System Scribe Academy Book 1 - Chapters 101,102,103,104,105

Chapter 101

Evacuation

Barry had created a monster. Ethan sat in the passenger seat, which was unreasonably comfortable, as he observed the features of the vehicle. It was important to note: there was truly only one new thing the mechanic had implemented here. But as the monster of a truck rolled over a steep landscape, and none of the occupants noticed, that feature took center stage. The engine running the beast was just the same motorcycle engine, only scaled up quite a lot. Amelia’s position, standing right behind Ethan and Barry and poking her head out the top, was based on the gun sword. It was a turret, of course. Yet the suspension was absolutely butter-smooth.

“Seriously feels like we’re going over asphalt. A smooth road,” Ethan said, poking his head out the window. They were driving over a vague dirt road that looked more like a game trail. The scribe snapped his head back inside as branches whipped by, nearly slapping him in the face. “You’re making some seriously impressive stuff.”

“Not really.” Barry focused on the path ahead, both hands on the controls. “Basic engine, scaled up and fed an ass-load of liquid mana. Full-sized gun without the sword. Yeah, the Magitech Suspension Struts are impressive, but that’s it. The rest is just excellent materials and heavy armor.”

Ethan nodded. He left out the most important part. An amazing mechanic, who had spent his entire life working on stuff like this, had been given the tools to make his dreams happen. It was the man behind the wheel that made this project happen, not the powers granted by the Grand System. This was an inflection point for the scribe. He realized that, watching as the beast plowed through a small tree without even slowing down.

How good were his skills? Was it really him behind the wheel, or had he let the Grand System drive too much?

“We got a problem!” Amelia shouted down from her perch.

Right behind the driver and passenger seats, there was a strange-looking chair. It allowed a person to sit with their upper body poking out on top of the vehicle. Mounted there, on a swivel, was a version of the gun sword… without the gun. Barry had created a mana-fed turret about the size of Ethan’s arm that could send bolts of energy off like a bullet. A few defiant thumps issued from above them, and Ethan scanned the area.

To the right, emerging through a cluster of trees and bushes, was a small group of diminutive green creatures. Goblins. Their skin held various shades of green and their attire was almost exclusively of the loincloth variety. Wooden arrows tipped with nothing deflected off the side of the APC, inflicting no damage. But Amelia’s gun answered in kind, sending bolts of energy slamming into the group.

“Scouting party, I think.” Barry grumbled, stepping on the proverbial gas. “Make sure to note that. Amelia drew a map of our route.”

Ethan consulted the map he had been given, finding the general area they were driving through. Not only did Amelia grab a bunch of evacuation missions, she also got a few scouting ones while she was at it. The idea was to combine the skills of the group, producing the most amount of points possible.

“Right. Low-rank goblins, right near the bendy part of that river… Twenty of them?” Ethan scratched his head, figuring the note was good enough. “Maybe you can make sensors one day.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of plans. But until I get a few ranks, I’m just sticking to the basics. Understanding how Mana Engines ran was hard enough. Imagine trying to tune something you don’t know a damn thing about.” Barry laughed, swerving to the right to splatter a goblin. “Even that gun sucks ass. Looks like she’s taking five hits for each goblin. I mostly installed it for the shock factor.”

Ethan really hadn’t expected there to be so many monsters already. It was the first day of the evacuation, and the people running this trial saw fit to introduce goblins? He understood that it emulated a real-life situation, but it seemed a bit much. As the group followed their course, aiming to start at the furthest town on their planned route and work their way back, they made note of all the goblins. Running in an arc along their eastern side, and heading northwest, Ethan documented more goblins. He even spotted one dungeon far in the distance over a flat stretch of land.

“First town is coming up,” Barry announced. “Let’s make this quick.”

Ethan checked his map. Amelia hadn’t even labeled it by name, only calling it “stop 1.” If the census information was correct, they would pick up a few hundred people here before dashing off to the next stop. Barry slid the truck to a stop, kicking the mana engine off and rushing to the front of the vehicle. He popped the hood, and got to work on some “unplanned maintenance.” The scribe figured he was simply trying to prevent the very same thing that happened with his motorcycle.

“Let’s go.” Amelia shook Ethan from his thoughts, a manic smile on her face. “Gotta round everyone up.”

“Pop the back first,” Ethan said, rushing around to the back of the truck. He opened it so everyone could see the spatially expanded interior. “That’ll save us a lot of questions.”

Yet they didn’t need to wait long for someone to come calling. An older looking human woman with graying hair and a concerned look on her face came jogging over. She wore a simple dress, and looked pretty tired.

“Is this the evacuation?” she asked, hope bleeding into her words.

“Yup, hop on in!” Amelia shouted.

“We’re normally the last to get out… Half the town is already gone, but you know how old timers get.” The de facto leader of the town bit her lip. “I’m afraid we have about 50 people and your transport won’t be…”

“Yeah, you saw it didn’t you?” Ethan asked, jabbing his thumb back toward the truck. The spatial expansion was obvious, creating a strange illusion that was hard to deny. “Plenty of room, even if seating is sparse."

The woman looked back at the town. It was little more than a cluster of buildings set against a backdrop of forested areas. Most of the citizens who were able-bodied were already outside, confused but ready to get the hell out of there. “We can help with that. Although I don’t know how we’ll keep them down, we can load up some furniture.”

“Right. Amelia, can you get the old folks moving?” Ethan asked. “You’re pretty, and old people like pretty people.”

Amelia went red in the face, but nodded and dashed off.

“I’ll help move the furniture.” Ethan readied a version of Decrease Gravity, using the modifier to force it on a target.

At first, the townsfolk were amazed that their giant sofas weighed almost nothing. But as with all things in a magical world, they got used to the idea. Before long, even the elderly were having fun hoisting cabinets over their heads, or otherwise tossing them around like beach balls. The interior space Ethan had come up with was a freaking warehouse. There was a ton of space for both personal belongings and people, and the best part of it was the suspension.

Ethan and Barry had loaded the furniture from the cottage, just to have something in there. The entire time, the sofa didn’t budge during the trip. No matter how hard they pushed the truck, nothing at all moved. And once everyone was loaded up, they were ready to go once again. Yet Barry was at the truck’s front, messing with the engine. That’s when the scribe heard the sound of movement in the distant forest.

“Go time,” Ethan said. “Need any help refueling?”

Barry pulled his hand away from a device near the front of the engine bay. Ethan didn’t know what the hell he was looking at. He knew a bit about cars, but nothing about a Magitech car. “Yeah, just shoot mana into that thing. It’ll convert any kind.”

Ethan watched as the big man slumped away and employed his mana regeneration techniques to top the engine off. When he spotted a group of goblin scouts bursting through the forest in the distance, he decided that was enough fuel and snapped the hood shut before jumping into the truck.

“Let’s go!” Ethan shouted, slapping Barry on the arm.

The truck peeled out over the dirt road, sending a plume of dust and shots of gravel into the forest. Ethan watched for as long as he could before they dove into another forest.

“That was quick.” Ethan’s brow furrowed. “Why did the monsters show up so quickly?”

The door leading back to the storage area popped open, the older leader appearing with a smile. “We can fight off the low-rank ones. We don’t have many, but we have a few adventurers.”

She meant adventurers that were born on Tal’vengar, and thus could stay here forever. That must’ve been a charmed life.

The adventure continued along Amelia’s prescribed route. She did a great job of both planning their trip, and defending them as they went. But it soon became clear that the goblins didn’t have much of an interest in fighting. They would attack, but those attacks would be half-hearted. The scouts weren’t interested in a full engagement, not that they could keep with the truck anyway.

It had taken them a few hours to get to the furthest point, but much more time to get back. Each town they arrived in was hard to work with, the citizens not understanding that the evacuation was happening so early. But when they arrived at the town nearest to Gale House City, they found it already completely evacuated. Someone had already been around to save them, or perhaps they had saved themselves. Whatever the case, Barry was hooting with excitement when the walls of Gale House City came into view.

The guards at the gate gave them a hard time until Barry fished his badge from his stuff and flashed it. After convincing the guards the truck was totally legit and actually a mode of transport, they were allowed within the city. Navigating the streets was a pain, but they arrived back at the area where Hydra Group was stationed. Professor Eggs was gone, but there were enough administrators there to do a headcount of rescued peoples.

“How many do you have? Five?” a bored-looking elf asked. He marked the name of Ethan’s team down on the page.

“A bit more than five. We’ll need to do a headcount.” Ethan cracked open the doors, revealing the dimensional space within. What happened next was the most drawn-out count of refugees imaginable. At first, the elven administrator was annoyed. Eventually, he was impressed with the sheer volume of people and stuff.

“Three-hundred,” he said, shaking his head with a broad smile on his face. “Is that all, or did you single-handedly destroy all the dungeons while you were at it.”

Amelia popped up from around the truck. Apparently, while they were counting heads, she was working on her report based on the notes Ethan had taken. “Actually, we’re also completing a scouting mission.” She presented the notes to the elf, pressing her finger into the first page of the document. “We concluded the dungeons are spawning in a semi-circle around Gale House. They’re sending scouting units already, which seem reluctant to attack. By tomorrow, the goblin forces might be out, depending on what the scouts bring back.”

The elf stared, mouth open like a fish out of water. “I’m not the best at math,” he said, smacking his lips after realizing he was airing his tonsils out for everyone to see. “But I’m pretty sure you three just jumped to first place for the first years.”

“Damn right we did!” Barry shouted from the front of the truck. “Hydra Group!”

“Hydra Group!” Amelia shouted with far too much enthusiasm.

Chapter 102

Tireless

Barry cranked some magic-looking wrench on the side of his truck. Amelia sagged at the side of the vehicle, dabbing her forehead. Ethan buzzed with excitement, his mind almost overloading as he planned what to do next. He wanted to get all his practical tests out of the way, but there was a problem. His energy levels were high. But night had already fallen over the city. Although his System’s Perseverance buzzed in his mind, the professors needed rest. So did his companions.

“How are you still standing?” Amelia asked, sagging against the side of the truck. “I’m just going to fall asleep here. Goodnight.”

“Seriously.” Barry poked his head from around the front of the truck, shaking his head. “You and your powers… We can’t keep up, man.”

Ethan scratched his chin, eventually biting his lip. He was happy to help them with evacuations, but was there really anything for him to do? Amelia did all the planning for their routes, while Barry drove and kept the truck running. The scribe had already done his part by sketching the Spatial Expansion rune. They didn’t need him to ride along and continue the evacuations. And they certainly couldn’t stay up with him all night to serve the other missions.

“You guys get some rest. I’m going to keep going, perhaps taking some scouting missions.”

Barry blinked a few times, his eyes staying closed longer with each blink. “Okay.”

Amelia was already asleep.

Ethan headed to the Hydra Group headquarters, which was a simple collection of tents in a square. Administrators would be there all day and night to ensure everyone could check in or accept new missions. The important part was that the participants accepted missions before going on them; otherwise, those missions might not count. The scribe saw he was indeed tied for first place in the first-years and Hydra group. But that place wouldn’t last long over the coming week.

Things were simple now, if one had the means to traverse vast distances in a short amount of time. But the evacuation was only one part of the trial, and soon Ethan would have to execute the next part of his plan. With a class that could adapt to absolutely anything, he had to stay on his toes to keep at the top of the points. Just because he hadn’t met them, didn’t mean there wasn’t a group of very talented first-years. And if he looked at the point spread overall, he wasn’t at the top.

The scores expanded in scope. First came the Hydra Group, then the first years. Then, the first two, three, and so on. After that, it was broken into academies and finally the global score. He wasn’t even in the top 1000 in the academy, and his global score was horrible. That meant his goal was to focus on his grade and the Hydra Group scores. Anything else was a pipe dream, and he didn’t plan on killing himself for a few magical items. The most important thing for him was to learn how to thrive under a self-imposed pressure.

The Herald’s words echoed in his mind, and the image of Alex getting stuck at the academy with no aspirations lingered heavily. It would be easy to fall back on his powers, taking the easy way. He could debug the anomalies and class issues easily enough, even if he didn’t try hard.

“Are you going to stare off into space? Or do you need something?”

Ethan had been standing at the counter, lost in his own thoughts when the person behind the counter got his attention. “Oh. Right. Got any scouting missions? Or support missions?”

“Support and scouting…” Flipping through a book, notably not a tablet, which was weird, the man eventually pressed his finger into the page. “Yeah. Got both. Goblin night raids are common, so we have teams running defensive missions near abandoned towns. We also need more information on where the goblins are coming from and in what numbers.”

“I’ll take both of those. And what about fortification or repair missions?”

The man hummed, flipping through the book again. “Yeah, those are very low on the effort to point ratio, though.”

“No penalty for taking them, right?”

“Right, but you can only take so many at a time.”

There was one path Ethan could take, but he didn’t have the tools to do it. Acting as a healer, even if he were on the back line, could be pretty good for his points. The only problem was that he was certain he couldn’t emulate a non-aligned system right now. He’d have to emulate Hallow’s system, and while the guy seemed pretty cool, he just didn’t want to go down that line. Being under a god’s thumb was not an attractive prospect, no matter how nice that god was.

“I’ll take it.”

“Excellent. Based on the information Hydra Group has gathered, I can tell you… wait, you’re the one who brought the information back.” The man scratched his head. “Okay. So, you know where the goblins are. You also evacuated the towns… Excellent. So, there are teams defending the abandoned towns. They’re expecting night raids, and you could repair the town as it is damaged and support the teams there. The area is also scouted lightly, but we’ll need more specific information.”

“Awesome. Thanks a lot.” Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. So the administrators could give them information based on how much information their group had.

With a combination of System Leap, Weightless Agility, and System Platform, he took off into the air. The attendant on the ground was only slightly upset, but Ethan couldn’t really hear the true volume of his shouts as he rocketed away.

The area closest to Gale House City was still completely without monsters. What Ethan quickly learned was that it was incredibly hard to spot monsters from such a height. While he set his bracelet to create a spell for that, he found the first town along the chain. Sure enough, there was a small fire burning in the center of town, and a group of adventurers standing around. They were from various grades, but were mostly Rank 1 first-years.

“Just got some buffs for you guys,” Ethan said, flipping his Affinity Ring between his various buffs onto the group of 10 until they were all experiencing the slight surge to their attributes, and the speed that came with the Haste spell.

Everyone tried to thank him, but Ethan was too busy working on his spells. The bracelet had found a simple spell used by the X-13 system called Night Sight. It was an hour-duration spell that allowed a person to mostly see in the dark. Before taking off into the night’s sky, he cast that on everyone before casting it on himself.

The dark edges of the town sprang to life with color. It was like someone flipped a switch, turning night to a dim version of dawn. Ethan only lingered for a few minutes until his vision adjusted, then took off for some scouting. Without Night Sight, it was impossible to see anything on the ground from an extreme height. The scribe perched on a platform, looking down at one of the more eastern regions between the towns. This was an area known for rough hills and rocky terrain.

And it was teeming with goblins.

“Record this for me,” Ethan said, looking through the transparent platform. “Can you count them?”

“Roughly 300 goblins in range. They make no fires, so spotting them without the Night Sight spell is impossible.”

“Right. That’s a problem, isn’t it?” Ethan rubbed his chin, squinting against the darkness. The problem with these goblin dungeons was, their entrances didn’t put off any light. When the scribe thought he spotted one, he realized it was just a rocky crag, or natural formation he mistook for a dungeon entrance. Getting numbers on the goblins was easy. Finding the exact number of dungeons was impossible. “Can you make predictions on where the dungeons are?”

“In theory, perhaps. But this unit would make guesses with a large margin of error.”

“Tracking numbers and movement will be more important… How much area should we cover?” Ethan asked.

“Based on what? If you wish, you could spend all night tracking the goblin movements. Based on entries in bestiaries, the goblins will eventually release shaman-types. Those are the only types that can threaten you so high in the air. Otherwise, the most efficient route now is to move between the line of towns we already evacuated, cast enhancement magic on the adventurers there, and monitor the goblin situation.”

The bracelet didn’t have enough information to make accurate future predictions like this. It was only a few hundred miles to cover, which with his combination of Agility abilities wasn’t that far. Ethan pushed himself, relying on his artifact to do quick scans of areas below him as he moved along. They gathered a ton of data, building a map of enemy movements, allied adventurers, and even a few dungeons along the way. The scribe worked through the night, exhausting himself a few times which forced him to the ground to regenerate mana.

Even with his many Mind Ring abilities, using System Platform so often was draining. Maintaining a bunch of buffs on himself and dropping them on random adventurers was even worse. But sometime near dawn, before the sun had even appeared above the horizon, the ensconced adventurers pushed outward. Ethan had been relaying information about enemy movements to those adventurers, and they had apparently created a plan.

Skirmishes broke out over the open hills. Adventurers used the information to conduct surprise attacks, catching many of the goblins off-guard. While they were meant to amass for a week, their plan to gather forces was cut short when a bunch of angry first-years barreled into their ranks, reducing pockets of goblins to nothing in short order. After dawn broke, Ethan even spotted Barry’s truck plowing through groups of the monsters, the Magitech gun on the top firing away the entire time.

But the point of the trail wasn’t for the adventurers to win. Ethan watched over the course of the day as the adventurers pushed in. He brought reports back to the city, copying the information from his bracelet and zipping off after delivering it. His quick reports spread through the adventurers, and they now waited for him to help their coordination and his potent buffs.

By noon on Tuesday, the adventurers no longer had easy skirmishes. Thanks to the daylight, Ethan witnessed figures near one dungeon he had spotted. They weren’t goblins. It must’ve been the Dungeon Engineers. Ethan made that conclusion when he watched those people leave and the tide of goblins that came out afterward. It was a sea compared to the skirmishes they had seen before and was part of the acceleration of the attacks.

By Thursday, Ethan was exhausted. He swayed on his System Platform, and the bracelet issued a warning.

“Perhaps you should rest. This unit recommends at least five hours of sleep.”

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Ethan had to get some sleep. He sighed, swinging his legs over the platform’s edge. Below, he watched a group of adventurers running from the advancing goblins. They’d have to create defenses in the various towns, but it was all part of the game. The towns would fall, and everyone would eventually fall back to Gale House City.

That’s when the real fun started.

Ethan jumped his way back to town, returning to his cottage and collapsing into his bed. It was hard not to wonder what the other houses were doing. The point of this trail wasn’t to destroy towns and cities without reason, but to create scenarios to help the students. The one thing the scribe didn’t want to fumble was the promise he made to himself. He had the tools, just like Barry, but now he needed to put them to use.

He’d be disappointed in himself if he couldn’t keep the #1 spot for his grade. Because if he failed to take the spot, perhaps it meant he wasn’t deserving of the power.

Chapter 103

Traps

The trials proceeded as expected. It had started off with goblin scouts probing the periphery of towns and only pushing in when they had the opportunity. Although the adventurers had gone out and disrupted formations for most of the week, the monsters seemed unperturbed. Eventually, they massed their forces and marched on those tiny towns. Ethan did all he could to help the defenders. He buffed them, restored their fortifications, and pushed his class to its limits to make an impact.

But the tide was simply too thick.

By Monday morning, the goblins had claimed every town along that line, and while the loss of structures was concerning, everyone who would have otherwise died, even if only in a simulated scenario, had been safely evacuated to Gale House City. Ethan sat atop one of the exterior walls, watching as smoke rose in the distance. Eventually, those goblins would come to assault the city itself. According to the plan, a few walls would fall. That was all part of the trial, and it would push those in support and defensive positions to their limits.

But true to Professor Egg's words, nobody was in any true danger. During one sortie defending a town, the scribe had witnessed an adventurer rush into the crowd of goblins. When it appeared as though the man would certainly have died, he simply vanished, later to be found in the city completely unharmed. The environment created by the trial was perfect. The pain of death would have been real, but nobody was truly ever going to die. Since it was an accurate simulation where the monsters were real monsters, they behaved in the same way they would in the real world.

"There's no way they'll actually breach these walls. They're too thick, and the goblins are too stupid." Tenalia tapped her armored foot on the edge of the wall. They had jumped up there and settled into a spot. The guards hardly ever patrolled. Not that those same guards would say much if they spotted the student up there. "Somebody will interfere and destroy part of the wall themselves, creating a breach scenario."

"Not like there's much we can do about that. I'm just concerned that we've slipped from the first position."  

“Of course, because we're not wading into the fields destroying monsters by the dozen. How can you expect to compete with Barry's death machine?”

That match was true. Currently, if one wanted to rack up a ton of points, they only had to wade into a field of monsters and kill them all. Ethan wondered if that would decrease over time, but this wasn't a week-long affair. It was six months of practice and learning. There was plenty of time to regain the first-place spot, even if it meant dethroning Barry.

Right now, Ethan's efforts focused almost entirely on supportive actions. Whether that was buffing people or repairing structures, he wasn't doing all that he could. In theory, he could employ his defensive and offensive sides to reap some more points, but he wasn't certain he was interested in casting destructive magic. Maybe there was another way for him to earn points. Combined with all his duties during the trials was his need to solve anomalies. Those anomalies didn't stop just because the dungeons appeared. If anything, they were growing slightly stranger. He encountered one yesterday that appeared to be a regular font-style anomaly but instead was something else entirely.

The anomaly had appeared similar to a Spatial Anomaly, at first only distorting space slightly. He had found it near one of the towns they had evacuated and was immediately reminded of the one in the gully. But upon closer inspection and emulation of the system, he realized that it was an aberrant, chaotic kind of magic that switched between alignments several times. This Chaotic magic, which he could now technically emulate, was not fun to work with. Even after testing it only once, he decided never to use it again. While one could attempt to conjure a fireball, one might instead summon a chicken minion, which he had the misfortune of experiencing.

Thankfully, the chicken vanished after only a few hours. The sounds it made were unnerving.

Ethan pretended not to hear the sound of somebody landing nearby. He could tell it was somebody of decent power since they were using some kind of air magic to fly around. When he heard the familiar hum, he knew who it was. "Observing the battle to come, are you?" Headmaster Vesper asked.

Ethan smiled to himself, kicking his feet over the edge of the wall and considering his next words. "I'm not really certain where I want to fall in with all of this. I think I'm enjoying my time as a support, but it's just not producing the same points as an offensive person."

"Have you considered probing into defensive magics? Maybe fortification or something like that?"

"Yes, I have. It's been difficult to get something that doesn't consume all of my mana in one go. I can do earthwork barricades like the Earth Mages, but it's just not impressive enough."

Vesper produced a wry chuckle. "You're going for impressive magic, huh? Well, I'm not sure I can help you there. By your estimation, most of what we normal people do is unimpressive."

"I have a few ideas. Anyway, I doubt you're here just to ask me how the trials are going. Did you need something?"

"Indeed. Unfortunately, this is of the anomalous variety where experience and increase in anomaly appearances have happened in the past but just not to this level. I see you're solving some of them, but I'm afraid we'll need you to solve quite a few more."

This was the one thing that got in the way of Ethan trying to be a student. His duties as a system scribe were many and varied, but solving anomalies was the most important thing he could do. This was especially important now that he could patch families of anomalies. He could solve one and, in turn, solve hundreds, if not thousands, across the globe. He wasn't just affecting his local area but was now fixing problems endemic to the system. Yet the new ones that were appearing, the strange ones that didn't follow any logic he currently had, were concerning.

He found himself agreeing with Vesper.

Ethan sighed heavily but eventually nodded. "Yeah, the ones I've seen so far have been kind of strange. There was a Chaos magic anomaly and a possessed sword. I know the possessed swords are pretty normal, but this one was dancing. It just reinforces my idea that the mixture of energy soaking into the planet is so chaotic the system doesn't know what to do with it.”

"As you know, the resources of the Academy are at your disposal. If you need them at any time, just let me know." Vesper took a long time then, looking out over the horizon. When Ethan looked up to study his countenancy, he found a grim smile on his face. "Do you think the trials are barbaric?"

Ethan shrugged at that. If anything, he considered them one of the best training tools a person could have when developing their system. "Not even a little. I didn't believe Professor Eggs when she first said it, but there's really no risk of death. This is just an amazing way to hone our skills and find gaps that we were missing before. I can't imagine a better training tool out there.”

"Well, I'm glad you think so. We're very proud of the way it works. The system was developed over many years and numerous trials. The heroes from afar are currently remaining hidden, but once the goblins push in through the first few layers of the city, the heroes will arrive, defeating the goblins and pushing them back to the dungeon. Then it will start all over again." 

Ethan let out a sharp laugh, one that he couldn't control. He shook his head. 

"Just like the semester where we go over and do the same thing multiple times. Why does that make so much sense to me? You guys really know what you're doing."

Ethan and Vesper chatted a while longer about whatever. Tenalia joined the conversation when tactics came into question. She had quite a few suggestions on how the city's defenses could be better organized. Vesper just laughed at that since he wasn't one of the people organizing the defense. He was an observer and wouldn't get involved unless absolutely necessary. It was up to the students to defend the city. That was the entire point of the trial.

When the conversation was over, Ethan jumped down to the ground outside of the city. He surveyed the area and questioned the exact route the goblins would take. An anomaly near the gate grabbed his attention for only a moment, but the bracelet had come up with something rather interesting. He wanted to test it.

"This unit has created several versions of the spell if you wanted to test them, but the one I've presented is likely the most effective."  

Ethan inspected the spell she was talking about, nodding in agreement. He slotted it into his Rank 1 Affinity Ring. 

[Lesser Force Trap]

Affinity Ring Synergy Ability

Generated By:

Lesser Arcane Trap, Force Explosion

Description:

Create a trap on the ground within 100 paces. This trap will be invisible to everyone but the caster. When an entity you designate as an enemy steps on the trap, a wide-area force explosion will damage enemies within range.

Effect:

Create an invisible trap at the target location.

Enemies that trigger the trap will be hit with a wide-area Force Explosion effect.

Although the spell was incredibly simple to create, the bracelet had run through many simulated scenarios to perfect it. The Force Explosion spell was a bit of an obscure Gravity Mage spell it had created through experimentation. The effect was to create an explosion of force, which would send creatures flying in all directions. The goal was to do damage through that force, hopefully killing the goblins outright. But that wasn’t the most interesting part of the spell.

Traps were an interesting component of magecraft. They weren't very popular to use as the low-rank ones were pitiful. Lesser Arcane Trap did barely any damage and only affected one target. The only advantage they had was that the traps would linger for a very long time and didn't have a limit. One could create as many traps as they wanted without fear of overextending themselves. Ethan had cured the weakness of the spell by combining it with another, once again proving how potent the concept of mixing spells was.

The scribe got to work, spending a few hours laying traps outside of the gate. Based on the angle of the approaching goblins, he decided the road he had selected would be the perfect spot. He designated the goblins as the enemy and placed the traps far enough apart so they wouldn't activate each other. In his vision, they appeared as a simple red X on the ground, but the bracelet overlaid an image of the explosion radius, showing that the closer they were to the center, the more forceful the blast would be. His estimation was that it would clear out a few hundred goblins before they expended all the traps.

After finishing up with the traps, Ethan dusted his hands off and went to investigate the anomaly by the gate. Although this was still a high-traffic area, no one had seen fit to report it. There was a visible distortion of space just to the left side of the portcullis, which was currently open. Strangest of all was the fact that the scribe couldn't sense any energy coming from the anomaly. It was only a visual flicker that no one else could see.

“What are you looking at?” Tenalia asked.

“An anomaly.” Ethan reached out, feeling a cold sensation dribbling over his hand as he grasped something. “This might be the strangest one I’ve seen so far.”

“I don’t see a damn thing.”

Before Ethan could realize what he was doing, he stepped forward. He turned the knob, put one foot in front of the other, and through some habit of crossing the threshold, or an unseen force, he stepped through the door he didn’t know was there.

Darkness greeted him on the other side.

Chapter 104

The Twilight

Ethan thought that during his time in his new life, he had made many wise decisions. He tried to do everything with the best for himself in mind while helping others along the way. He had interacted with quite a few anomalies and solved them. Some of them had even been dangerous, so fixing them was a matter of course if he wanted to help other people. As he stood in darkness, feeling a kind of cold he had never experienced before wash over his body, he realized this was not one of those good moves.

His mind reeling, Ethan did his best to figure out where he was. He thought back to the anomaly and the uncanny resemblance of the object he had interacted with. It was a door. The only time he had seen doors associated with spatial or dimensional magic was in regards to Trex and her travels into Voidspace. Describe Kirst under his breath, his voice echoing out and creating ripples in the darkness that appeared as light. Through those ripples, he saw a path leading forward. He checked behind him just to ensure there wasn't a way back before pressing forward.  

From what he understood, Voidspace was a kind of in-between place. It was a space of equal parts dimensionality and nothing, something that was so difficult for him to describe in his mind that words failed him. His footsteps echoed, sending similar ripples across the landscape that illuminated hidden places. He saw reflections of something that might have been real or just some imagined illusion.

"This unit is getting anomalous readings from all around. It is impossible to say what kind of energy lurks here, but I would classify it in the same branch as dimensionality. Perhaps Voidspace itself is its own branch, but this unit requires more information."

Ethan jumped when the bracelet began speaking. He hadn't expected anything but his own voice in that shapeless void. He stopped, doubled over, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God you're here. Looks like Tenalia didn't come along. Did you get any readings of the door I stepped through or why I stepped through?"

"This unit detected strange energy readings when you interacted with the anomaly. This unit does not believe that it was your own decision to step through." 

Continuing his walk, Ethan spread his senses as far as they would go. It felt similar to the Voidspace that Trex had claimed, but there were subtle differences. He was starting to believe the bracelet's assessment that dimensionality and Voidspace were related, but he was growing more certain by the moment that this was not Voidspace. It was something else entirely.

But he didn't need to make his thoughts known. The bracelet spoke before he had a chance to offer his conjecture. "Upon further inspection, this unit is certain we are not within the same realm Trex revealed. Instead, we find ourselves in an entirely different place. Although the energy is similar enough that they are in the same family."

“Keep running your analysis, but do so silently.” Ethan narrowed his eyes to the distance. “I see something.”

Every time Ethan made a sound, the same familiar ripples spread out as though someone were disturbing the surface of a lake that was once calm. He had observed his own sound waves, but now he saw some coming from a distance. They rippled, coiling around his feet as though searching for something, and then dissipated. Trudging over the shapeless distance, he saw a figure appear far away. The moment that shape revealed itself, the sky changed. Dotted stars appeared, and the haze of dusk joined ‌them.

Then came a voice. Far too friendly.

“Hello!” the figure called.

Ethan saw something fly away from the figure. Maybe a glowing bird? A mana construct of some kind. “Hello? Are you friendly?”

The figure's chuckle echoed over the ground, creating a swirl of dancing ripples that reflected off invisible walls. Then, that same figure began jogging in a goofy manner, almost loping in his overly tall stature. Eventually, he approached in full, smiling and panting all the same. He was tall, his pale white skin matching his hair. He wore robes of midnight black to match the area around them, speckled with spots that seemed to glow. With slightly pointed ears, revealing himself as some kind of elf, and too-large canines, the scribe wasn’t sure how to place the man.

"I'm quite friendly, I assure you. I just haven't had visitors in quite some time unless you count her." The man performed a very elaborate bow and then rose once again with a broad smile on his face. "I'm Arthur, keeper of the Twilight, and starved for mortal interaction. You are a mortal, aren't you?"

Ethan backed up slightly, calling to memory the most effective spells to get the hell out of here in a pinch. Arthur noted the look of fear on his face and shook his head.  

"I apologize for coming on so strong, but I assure you, you're perfectly safe here. There's a lot I would need to explain since I don't think a mortal has ever fallen in here accidentally. Were you attempting to travel through Voidspace or was this merely an accident?"  

"An accident," Ethan said, calling his barrier spell to his mind and casting it on himself. He felt the spell wrap around him, but it was strange. The reactive form normally didn't feel like this, but it seemed as though he almost had a second skin. In casting the spell, he got a hearty laugh from Arthur, who shook his head. 

"No harm can come to you here. I assure you of that. This is the Twilight. It is the place between places, the river, as some would call it." Arthur frowned. Ethan’s expression hadn’t changed. “A demonstration, then…”

Without warning, the man lurched forward with blinding speed. His hand thrust out, aiming directly at Ethan's heart. It would have pierced his chest but instead simply passed through. The barrier didn't even activate. Arthur pulled back and bowed his head low as though offering, "Now you do the same to me. Try to smack me or something.”

Ethan was hesitant at first. His heart was hammering hard in his chest. The man moved with incredible speed, revealing him to be a high-ranker. But eventually, the scribe settled down. He took a few steadying breaths and punched out with his fist, finding that his hand passed completely through the man's head. When he withdrew it, he looked down in confusion. "How did that happen? Illusion magic, or what?"

Arthur rose back to his full height, a look of moderate confusion on his face. Eventually, he snapped his fingers. "I always forget that no one else can see what I see. Both Voidspace and the Twilight are conceptual areas. It is only when we give them form that they appear to any normal viewer as anything but a void." Arthur reached out, a cold finger pressing against the scribe's forehead. In an instant, the scene before him changed.

The sound of rushing water was the first thing that came to Ethan's ears. The landscape changed entirely, although the sky barely shifted. He stood on a black stone bridge over a rushing river. Far in the distance, in the direction where Arthur had come, was a massive castle made of the same stone. It stretched high into the sky, stabbing towards those very stars. The electric jolts from the bracelet grew more intense, meaning that the bracelet was working overtime to process what the hell was going on. It wasn't exactly an illusion, but it was almost impossible to determine the source of the magic it came from.

"You must be very confused." Arthur chuckled as he turned on the spot, heading toward the gigantic castle. "I've got some coffee brewing if you want some. Plenty of cream and sugar if that's not your taste."

Ethan had to think about this, but he realized he didn't have many options. He didn't know how to leave this place, and his host seemed fairly nice. There was also the guarantee that nobody could be hurt in this place, but it could have been a trick. It was hard to say. When Ethan was about to say that he agreed to go, a door appeared to his left. He spun, spotting the handle turn, and the door swung open to reveal Trex with a very concerned look on her face.

“Seriously!” she shouted, gesturing to Ethan with both hands. “You couldn’t wait until next semester?”

Ethan looked between Trex and Arthur as though he should know which one to trust. He trusted the weird demon lady slightly more, so at least he could get some information out of her. "I didn't mean to fall into this place. I was just trying to solve an anomaly."

“That makes little sense.” Trex folded her arms, frowning deeply. “Sounds like you’re full of—”

"I assure you it's quite possible," Arthur interrupted. "If the two of you would follow me to the castle for coffee, I would be happy to explain."

Although the demon woman grumbled, she fell into line behind the man, and they took off along the long bridge. Their journey was silent, Ethan feeling as though disturbing that sanctity would be blasphemous. He just put one foot in front of the other until they finally approached the gates, which were still open. When they entered, they closed. Eventually, the group passed through massive Gothic halls, leading to a large sitting room with a roaring fire burning on one side and an arrangement of chairs, tables, and sofas scattered throughout.

When Ethan was finally served his coffee, he was sure to add as much cream and sugar as he could to hold a bitter taste. They could barely sense any of the coffee flavor when he took his first tentative sip, nodding with approval and eventually giving a silly thumbs up to Arthur, who nodded awkwardly.

“Crappy coffee as always, Arthur,” Trex said, shaking her head.

“You’re welcome to screw yourself and never return,” Arthur said with far too  much politeness for the phrase. “Anyway, on to the reason we’re here… the interloper.”

"Young Ethan here was supposed to start a class with me next semester on Voidspace travel. Apparently, he was ‌too eager and manifested a door before he was ready." Trex shook her head, drained the rest of her cup, and set it roughly onto the table.

Arthur cleared his throat, politely sipping his coffee and taking a deep breath to calm himself. "I'll give a simple explanation about this place. You can imagine it as a physical river that separates two distinct places, sandwiched on either side by either the Voidspace or the raw void. The difference between the two is that one has been tamed and the other hasn't. Trex here has done an excellent job of laying the foundation for this sector's Voidspace.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Few come to visit the Twilight. Most view it as a meaningless place without purpose.” Arthur took a moment, cupping his chin as he thought. “But for a disturbance to appear in mortal space that brought you here is odd.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Trex didn’t seem so upset anymore. She had taken a breath to calm herself. “He has a class that lets him interact directly with the Grand System. So I have to question if it sent him here.”

“For what purpose?” Arthur asked. “Working with the Grand System hardly means one needs to come down to my abode.”

“He fixes system stuff. He just doesn’t interact with it, he can change it. The disturbances are being fixed by him up there.” Trex smiled when Arthur’s expression shifted to shock. “Yeah. He’s a badass.”

“Very interesting.”

“So, what’s the point of this place?” Ethan asked. “And what do you mean the Twilight is sandwiched on either side? Does that imply there’s another universe on the other side? Are we getting into a good universe, bad universe situation?”

“More of a continuation of real space,” Arthur said. “As for good and bad, that depends on who you ask.”

“No, we’re totally on the bad side.” Trex shrugged. “Sorry, kid.”

Ethan slumped back in his chair. Why had the Grand System brought him here? What was the hidden agenda he was missing? And why was Arthur, a man so obviously a vampire, chilling in the Twilight. He let out a deep breath, hoping to get some answers.

Chapter 105

Coffee with Arthur

Ethan had questions of a historical nature, and to his surprise, Arthur was happy to answer. Unfortunately, the steward of the Twilight had not been around forever. He had come to this place when it was established 400 years ago. That was when the local void stabilized enough for anybody to travel through it reliably. Before then, the records are sparse. If one were to research it, they would find conflicting reports. So anything before then was suspect.

"Another coffee?" Arthur asked, gesturing towards Ethan with a teakettle.  

The scribe held his cup out and allowed it to be refreshed. He then added as much cream and sugar as he needed. “Thanks.”

An awkward silence settled in as Ethan’s mind spun. He had settled on the fact that the Grand System brought him here, and now he just needed to figure out why. Logically speaking, it wouldn't have pushed him in a direction unless the direction he was heading in was important. From what he understood, there were anomalies in Voidspace. If that were the case, was it reasonable to assume there was also some anomalous activity down in the Twilight? The scribe had a few theories he had been working on concerning system origins, but he wasn't sure he was ready to settle on any big answers just yet.

"I understand the concept of Voidspace and the Twilight well enough. I just started studying dimensional magic, and Trex here is supposed to be my tutor when the time comes. I can also wrap my mind around the idea that both places aren't necessarily useful spaces. They're sort of behind-the-scenes spots that serve either unknown or misunderstood purposes." Ethan understood better than most that with the Grand System, there were a fair amount of things that happened out of sight. A physical space, or conceptual space for that purpose wasn’t totally alien. "Do you know if there has been an increase in anomalous activity in the Twilight?"

"It would be incredibly difficult to tell. This area is the mirror of the real world in a way. Think of it more like a shadow, and it only occupies a tiny amount of sector space. I don't venture out into the rest of the Twilight, so I wouldn't know."

“There’s no way the Twilight doesn’t have some errors.” Trex shrugged her shoulders. “Plain as that. This place is massive, and there are corners even the most seasoned folks haven’t ventured to.”

“I have seen a ship passing under my bridge a few times,” Arthur said. “But I’m unsure if that was normal or anomalous.”

And that was the trouble when defining an anomaly. Back in the mortal world, we even had a very simple way to designate what was an anomaly and what was not. It was stuff that was functioning outside of its original bounds. But in a place like this, where it was almost impossible to define what normal was, how would they even identify anomalies?

“The Grand System likely brought me down here to show me how to get here. Maybe it wanted me to try your coffee or to create a relationship with you now, but more than likely it wants me to fix issues down here.” 

“Also consider that it might want you to fix issues elsewhere.” Trex gestured to the interior of the castle vaguely. “This is a great way to travel. Think of it like portals gone wild. As long as you can make a door in Voidspace, you can use the Twilight to fast travel.”

Ethan shook his head, holding his hand up to silence her before she started her lesson. "I'm not going to start working on that yet. I have a lot of Rank 2 foundations to get right, and I don't want to get ahead of myself."  

"That is an oddly wise thing to do." Arthur nodded, sage-like. "Perhaps you should teach him the basics of coming and leaving. For some reason, he's attracted to my castle, so we could use that as a beacon."

“Yeah, that’s kinda weird, right?” Trex asked. She hummed to herself, clearly forming a plan. “Okay. We’ll do the basics just to get you home.”

“Couldn’t you just take me home?” Ethan asked.

“Nope. Can’t take anyone through Voidspace. They have to go on their own.”

Which is likely why Tenalia hadn’t come. Ethan nodded, draining the last of his coffee and standing. “Do we need to head back to that bridge?”

“Nope. You can do it from anywhere.” Trex cracked her knuckles as she stood. “The key to Voidspace travel is connections. If you think of Voidspace like I do, as interconnected doors, it becomes rather easy.”

“These ‘doors’ lead to what can be called proto realms. Sometimes those things are conceptual, other times they’re real places.” Arthur stood with the pair, gesturing to a few walls within the room. “Any wall can lead to a place. But how do you get to the place you want to go?”

“Intent and connections.” Trex beamed a smile. “You can’t go to a place you’re unconnected to. Which makes traveling to new places in Voidspace hard.”

“How do you go to a place you don’t have a connection to?” Ethan asked.

“Easy. You guess. Sometimes a door leads to a proto realm. You don’t know it yet, but that realm has a lot of open fields and lovely trees. Hey, you just so happen to love big oak trees.” Trex snapped her fingers. “Connection. You need to guess that connection before opening a door.”

The entire concept seemed like utter madness. He was supposed to get back to the mortal world by guessing his way through a bunch of realms. Perhaps there was a more direct connection, but he understood that the reason he was brought here was the Grand System's design. It could and often did break its own rules.

"You're lucky. I brought you to my home with an invite, which means you have a connection to that place." Trex approached one wall, holding her hand out as though to reach for a doorknob. Before her knuckles impacted the stone wall, a doorknob appeared, revealing a full-sized, unpainted oak door. Ethan realized that he could simply travel through the same door that she had summoned. But this was a lesson. They wanted him to learn how to do this on his own. And he realized why. If he were to fall into another space like this with nobody to help him, would he be able to find his way back?

The answer was: absolutely not. He’d be helpless.

"Hold two things in your mind‌ at once," Trex said. "Think of returning to Gale House City and also traveling through Voidspace. Remember that your first jump is from the Twilight into Voidspace. Then you'll traverse the various proto-realms until you arrive home. The in-between steps are the hard ones. So we'll walk through that together.”

Ethan nodded, looking at the wall and concentrating. He felt something stirring in his chest, and his bracelet hummed to life with electricity. As he thought of returning home, a novel sensation flooded over him. He could feel something fairly close at hand. When he focused on it, he could smell flowers and hear the babbling of a stream somewhere nearby. The bracelet electrocuted him a few more times before it spoke.

"Unlike the information provided by these two, this unit has detected a clear connection between your soul and a distant place. It seems as though your affinity with the Grand System means that you can skip one of their steps. The sensations you're currently experiencing are senses from one of those proto-realms. Your soul has determined that it will plot the best and safest course back to Gale House City."

“This is the part where you guys get mad,” Ethan said, laughing as he reached out and grabbed a doorknob. He twisted it, pulling it open to reveal a sprawling field of flowers.

“Okay, what in the many hells?” Trex asked, approaching the door. “You know how long it took me to figure that out? I expected we’d be here for a month.”

Ethan shook his head, stepping through the door. He looked back at Arthur and waved. “I’ll stop by to hang out again.”

“I would enjoy that very much,” Arthur said with a bow. “It was nice meeting you, Ethan.”

Trex pulled the door shut behind her as they passed onto the field. Once the sound of the fire in Arthur’s sitting room vanished, Ethan heard the brook nearby. “You can’t be mad at me for this. My system lets me do this, I think. I’m just too close to the Grand System.”

“I can still be upset.” Trex folded her arms as they walked through knee-high flowers. “I’ve never been to this one. Normally, I just plot a course through the endless Voidspaces. You found a proto-realm on your first try.”

Once again, Ethan shook his head. No one really understood his system the way he did. He found himself trusting Trex more than most in his life. Maybe that was because of what she did for Tenalia, but he couldn’t deny how much he felt at ease with her. She was a working scholar, doing her own thing to study something few knew about. The fact that he had come in, and mastered something she had worked so hard on must’ve stung.

“My system is adaptive, so I’m used to this kind of thing.” Ethan focused on the two concepts once again and felt a connection with another realm. He reached out into the air, grasping another doorknob. Opening the door revealed another pleasant scene, this time on a beach. “I think of it like debug mode.”

Trex sputtered as they stepped onto the beach. The door closed behind her, and she threw her hands into the air. “Why in the hells do I need to teach you if you’re just gonna do crap like this?”

Looking out over the lapping waves, Ethan took a lungful of the sea air through his nose. There was nothing quite like the smell of the ocean. “Because I don’t know what I’m doing. I have admin mode, but I don’t know why. I don’t know how these proto-realms work, so how can I be expected to fix them? Just because I took the first step with ease, doesn’t mean the rest will come. Trex, I still need help. A lot of help.”

Although she grumbled for a bit, folding her arms and kicking at a shell on the beach, she eventually nodded. “Here’s your second lesson, then. Don’t linger here for too long. Unless you plant an anchor in a proto-realm, it can vanish. We’ll have some warning, but it may not be enough to save you.”

Ethan nodded. “Got it. Unstable proto-realms.” He reached out, grabbing another doorknob. “Right now, we’ll only use them for travel.”

Through the next door was a fairly unpleasant snowstorm. Ethan and Trex forged a path through the deep snow, leaving the hostile proto-realm as quickly as they could. “Speaking of,” Ethan said, stepping out into a new realm, this one holding the scene of a quiet hamlet. Although there were buildings, he doubted there was anyone here. “Did you make any progress on the Undead system?”

Trex shook her head. “Some, but not a lot. Looks like it should grow on its own, but I can’t tell how long it’ll take.”

The pair made their way through another door, this time stepping out onto the deck of a ship at sea. It swayed with the wind, creaking under their feet. But the ship was stable enough, and the clear sky overhead was an encouraging fact to the realm’s safety.

“I’m sure it’ll unfurl on its own, but I want to kick-start it.” Ethan looked around, feeling for the best place to find a new door. “So, are these just fragments of dungeons or something?”

“Kinda. But not really. The full academic answer is overly complicated, but you can think of them as the memory of the Grand System.” Trex gestured to everything around them. “A healthy Voidspace will generate logical spaces like this. The water is made of water, the ship is made of wood, and so on. Unstable spaces generate unstable proto-realms, which means lava for water, bones for wood… You get some really messed up stuff in the sick Voidspaces.”

Ethan shrugged. “There’s a decent connection with why the Grand System wants me here. If a sick Voidspace means sick proto-realms, that would go up to the mortal stuff, right?”

“Yeah, that’s theoretically possible.”

“And what happens if we drop into the Twilight from here?” Ethan asked.

“We’ll end up back in Arthur’s place, unless you have a connection to somewhere else. Well, that is unless your class lets you go wherever you want down there. Then I can only guess.”

Ethan wasn’t interested in trying his luck. He and Trex passed through a lot of interesting proto-realms on their way home. One even collapsed on them while they searched for the door, causing a minor panic to spread through the scribe’s mind. But he found the correct door once again, and was soon opening a door to reveal the gate outside of Gale House City.

“Thought you might’ve died,” Tenalia said.

Ethan turned, looking at the door. Trex passed through without an issue, closing the door behind her. The moment she was through, the shimmering stopped. The scribe pulled his lips into a tight line. He couldn’t deny that the Grand System had lured him down there. Maybe it was just to meet Arthur, or maybe it was a way to get him started on those anomalies. The only thing he could know for certain was that he didn’t understand Voidspace or the Twilight as well as he’d like.

“Those goblins are gonna attack at any minute,” Trex said with a laugh. “You guys do not look ready.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. I just fell into a vampire’s castle, so you can’t blame me.” Without warning, Barry’s truck barreled out of the main gate. Amelia was hooting and pumping her fist from the gunner’s position as the vehicle made for the goblins over the horizon. “At least they’re having fun.”