System Scribe Academy Book 2 - Chapters 1,2,3,4,5

Chapter 1

Academy World

Every semester within the Academy World of Tal’vengar proceeded in the same way, regardless of which academy a student attended. Classes were hardly the most important part of their time within the academy, as at the end of the semester, the trials began. At the end of the official semester, the energies of the world were released, resulting in a well-managed assault of monsters, giving each student the chance to test what they had learned. Fighting, supporting, logistics, information-gathering… the ways in which a student could earn points seemed endless.

Ethan Walsh, the current only known System Scribe in the sector, found earning points easy. It was simply too bad he had been assigned to an impossible task.

“I told you.” Tenalia crossed her puppet arms, her armor clanking together. “You can’t just jump into something like. Should just wait for Trex’s class.”

Standing atop a hill in some foreign Voidspace realm, Ethan grumbled his response. He didn’t disagree with the puppet. Although they had only been at it for a day, they had all realized that finding their way to the place Armel had sent them through the strange places would be difficult.

“And this is just the basic version of Voidspace travel.” Ethan blew out a heavy breath. “How much of this do we have mapped, bracelet?”

“Approximately two Voidspace realms.”

Looking down at the plain bracelet on his wrist, Ethan shook his head. Mapping the Voidspaces was like taking a roadtrip by throwing a dart from space while blindfolded. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, they always ended up somewhere weird. But if running up against a wall was enough to discourage him, he would’ve quit a lot of things a long time ago. He instead steadied himself, and felt the pleasant energies of the Voidspace.

At least this one didn’t have any goblins.

“You have approximately twenty minutes left before we must return to the trial.”

System’s Perseverance, an ability slotted in Ethan’s Endurance Ring, made his days much longer. Combined with the coprocessor in the bracelet, it allowed him to stay up forever, even if the bracelet recommended he get some sleep every night. The result was that he could balance his time between experimenting in the Voidspaces, and making some serious points for the trial.

“How are we doing, anyway?”

“Still first in the group, but we’re falling behind in both the house and academy. This unit thinks you shouldn’t go for the upper-ranks this year. Despite everything, you’re still Rank 1.”

“Because you are weak. We must make you stronger.” Tenalia laughed, thumping her hand against her chest. “Good thing my kills count toward your total. Otherwise, that burly peasant would’ve overtaken you.”

Analytical as he was, Ethan knew he was missing something about the Voidspaces. When he had first arrived in the strange spaces, he had done so by feel. That was likely the key to getting to where he needed to go. He wasn’t the kind of guy who did things by feel. He made a plan, followed the steps, executed, and adapted. Today showed him that, and he planned not to make the same mistake again.

“Come on. Let’s get some food.” Ethan stretched, working out a knot that had formed in his lower back. “I think the key is gonna be to craft a spell to navigate Voidspace. For now, I’m hungry.”

Working his way back from where he came, Ethan focused on the concepts he needed to reach real space once again. The few realms he had traveled through were pleasant, but nothing was as lovely as the scent of Gale House air. The moment the scribe stepped out of one last door, appearing on the beach near the sea. Somewhere distant was the sound of battle, but the sound of the sea lapping against the shore was so pleasant that he fell away from those unpleasant things.

Dawn broke over the eastern sky, students running around the streets as the mundane citizens lived their lives. An old man stood near the lapping waves, appearing to enjoy the ocean just as much as Ethan. Those people who chose to live their lives on the Academy World had to retreat to a place like Gale House City. Although there were a few unaffiliated cities in the world, the scribe was only aware of two. Maybe three, if it hadn’t been destroyed this year.

And that was the strange way the Academy World functioned. Everyone was completely safe. So long as they were in the designated areas, there was no chance they would be harmed. Even if one were to leave the safe areas, death wasn’t possible. Points would be lost, but if a person were to die, some god would raise them up to keep on. It was a comforting kind of mayhem, and something the scribe was quickly getting used to.

“Enough standing around!” Tenalia stamped her feet in protest. “Let the bracelet run the numbers. You’ve got monster meat to eat!”

Ethan had truly fallen into his thoughts and found it hard not to laugh. He trudged back toward his cottage, unsurprised to see smoke rising from the chimney within. The light in Barry’s workshop was on, and the scent of grease mingled with monster meat heavy in the air.

“What’s on the menu?” Ethan chuckled to himself, finding Amelia standing in the kitchen. Avalara, the cottage ghost, stood behind her giving instruction.

“Seared monster meat with… what are those?” Amelia gestured with a spatula to a pile of gray-brown mushrooms.

“A type of spirit mushroom.” The ghost floated higher, poking in exasperation at the mushrooms. “You must still cut them.”

Ethan found the nearest knife and got to cubing the mushrooms. He sucked at cooking, but could at least cut things. Or so he thought. Apparently, his chopping prowess wasn’t satisfactory enough for the ghost. He got yelled at. A lot.

“What’s Barry doing?” Ethan finally got the mushrooms looking good enough for the ghost, giving him some breathing room from her ire.

“Repairs on his War Rig. I think we have today and tomorrow off from rescue missions.” Amelia finished frying the strips of monster meat. It was hard to tell which kind of monster they came from, but the smell was something like seared beef. With any luck, it was something high-Ranked. “I think we’re joining with some other first-years to do organized drills.”

“What is that… exactly?”

Amelia laughed as she plated some of the food. It wasn’t food designed to tantalize a person, but to maximize the amount of energy a person could draw from it. Ethan wouldn’t complain about steak and mushrooms, though. “Depends on what they get up to. Some professors from Duskthorn are here talking about stealth and recon.”

Ethan perked up. “Are they bringing any students?”

Amelia’s head slowly turned, then tilted to the side. “Why would you care?”

“Because he wants to steal their abilities.” Avalara nodded with approval. “Which is a great idea, since he’s focused far too closely on the magic of Gale House.”

“Sure, but what use does he have of stealth?” Amelia brought the plates to the dining room table, in the space Ethan had expanded to be absurdly large.

“Who knows what combinations I could make?” Ethan sat down at the table.

Amelia tutted. “Go fetch Barry. He’ll work on that War Rig all morning if you don’t force him in here.”

“Tenalia? Can you fetch the peasant?”

“Peasant work is for peasants.” Tenalia plopped onto the ground, pushing her visor back to reveal her wooden face. The visor fell down moments later and she grumbled. “You do it.”

Ethan sighed, standing and performing a dramatic bow. “Yes, your highness.”

As Ethan marched across the lawn of his cottage, he thought about how useful stealth would be. His encounter with the dragon, and a few unsavory things within Voidspace was enough to push him toward that goal. But there were combinations he could make in his Rank 1 rings that might be super helpful. It was all a matter of cramming every spell he could find together, and hoping for good results.

Barry’s workshop was absurdly big. It was Ethan’s crowning achievement with Spatial Magic, and something he had been scolded for using before. Some time god came along to slap him on the wrist. Apparently, expanding and contracting large swathes of the planet repeatedly wasn’t good for space-time. He had been restricted to using it as ritual magic, which he adapted to enchantments. The goal of all this wasn’t even to do Spatial Expansion, but as a stepping stone to Dimensional Magic.

What better way to understand Voidspace?

“Come on!” Ethan tripped over something that looked suspiciously like the suspension system to the War Rig. “You can’t just go leaving half a car around.”

“My workshop, my rules.” Barry was somewhere, but Ethan couldn’t quite see him. The magitech mechanic must’ve been underneath the armored personnel carrier, tinkering away. “We hit some pretty nasty bumps on that last trip. And a few over-fed goblins.”

Ethan got on his hands and knees, crawling to peer beneath the vehicle. There he spotted Barry, covered in a layer of grease as he tinkered away. “Amelia is going to beat you senseless if you make her late for the stealth training.”

“She can go alone.”

Ethan hummed to himself, watching as the mechanic reattached something that looked more sci-fi than fantasy. “Your life is forfeit if you make her go alone.”

“Then you go with her.”

Setting his jaw, Ethan shook his head. “You’re gonna die. She made breakfast.”

“Maybe one day. But not today.”

There was no helping Barry. Ethan might’ve been bad with women, but he could see the bond forming between the pair. If he was too braindead to see it, that was his own fault. With a shrug, he eventually left the workshop. There was nothing there for him, unless he wanted to emulate the magitech system. That was a whole level of complexity he didn’t have the brain capacity for right now. Understanding enchantments was hard enough as it was, so he had no desire to add another layer to that.

“Leave the artifices to the artificers.” Ethan nodded to himself. He might as well have patted himself on the back for being so incredibly lazy. Eventually, he came back to the dining room, sitting at the table and picking up his fork and knife. “Barry doesn’t want to go anywhere.”

It took a while for the scribe to notice the stare of death Amelia had shot him. Tenalia and Avalara both made scandalized noises. Ethan looked up, and spotted the glare he was getting.

“What?”

Amelia slammed down a bundle of silverware, then rushed outside. The amount of magic that came from the workshop next was concerning. Ethan ensured he had his travel power and a barrier slotted in his rings before she came back. And when she did come back, Barry followed closely behind her with his shoulders slumped.

“There. See? You just need to ask him correctly.” Amelia took her seat at the table, pushing the plates into a more perfect position. “I swear.”

“Perhaps this is the end.” Tenalia appeared at Ethan’s side, placing a comforting, cold, armored hand on his arm. “Think you could take her in a fight?”

“Maybe he could. But I’ll take at least an arm with me.” Amelia clapped her hands. “Now, if you boys want to get a lesson from the best scout on the planet, you’ll eat quickly.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Barry started eating, although his pace was slow.

“Your ladyship.” Ethan bowed his head, prepared to dodge a bolt of lightning at any moment.

Amelia puffed up. “I quite like that title.”

“You’ve done it now.” Tenalia growled, looking at the elf with fear. “You’ve unlocked a genetic recognition of greatness. She’ll be an empress before the year is out.”

Chapter 2

Blow Everything Up

The students in Gale House were officially used to the strange cycle of the trials. Looking at the prospect of a world-wide trial was intimidating at first. Most people couldn’t understand what it meant, and Ethan wouldn’t blame them. He was right there with them, holding images of hordes of goblins destroying everything in sight in his mind. But those images didn’t come to pass. What he found was a very organized theme park, where the people counting the tickets were incredibly powerful adventurers from off-world, and the highly experienced professors who taught within the academies.

“I think we’re early.” Amelia led the charge, helping the group push through the crowd.

The outer area of Gale House City had been labeled as a Green Zone, which meant no monster would be allowed to pass through magical barriers until the demonstration started. This was one of the “theme park” areas Ethan had observed before. It was a specialized section of the trial that acted more like a large-scale classroom than anything else. It was yet another thing he appreciated when compared to university education back on Earth.

Even if the mages of Gale House had no use for stealth abilities, they could learn a lot from those people who knew how to sneak around well.

“Can’t hurt to learn a few Rogue tricks.” Barry stretched, then flexed a bunch. He made sure to rotate his torso toward those mages that gawked at his absurd bulk. As always, the man was shirtless. “Kinda hot out today, isn’t it?”

“No. It is never, and has never been hot.” Ethan sighed, trying and failing to find the stealth-type adventurers from Duskthorn House. “I’m gonna get a better look, guys. To steal an ability, I need a decent view and a lot of concentration.”

“Good luck.” Barry gave the thumbs-up, but frowned. “Wish I could jump that high…”

Focusing on his System Leap ability, Ethan shot into the air, startling everyone around him. He looked, easily finding the group of students and professors from Duskthorn House. He then found a rooftop that would be decent enough for him to perch from and used System Platform to dash on over. It was a bit too far to hear perfectly, but that’s what the bracelet was for.

“Recording.”

“Just identify abilities I could use. Focus your efforts on the low-rankers.”

“Clearly.”

“What do you think, Tenalia?” Ethan scratched his chin, legs hanging over the building’s edge. “Is there any value in stealth abilities?”

“Stealth?” The puppet was climbing up the building’s edge. She hadn’t sat on Ethan’s shoulder when he had jumped. “Nah. Look for movement and escape abilities. I mean… sure, going stealth can be helpful. But you’re not going to get true invisibility unless you’re higher in the Ranks.”

“Fair enough…”

The group of Duskthorners down below finally got into their lesson. Ethan should’ve expected, but they opened up with a lecture on tactics. Specifically, the short, bald man who led the lesson spoke about positioning during combat as it concerned wide-scale conflicts. That went against what the scribe had expected to hear. He thought they were going over individual stealth tactics, but his bracelet absorbed the information all the same. Finding himself rather bored with the lecture, he summoned the system screen for his bracelet to go over things.

[Scribe’s Bracelet]

Celestial Ranking Bracelet

Description:

Once a powerful Celestial-grade bracelet belonging to a greedy king, this item has been reforged. A complex circuit made from pure celestial energy has been imprinted on this item.

Circuit:

Memory Block (25 Units).

4x Processing Block (Rank 1).

4x Processing Block( Rank 2).

Projector Block (Rank 1).

Coprocessor Block (Rank 2)

Learning…

“Celestial…” Ethan breathed the words, not sure what he thought about that. But he was pleased with the way it had progressed. His bracelet, currently codenamed Skynet, was a beast. It had gone from holding a single memory block and a single processor to the powerhouse it was today. It used to take hours to compare two books. Now, it could take seconds depending on the length of the books in question.

Next, Ethan turned his attention to his rings. He frowned right when it popped up.

[Attribute Rings]

Strength 1

[Agility Ring]

Dexterity 1

Vigor 1 (Clean Body)

[Endurance Ring]

[Affinity Ring]

[Mind Ring]

“That’s just not a good way to display the information.” Ethan grumbled, trying to imagine how he could make the screen better.  Eventually, he sighed when he couldn’t think of anything else.

Attribute Rings were an invention of his own making… Well, the system helped a lot, but the ring concept was mostly his idea. When an attribute appeared without brackets, that meant it just had one ring. “Hmmm… how about this?”

[Attribute Rings]

Strength (1 ring)

Agility (2 rings)

…

Ethan shook his head. It wasn’t very pleasing to the eye, and didn’t actually give him all the information at a glance that he wanted. Eventually, all his rings would be at least Rank 2. So he didn’t want there to be a difference between the way rings were displayed. Anyway, each category, such as Strength, was a family of rings, not a singular ring. The more rings he had in an attribute represented a depth to that category.

Maybe something like…

[Attribute Rings]

Strength (1:2)

Agility (1:2, 2:1)

Ethan scratched his head in frustration. “Still too confusing…”

A heartbeat later, Ethan went rigid. Something cold pressed against his throat. The scribe raised his hands slowly in surrender, a grimace forming on his face as he turned slightly.

A woman, smelling kinda like the worst swamp in the world, tutted. “Now, why would we make any sudden moves like that?”

Ethan stopped right away, brows furrowing in confusion. “Hey, I recognize that voice…”

“Been a while.” The knife came away from his throat as the elf swung around, tossing her legs over the edge and grinning broadly. “Glad to see the dragon didn’t eat you.”

“Who is this harlot?” Tenalia had fallen a few times, but had finally brought herself up to the roof. She drew her large sword, ready to do battle.

Before Ethan could object, Sybil had pulled him into a tight hug. “Seriously. Been a while. And I still haven’t properly thanked you for that haul. We’re rich!”

Ethan pushed, trying his best to remove himself from her grasp. “Don’t mention it. Seriously, don’t say a word. I think that dragon is still looking for me.”

“Hah! It is!” Sybil slapped him on the back, looking down at the group below. “You know, when they asked for volunteers for a Gale House lesson, I jumped at the chance.”

“He made that much of an impact on you?” Tenalia asked. She still had her sword out. Perhaps she was just itching for a fight.

“And who are you, little… atomaton?”

“I am Tenalia.” The puppet bowed low. “And I’m a soulbound puppet. I see you are of my kin. We will be great friends.”

“Kin?” Sibyl barked out a laugh. “Not sure I have many puppets in my bloodline.”

Ethan shook his head. “She’s the conceptual spirit of a group of elves. I don’t really know much about them, but they’re the Kuzanite tradition.”

Sibyl’s face darkened considerably. Perhaps she didn’t mean to, but she pulled at her short, black hair, her eyes flashing with something Ethan couldn’t quite discern. “I relate more to my human side.”

“Whatever floats your boat.” Ethan shrugged.

Although Tenalia didn’t seem to think the human side was worth talking about, she could mostly read the room. She nodded her puppet head and sat on the roof, peering from… wherever it was she saw from.

“I’m learning that the Kuzanite elves are complicated.” Ethan nodded to himself, eager to move on. He was more interested in a Rogue ability lesson than a history lesson. “Anyway, this is my first Trial. Didn’t expect to see people from other houses.’

Just like Tenalia, Sibyl was quick to allow the subject to roll off of her shoulders. “That’s right. Most people don’t think about it with us Rogues… thieves and all that… but we’re really good at scouting and tactics. Many of our graduating students go off into the wider universe, usually War Worlds, for exactly that.”

“Interesting. I’m eager to see what they’re going to do.”

“Yet, you’re watching from up here.” Sibyl laughed. “Interesting way to learn.”

Ethan cleared his throat. “Anyway, where is Gideon? Doing the Trial in his own way?”

“If you mean ‘fighting an army for no reason,’ yeah. He’s doing it in his own way.” Sibyl scoffed. “We’re getting to the point where we know we’ll never be in the top 100. Not even in the top 10 of our groups. The geniuses are really shining this year. How about you?”

“About the same, actually. But, I’ve been distracted and lacking focus.” Ethan scratched at his head, realizing a big weakness at that moment. “Actually, that gives me a few ideas. I’ve been scrambling around looking for my strengths, but I could give scouting a try.”

“Bah! Screw that.” Tenalia crossed her arms. “Let’s just blow everything up and call it a day.”

“Okay. I like the puppet.” Sibyl scooted closer to Tenalia.

Ethan’s attention waned from the conversation. The bracelet played a loop of the audio from down below into his mind and he perked up. “How effective is the Stealth ability?”

“Which one?” Sibyl giggled, slapping him in the arm. “Even within Duskthron, I know of at least 5 different versions. The standard version of the Stealth ability makes things less likely to detect you, based on an attribute. There’s one that makes you invisible for about 10 seconds, but that’s a Rank 5 ability. There’s another that you can only use when someone notices you, making you invisible for about 5 seconds. Stealth is about way more than that, though.”

“What about travel powers?”

Sibyl narrowed her eyes. “Why are you so interested in my class?”

Ethan rolled his shoulders. “I’m just… like… a scholar.”

“Uh-huh. How about you get down there and participate? They’re going to go over scouting a city that’s been taken over.” Sibyl had a sly smile on her face. “You escaped a very determined dragon. I’m sure spotting a few goblins would be easy for you.”

Ethan wasn’t so sure about that. Maybe if the folks from Duskthorn house let him jump around like a jackrabbit. But ground-based scouting wasn’t something he was very interested in. Yet to get those abilities he wanted, he needed to be close to people around Rank 1 or 2. There was just no way to know if they would be a good fit for his various Rings until he emulated the class and learned some abilities. If anything, it was a good distraction from his current goals.

“This unit has gathered some information from the lecture. Shall I distill the essence of it for you?”

Ethan cracked his knuckles, pushing off from the side of the roof. “Sure.”

Sibyl made a surprised sound, but soon came down after him. She was even more shocked when he landed without dying. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“I evaded a dragon. I can handle a roof.”

“Guess you’re right.”

“Ahem. Anyway, the core of the lecture wasn’t anything we aren’t aware of. The representatives from Duskthorn House brought students and teachers alike to give a few lectures on the importance of stealth during scouting. The focus wasn’t on abilities, but rather how stealth is more than just being unseen. Instead, stealth, in this context, is everything. From being detected, to ensuring you leave no traces.”

“Interesting,” Ethan said, tapping his chin as he approached his friends. He snapped his fingers, realizing that his new hanger-on was still right behind him. “Barry, Amelia, this is Sibyl. I helped her steal a dragon’s treasure.”

Barry blinked a few times. “Oh, yeah. That’s a totally normal thing to say.”

“A pleasure.” Amelia bowed. “Now, let’s go. I don’t want to miss the roaming lecture.”

Chapter 3

Rogue Lesson

And the lecture did roam. Ethan did his best to be the best student he could be, but what he really wanted was to snipe a few abilities. Even if he wasn’t sure what could be useful, the only way to figure it out was to try. The group moved through the safe parts of the city, going over practical examples, but displaying no abilities. The scribe’s focus rested on those guest students low enough in rank for him to emulate. And when the group finally departed from the goblin-free areas, he got his chance.

A real-world demonstration.

[System Emulation]

Would you like to emulate the X-13 system at Rank 2, Level 4, with the Rogue class?

Y/N

The familiar energy of the Grand System washed over Ethan as he assumed the role of a rogue. As his target moved forward through the ruined streets of the city, the energies of an ability gathered in their chest. The scribe assumed a similar squat pose, doing his best to understand how to generate the stealth-based ability. But no matter how many weird looks he got from those around him, or how closely he stuck to the shadows, he couldn’t make it happen.

“This unit is analyzing the ability, but… it doesn’t have a method for quantifying such things yet.”

“I hate doing things by feel.” Ethan grumbled, and Amelia giggled.

“You look like a duck.” Amelia pointed and laughed.

“Nah, my man is just doing some squats.” Barry assumed the same pose. “Never skip leg day.”

“I’m trying to feel this ability out.”

“This unit suggests focusing your mind on being unseen more than anything.”

The bracelet’s suggestion brought Ethan out of his own thoughts, allowing him to do what was important. With the Qi breathing technique he learned from Luna, it was mostly about doing it over and over. But this was a totally different system. The X-13 system was more structured, based around using abilities. One didn’t know how to use them. They just activated them from a list. Well… at least at the lower ranks.

Moving through the streets, and observing many displays of the stealth ability, Ethan felt something bubbling in his mind. The bracelet steered him from one way to the other, and even if he wasn’t getting the hang of the ability right away, the lecture itself was very interesting. Group movement, scouting, retreats… They were all useful in their own way. Perhaps he would do most things solo, but there were certainly times where group efforts were needed.

“Woah!” Barry shouted, whipping around after the group of Gale House students had rounded a corner. “Where did he go?”

Ethan had barely noticed how his vision had gone blurry, the edges tinged a shade of gray. “What?”

“You’ve vanished, Ethan.” Amelia probed in the air with her hands, searching for the now-invisible man.

Of course, he wasn’t truly invisible. Ethan had found a patch of very dark shadows, and had clung to them with the concept of absolute stealth in his mind. A moment later, the system message he had been expecting popped up.

[Lesser Stealth Emulated]

You have successfully emulated the X-13 Rogue spell, Lesser Stealth. This spell has been added to your library, allowing you to attach it to an Attribute Ring outside of Emulation Mode. You may also now cast this spell freely while inside Emulation Mode.

“This unit believes it has an idea of why that worked. First comes the higher rank of the system, and next comes your personality. Despite the ease of use most X-13 abilities and spells have, this is a concept alien to you.”

“Are you saying I’m bad at hiding?” Ethan dropped his stealth, inspecting his new ability.

“Yes.”

[Lesser Stealth]

Emulated Rank 2 Ability (X-13)

Description:

Stick to the shadows, falling into a lesser form of Stealth. Those who can perceive you well enough break this effect.

Effect:

So long as you are not observed, you will remain in stealth.

Detection puts this ability on cooldown by an amount depending on your Rank.

“Not immediately useful, but I can see a combination working well enough.” Ethan watched as a group of Gale House students performed a practiced retreat. They were actually getting pretty good at slipping around corners and hiding. “Let’s see what else we can get.”

Infinite combinations meant infinite work. So Ethan watched, spotting a super-useful short-range shadow jumping technique that was well out of his range. But as the rogues fought, often from the shadows, he spotted an unexpected ability. It was something most of the members of the Duskthorn House had active most of the time. Now that the scribe had a feel for the class, he sketched that ability. Not with his pen, but by feel.

“Interesting technique. The energies related to the ability you’re attempting to emulate are building faster than expected.”

“I think I got this one.” Ethan had assumed a seated position on some rubble and was flicking his hands around, probing things as that sensation of lightness raced through his touch. When the instant came when he realized what the ability was, the system popped up, confirming he had learned it. He inspected the Light Touch ability.

[Light Touch]

Emulated Rank 1 Ability (X-13)

Description:

Your touch, and everything you control, becomes light. Interacting with anything leaves a lesser effect. Your strikes become less noticeable; your touch less there.

Effect:

Ability is maintained until canceled.

Your touch is light, as though it is almost not there. This effect extends to weapons you use, steps you take, etc.

“So, that’s how they move so silently to begin with.” Ethan chuckled to himself, wondering if this was some secret of the Rogues.

Like most things in the academy, the lessons went on longer than they needed to. The philosophy seemed to be that those who would get it could move on, while those that needed more time to soak in material would benefit greatly. Ethan had absorbed all he cared to, aside from an ability he had seen out of the corner of his eye. Whatever it was, the Rogues didn’t want to use it often. For now, he focused on another way to gain some points.

“I’ll monitor your mana levels. Please feel free to cast the mana-hungry spell.”

Smiling to himself, Ethan placed his always-upright staff to the side and considered the best way to earn the most points. The group of Rogues had led them through many parts of the dangerous zones outside the central city. In those areas, homes, businesses, and other buildings had been completely destroyed. The structures that survived the best during all the raiding of the goblins were the walls. Focusing on his Lesser Repair Structures spell, the scribe sucked in a breath of fresh mana.

“You’re getting better at that.”

Whether it was with the manual technique taught to him by Luna, or the one he had slotted in his Mind Ring, Lesser Mana Siphon, gaining vast amounts of mana was needed for this spell. One gatehouse had been thrashed by the goblins, large stones cast to the ground with the metal portcullis in the center rocked from its recess in the wall. Glowing Creation Magic soaked into the destroyed structure, stones floating or appearing from nothing as his mana drained to nothing.

Ethan opened his siphon completely, the swirling energies around him joining to replenish his soul. The bracelet ensured he never cast more mana than he had, avoiding the uncomfortable sensation that came with drawing upon more power than he could offer. The result was staggered flashes of light, and stages of repair that immediately caught the attention of the students around them. After sorting out the gate, the scribe turned his attention to the walls, then the surrounding buildings.

He didn’t notice how the class, and the instructors, had glued their eyes to him. Only when the silence was too loud to ignore did he snap out of his concentrated effort.

“Oh.” Ethan licked his lips, remembering that Creation Magic was not a thing. He looked to the wall that had once been completely destroyed, spotting the new bricks he had created from mana. Yeah, he’d be impressed too if he could get out of his own head for a few more moments. “Sorry to interrupt."

Sybil’s arm fell heavily over Ethan’s shoulder and she brought him in close. Close enough for him to smell the industrial-strength cleaner she called soap. “That’s… not normal.”

The longer Ethan stood there, unanswering, the more those around him went back to normal. How far had word spread of his abilities and how used to his antics were the other students? Of course, it was the Gale House students who went about their business first. The Rogues lingered for a while longer before getting back to giving a lesson. At least they took the newly repaired gate as a teaching opportunity related to retreating behind a big metal portcullis. Sybil stayed, and the scribe consulted his thoughts and the bracelet, before a random Rogue performed… something.

A human woman dashed forward, covering about ten feet in an instant. She stopped with a skid, then wobbled to one side before falling over. A familiar energy flowed through Ethan’s chest.

“What ability was that?”

Sybil laughed, slapping him on the shoulder. “Springstep. That one requires quite a lot of training.”

“Because it makes you dizzy?” Narrowing his eyes, Ethan watched the effects on the Rogue.

“It makes you confused. You see things when you use the ability.” Sybil released her grasp on the scribe, leaning to one side. “Why?”

“I doubt that’s the way the ability is meant to function. This unit suspects there’s a bug with the ability.”

“A Rank 1 ability with a high skill ceiling?” Ethan shook his head. He didn’t believe it for a second, not least of which when the ability itself wasn’t that good. He suspected the person didn’t teleport. Rather, they just sprung forward, as the name suggested, quickly. “That doesn’t track with the X-13 system. Something is wrong with that ability… Think you can get them to use it some more for me?”

“Why?” Sybil asked. “Why would you care?”

Ethan rolled his shoulders, puffing out his chest. “I can fix it.”

Sybil narrowed her eyes, suspicion spreading across her face.

“He can.” Amelia trotted over, followed closely behind by her faithful dog, Barry.

“Yeah, what do you have to lose?” Barry puffed up, matching Ethan’s pose and then some. “Just make sure those people are low-Rank.”

Sybil stood there for some time, but eventually ran off. She had a conversation with some Rogues, who looked even more confused than she was. Eventually, they shrugged and began dashing around. At the end of each dash, they wobbled to one side and the other. Only when those of a higher Rank used the ability did the wobbling stop. Apparently, they didn’t have a better version of the ability. They were just used to the disorienting effect.

Ethan crouched, running forward a few times. He had the concept of the Rogue class in his mind, and all the reasons why Springstep would be useful. Without those foundational concepts, it would’ve taken hours to get a handle on the ability. But with so many Rogues performing a low-Rank ability, he caught on fast. It didn’t take long for the system’s message to appear.

Unfortunately, it came at a cost.

Springing forward, Ethan watched the world around him shift. One moment he was standing on a spot, and the next moment he was standing on another one, ten feet away. The ruined city around him swam, his eyes seeming to track a random pattern without his command. Being dizzy was one thing, but this was different. And it got a whole lot weirder when the images appeared. Dancing visions of cartoon characters danced before him, each of them producing belly laughs. The sound reverberated in his head, but soon diminished thanks to the bracelet.

“Suppressing images generated by the ability’s effect. This unit is confused as to why the Rogues have been seeing this for so long and thought it was normal.”

The bracelet might’ve gotten rid of the images, but the dizziness was still there. Ethan rubbed his eyes, reading the message that had caused all these problems.

[Springstep Emulated]

You have successfully emulated the X-13 Rogue spell, Springstep. This spell has been added to your library, allowing you to attach it to an Attribute Ring outside of Emulation Mode. You may also now cast this spell freely while inside Emulation Mode.

Chapter 4

Springstep

Although Ethan had kind of expected it, repairing structures was an amazing way to gain points. After discovering the faulty ability, he spent a fair amount of time with the rogues repairing the gates. It wasn’t part of their demonstration, but they were happy enough to watch the use of Creation magic. It was a sight rare enough that most of them would likely spend their entire lives never seeing it again unless they happened to return to the scribe. He now dominated the leaderboard for Hydra Group, and was shooting up within the first years’ of Gale House.

As the lesson was breaking up, Ethan stood watching as the Rogues gave one final tip about remaining hidden without using an ability. Was his goal to shoot to the top of the leaderboards and get some magical item, or was it to broaden his skills? Maybe it was the opposite. Maybe the thing he desired most was to narrow his skills to a point so that he wasn’t wasting his time with unnecessary things. The problem with the System Scribe class was that he could do anything, which was as likely to lead to indecision paralysis as anything else.

“Are you coming for dinner?” Amelia asked, breaking Ethan from his thoughts. 

The scribe blinked a few times and nodded tentatively. “I’ve got a lot of work to do on this ability, but sure.”

Of course, if Ethan failed to take in his prescribed amount of monster meat per day, Tenalia would smack him upside the head. Barry might even join in since the man’s fitness regime was the only thing propelling him towards higher ranks for his physical-based rings. But all the way back to his seaside cottage, he couldn’t help but think about the best way to approach patching this ability. It wasn’t like working with the others. He found it much more difficult to imagine it as anything other than an ability belonging to the X-13 system. He needed to decompose it and get into the guts of the ability.

Ethan was the first to enter the cottage, pausing for a moment at the threshold to look up, finding Avalara floating in the air, far more semi-transparent than she normally was. When he went to say something, her head turned, surprising him and resulting in a slightly panicked look on her face. A moment later, she was gone.

“Well, that was weird.” Barry pushed past everyone else, found his seat at the table and reclined in a chair.

“Oh no, you don’t. You’re going to help me make food.” Amelia grabbed him by the arm, hoisting him to his feet and dragging him toward the kitchen. “If you want to eat through Ethan’s money, you’re going to do the work for it.”

Ethan cracked his knuckles, found a chair, and reclined. He caught Barry’s eye before the man vanished into the kitchen and winked. This slightly incensed him, but Amelia was there to smack him upside the back of the head.  

“So what’s the deal with this new ability?” Tenalia found her own chair, although she couldn’t recline. Her legs hung, dangling over the edge as she kicked them.  

“I’m not very good at this, but I need to decompose an ability rather than a spell. The spells are easy because you can represent them as a network of sigils. Abilities don’t have that advantage.”

Tenalia tapped her armored hand against her helmet and hummed. “I’m not sure I can be very helpful here.”

Rather than rely on the puppet’s knowledge, Ethan instead focused on getting a better understanding of the ability. He emulated the rogue system and dashed around his overly large living room. The bracelet ran an analysis on everything as he went, and eventually they generated a system sigil for it. He could now apply it to one of his rings, but that hardly seemed helpful. At least they had a place to work backward from, but it was time to eat.

Amelia and Barry had done something interesting with the monster meat. They had diced it, cooked it in some cream sauce, and put it over noodles. Even the noodles were made from spiritually significant wheat, meaning that the entire dish would provide quite a lot of energy for their bodies. It reminded the scribe of Beef Stroganoff, and he was all too happy to dig in. The flavor didn’t really match, but it was still quite good. If the energy flooding through his body was anything to go by, his rings would see some decent progress from the meal.

“Looks like we’re never gonna catch up to you,” Berry said with a dramatic sigh. “Did you have to go around repairing all those buildings?”  

“Don’t blame me because I’m using the tools I’ve been given.” Ethan allowed himself a private smirk but tried not to gloat. His goal wasn’t to get to the top of the list, but it was tempting not to use the abilities he had been given. “Besides, the both of you are doing really well for yourselves, even if you’re not at the top of Hydra Group.” 

“The goal of the trials is to show what you’ve learned. The rewards are very good, but you really want to be focusing on finding your strong points and shoring up your weak points.” Amelia had a proper way about her most of the time, and this was no different.  

Ethan couldn’t help but think back to when she was manically atop the APC, firing magical lasers off at goblins and screaming with delight. Soon the conversation faded enough for the scribe to focus on his work. After an hour, when both Amelia and Barry had excused themselves from the table, he found himself blinking and staring into the middle distance.

“Are you running any simulations on this bracelet?”

“This unit believes it will be better for you if you do the work on this one.”

“Which means you decomposed the sigil correctly. Come on, I’m cheating all the time. Just let me continue to cheat.”

“The lesson here is too important. Here’s a hint: you already figured it out, you’re just too stubborn to realize it.”

Frowning at the statement, Ethan considered what he had done that he had forgotten he had done. It was a confusing riddle posed by the bracelet, but soon he was up and pacing, racking his mind as to what he could have missed. The point of the entire ordeal was to understand the difference between the things he could break apart. When he broke apart an anomaly, it was exactly like breaking apart a spell. He simply had to map out each of the sigils and draw the corresponding arrays. These conceptual architecting efforts were simple, since it was basically painting by numbers. But when using the ability, no such sigils appeared.

For some, it would have been embarrassingly long. Ethan spent about three hours using the ability, poking at the air with his pen and humming in dissatisfaction. But the bracelet had faith in him, and just as the scribe’s mind wandered to the void spaces, he froze. After a few tense moments of complete silence, punctuated only by Barry’s snoring in the other room, Ethan snapped his fingers.

“Concepts.” Ethan grumbled to himself, closing his eyes and bringing that feeling of the Springstep ability into his mind. “Is everything in the ‘advanced’ category going to be concepts?”

“Took you long enough.”

The whole reason Ethan could travel through void space was because he could latch on to a concept. His theory was that his ability to work with any field of magic meant he had some affinity with everything that allowed him to latch on to the concept and draw himself towards it, creating the door. But why was a concept such as the Springstep ability any different? Before long, he was in the back garden, eyes closed as he listened to the sound of the sea in the distance.

Ethan’s pen moved through the air as he felt the unfamiliar concepts of the ability. He could guess ‌half of the array was now that he was thinking about it, and the conceptual information that seemed to flood into his mind filled in the rest. Before long, he opened his eyes, tilting his head to one side as he tried to understand the array before him. It was fairly intricate for a first-Rank array, but all the elements that made up the ability were there. Even the strange section near the bottom that created an affliction upon the user.

“My question is, why would something like this be at the base of a spell? Why would it default to creating illusions in the mind of the user?” Ethan looked at the array from different angles, wondering how it would interact with his rings if he were to slot it as it was. Perhaps the confusing images would double in power and drive the user insane. Since the user was him, he wasn’t eager to try it out.

“Is this the part where you want a hint?”

Ethan wasn’t opposed to doing the occasional puzzle, but often he didn’t seek them out. He did like solving problems, but he wasn’t the kind of guy who would go and do hidden object games. Instead, he set his jaw and looked at the projected array. If something was there, it was likely not by accident. He picked it apart, looking at each sigil and considering what it did. He had it narrowed down to a group when he finally fell down onto the lawn and stared up at the starry sky.

“Having trouble tonight, are we?” Avalara’s soft voice floated through the yard. Ethan rolled over, spotting her near the back door.  

How the ghost had come to inhabit the cottage was still a mystery, and there were even more things to consider if the scribe thought about it for too long. A few things about her haunting didn’t make sense, but she had been such an excellent houseguest that he hadn’t had the heart to bring it up to her. He wanted to remain in this balanced life for longer. As was his nature, he wanted to remain in this pattern forever.

Even if that was impossible.

“I think I’ve got most of it.” Ethan brought himself to his feet, dusting himself off and rotating the arrays so she could see them. “There’s this section here that creates illusions in the mind of the user. My theory is that it’s supposed to affect a single target other than the user.”  

The bracelet made a sound like a buzzer, showing that he was wrong.  

“Really? I thought I had it.” Ethan folded his arms, looking down at his bracelet and frowning.  

“You’re close, but you’re still missing one component. I suggest you consider the leap ability possessed by the warriors of the X-13 system.”

“Unfortunately, you have all my books. And I didn’t know you had information on the Leap ability.”

Avalara cleared her throat. “Sorry. This one-sided conversation is strange.”

Ethan chuckled to himself, explaining the situation to the ghost. Once he had cleared things up, she laughed, nodding to the bracelet with approval.

“Yes, I see what she’s saying. Perhaps you should look at the targeting section of the array, and you might find your solution.”

“You think the bracelet is female as well?” Ethan asked, scratching his head. “Thought I was just… projecting.”

“She has ‌very feminine energy. I’m just shocked you haven’t named her yet.”

Ethan wouldn’t argue, but he thought she didn’t want a name. Instead, he digested his new information and shook his head. “Springstep is supposed to daze targets near the caster at the end of the ability. Is that right?”

“Finally, you are correct. Shall we make the adjustments to fix the ability?”

Ethan took a few healthy breaths of the night’s air. He always loved how it had a taste of the sea on it. “Yeah. We get points for fixing abilities, so I think we’ll shoot up on the leaderboard.”

“Oh, you have no idea…”

Chapter 5

Patched

Discovering the problem with the Springstep ability was only part of the issue. Next, Ethan had to find a way to fix it, which he spent the entire night doing. When the morning came and Barry awoke, he was still in the garden doing his work. The key was to find a way for the targeting section to create an area. But that’s when the scribe discovered the problem of friend versus foe.

During his struggles, Ethan got into the spirit and refused any major help from his bracelet. Instead, he suffered through it, working each problem out until he had a viable solution. He didn’t notice when Barry tried to get his attention, nor did he notice when Amelia came to give him food. Instead, he snapped out of it when the pieces finally fell into place.

“Is that it?” Ethan tilted his head from one side to the other, looking at the patch he was working on for the ability. “Do you think the system will want anything more from me?”  

“There’s only one way to find out. This unit suspects you’ve done everything possible to bring the ability closer to what the system originally desired.”

Ethan double-checked his changes and then sent his wheel into the grand system. It wasn’t as quick as it had been before, so the scribe found the food Amelia had placed on a nearby table and dug in. He was absolutely starving after working all night and ate so fast that his stomach hurt. But eventually the message he had expected to see popped up, and he whooped with excitement.

[Springstep Ability Patched]

You have updated the protocol for the Springstep ability, belonging to the Rogue class in the X-13 system. Please wait while the change propagates to all users of this system. This function may take some time.

Reward:

Greatly increase breadth and depth of one Attribute Ring of your choice.

“This wasn’t even the thing I was interested in.” Ethan did a little dance, then choked on his food. Once he had cleared his windpipe, he gave the thumbs-up to no one in particular. “I wanted to fly, not go forward a few steps.”

“This unit doubts the Springstep ability will be very useful. But, it is hard to determine based on our limited information. I recommend combining Wind magic and Gravity magic if you wish to fly.”

That was a good point. Ethan had fallen down this rabbit hole because he was looking for travel powers to make himself fly. This wasn’t an ideal outcome, but patching a faulty ability was a great way to earn points for the trials and to gain a ton of energy for one of his rings. He finally applied changes to his Attribute Ring screen, inspecting it to see if his new format provided enough info, or if it was just as confusing as before.

[Attribute Rings]

Strength R1:2

Agility Ring R1:2, R2:1

Dexterity R1:2

Vigor R1:2

Endurance Ring R1:2, R2:1

Affinity Ring R1:2, R2:1

Mind Ring R1:2, R2:1

Ethan shook his head. “Still too confusing… But at least I have an idea of how to move forward. What would be most useful for us right now?”

“If your plan is to fly, Vigor. That way you’re less likely to die when you fall.”

“When I fall?” Ethan scoffed. “You have that little faith in me?”

The bracelet remained silent.

But Ethan did as he was told, placing the energy he had just gained into the Vigor Ring. He felt it swell in power, bordering on rolling over to the next rank that would give him access to another ring, which would allow him to slot more abilities. Not that he really had much to put into his Vigor Ring. Currently, he only had Clean Body, which he would likely keep forever. It was, after all, the best way to avoid taking time out of his day to take a shower.

After a heavy meal, and an accomplishment like patching an ability, Ethan felt as though he deserved a nap. He instructed his bracelet to wake him in 30 minutes, which it complained about. But 30 minutes was more than he needed to feel refreshed, so it eventually relented. The scribe found the tree with the most shade, lying in the most comfortable position he could. Sleep should’ve been a far-away thing for him. But it came almost instantly.

What little dreams he had in such a short time were strange. Images of different places flashed by until settling on some dim, underground cavern. A crystal shone in the dark, glowing with a kind of familiar energy. Ethan jolted awake, covered in a layer of sweat.

“Are you all right?” the bracelet asked.  

Ethan blinked the sleep from his eyes, standing and holding the image of that cavern in his mind. He couldn’t help but look back at the house where he saw the cottage ghost lingering near the window. After shaking the thoughts from his head, he focused on the task at hand. He had only a few things to concern himself with. First was developing a way to efficiently travel through Voidspace. Next was flying, and the last, and possibly least important, was gaining points for the trial. 

“I’m good. How about you help me catalog some of the information with the Voidspace? I have a feeling we’re going to make some pretty good progress today.”

“If you insist. Whenever you’re ready. I’m already recording information for my analysis.”

Ethan rolled his shoulders, reaching out and focusing on the nearest and safest of the spaces he had tested so far. A handle appeared from nowhere, and he grasped it, turning and pushing the door in to find familiar green fields before him. He stepped in and paused on the other side of the door before it vanished behind him. It would take a minute for the bracelet to absorb the information of the space, so he considered the best use for his new ability.

The most useful ring for a short-range travel ability would be his Agility Ring, but unfortunately, that was occupied. Both levels of his rings were filled with very useful abilities that he wasn’t eager to get rid of. The only time he would replace System Leap was when he devised his flying spell. Since Sketch Rune was the most useful thing to put in his Dexterity Ring, the scribe messed around with it for a while. One ability he created wasn’t exactly useful, but it certainly was interesting.

[Aberrant Maneuver]

Dexterity Ring Ability

Generated By:

Springstep, Solid Foundation

Description:

Channeling Celestial mana into your hands allows you to move as though they were your feet.

Effect:

You can walk on your hands.

“Now, when would that ever be useful?” Ethan’s frown deepened the more he read the ability. He didn’t even want to use it, as the image of him running around on his hand was too weird.

He expected some haughty quip from Tenalia, but quickly realized she wasn’t there. With the bracelet doing calculations, Ethan felt rather lonely in that wide-open field. He focused on a few more combinations but couldn’t find anything that worked well with his newest ability. So he gave up. Some abilities were just going to be a bust, and that was fine. The purpose of using them, learning them, wasn’t to actually use it. In this case, it was for him to fix. But he remembered the Light Touch ability he had also taken from the rogues and got a bit too excited.

[Sketch Subtle Rune]

Dexterity Ring Ability

Generated By:

Sketch Rune, Light Touch

Description:

Allows you to create intricate runes with the lightest of touch. You’re less likely to make mistakes while sketching runes, no matter what type of medium you’re sketching on.

Effect:

Channel mana to create runes.

Runes are less likely to contain mistakes.

The material you’re sketching on is less likely to break during runecrafting activities.

“Oh, that’s quite useful.” Ethan plucked a blade of grass, finding a comfortable spot to sit. “And you know, I see why Trex likes Voidspace. There’s no people. Gives you time to think.”

“Perhaps if you stopped talking…”

Right, there was a task at hand. Ethan focused his mind on the space around him. Currently, he viewed the different areas he could visit as places connected by doors. The problem was that they weren’t really connected by the doors. They were connected in concept. So, from his place in the garden in the back of his house, he could find his way into verdant fields like this, so long as they had some sort of conceptual connection. He doubted he could go from standing on a boat at sea to a cave unless he could link the concept of water by using the waves of the ocean and the dripping water of the cave. It was still unclear how granular he could go with those concepts, but that’s why they were here.

“What do we know about the location the benefactor wishes for us to visit?” the bracelet asked.  

Ethan hummed to himself for a moment, eventually shrugging. “We know it’s at the center of the planet, but how we map these spaces compared to that is anyone’s guess.  

“The center of the planet. That’s enough of a concept for this unit to consider focusing on cave-like concepts. The only problem I see is that you cannot venture here alone. You will need to bring Tenalia. Otherwise, you will die. The spaces are simply too unpredictable.”

“So what’s our approach?” Ethan asked. “Do we just blindly map it out? That doesn’t make much sense to me. It doesn’t seem like a logic-driven process.”

“Information gathering is a logic-driven process. The issue is that we need to map out a few of the spaces before we see some logic. You need to pay attention to which concepts you’re moving, using to move between the spaces. Then we can map some sort of directionality based on those concepts and determine if we’re dealing with a Euclidean space or not.”

Ethan nodded. “Even if we’re talking about a space that doesn’t conform to what we know about three-dimensional spaces, we can still find the logic.”

“And if we don’t, then we know that guesswork is the only way to the center of the planet.”

It wasn’t much of a plan. Ethan understood that what they were planning on doing had nothing to do with understanding more about void spaces. His idea had been to create a spell to help them, but nothing had come up that would be useful. Instead, they would use good old-fashioned logic and some seriously overpowered processing from his bracelet to figure out how to navigate the strange areas. Eventually, the scribe rose to his feet and stretched, eager to get his flying ability working. He focused on completing the task given to him by Armel. After all, that would provide quite a few points.

“Let’s just jump to one more space,” Ethan said, reaching out with his senses and feeling something connected to this space in particular. It was what he would describe as adjacent. Whether that was up, down, left, right, or through some dimension he currently wasn’t aware of hardly mattered. He felt as though it was close.

“Against this unit’s better judgement, it is eager to see what’s beyond another door.”

Ethan reached out, grabbing a handle that shouldn’t have been there. He turned the knob, opened the door, and stepped through. To no one’s surprise, it was very similar to the first space. He was in the center of a forest with tall trees of an alien nature. He couldn’t quite understand them. There was something about the trees that just felt wrong. They weren’t growing in a way that his mind didn’t understand, so it almost seemed better to shut down and just take them at face value.

There were times that Ethan wished he had listened, and others where he had remembered to be diligent. When a barrier sprung up before him, catching in its blue hexagonal plates a shining bit of iron, he was happy to have cast the Lesser System Barrier with the Reactive component on himself. It had responded in an instant and without his command. Looking up from the dagger, the scribe swallowed hard.

“Well, there goes the illusion of safety.”