magical senses could see it floating there. Ethan laughed nervously.  

"Do you think this is the first time somebody has willingly released Undeath mana into the air?" 

“The first time they did it intentionally, at least.” Sam’s voice was one of pure satisfaction. “Now, how about we deliver this to those who actually need it. Then we can test our new Fragment System.”

Whatever thoughts toward taking a break vanished in Ethan's mind. There was simply too much to do, especially now that Luna and Finn had decided to turn their lives around. He had to strike while the iron was hot. Before he left the cottage, he imbued two plain copper disks with the new system. It was time to spread Skynet throughout the world, starting with the Anomalous Materials Group.