Aeres Academy - Chapter 21 preview

“What the hell was all that about?” cursed one of the other students, a young lady who was cradling one arm and shooting glances up the embankment to where the injured had been dragged.

Yorrick, slumped over and breathing hard, nodded vigorously, one hand clutched around a bleeding arm, pushing the jagged piece of flesh that had been flensed off him back into position. 

“That was combat training.” The voice that came from above was dulcet, sophisticated and highly amused. “Now, gather up.”

Rayzan moved with alacrity, crossing from where he had been standing to ascend the arena. Everyone followed him, some a little slower than others. I hung back long enough to grab Yorrick, the thin kid looking like he was about to fall over, and I helped him up the hill. He tensed at the contact but relaxed when he realized it was me. As we ascended, more than a few asked the same question.

“Why?”

“Don’t you want to be healed?” Rayzan said, sardonically. “You should know who this is – Pialleni of the Healing Circle. For some of you, you’ll get to know her real well.” Then, turning to Pialleni, he bowed in greeting. “I’m surprised you’re using your healing circle on this group.”

“I always do, for the first few weeks.” She smiled. “It saves time and money on treating them individually.” 

“True. They’re a a pitiful bunch. More useless than heat resistance in an ice plane.”

“Pitiful! You…!” Still holding her side, a blonde noviate pushed forward, eyes sparking. “Let’s see how you fare in a real fight, not a stupid training exercise that only you knew about. Don’t think we didn’t see how you brought your weapon.”

“An adventurer should always be prepared,” Rayzan said, drolly. “It’s not my fault none of you bothered to prepare yourself.”

“We were told to wear exercise clothing,” the blonde snapped again, tossing a stray strand of hair to cover one side of her face. She had a gold ring on her pinky. A couple of others had gathered around her, tightening the circle facing Rayzan, who seemed intent on antagonizing the crowd.

I tried to remember if I had ever heard her name, decided if I had, I’d not bothered to remember it. I nudged Yorrick. “Who’s that?”

“Sophia.” Then, he lowered his voice. “She’s got a scary offensive skill and a bit of a temper.”

I was about to ask for details when the ground beneath our feet lit up. It glowed blue and then green before energy erupted outwards, covering us all as it basked us in a comforting light. The healing that flowed into me was different from my own Conserve power. After all, my healing aspect was just a conservation of health – and thus a replacement of injuries with an optimal state of being. I was basically Wolverine, without the fur and claws and a lot more limited.

This, this magically fixed me. It burrowed into my body, found the things that were wrong and sorted them out. Including some particular portions of my body – the slightly displaced bones, tired tendons and torn muscles that my usual methods of fixing myself glossed over till the end. Intuitively, I knew, that what she was doing was margins better than what my own skill could do.

Bringing me back to perfect through Conserve was a process of long, slow improvement, driven by the ambient mana rather than the body I inhabited. Thus, speeding up the healing factor, while it worked, just was not as effective. Magical healing, on the other hand, could fix all of that.

To what extent, and to what level, it was driven by mana, and what was driven by the knowledge of the healer, I was not certain. Something I would need to study, in time. I assumed some degree of direction would help – it certainly did with mine.

Even more, I noticed that a portion of her healing energy was flowing into my vault. It kept flooding inwards, even as my body finished sorting itself out and should have stopped draining her. My skill was a hungry beast and it took hold of her energy and stored it away without so much as an excuse me gulped it down. It drew Pialleni’s attention even as she closed a hand and cut off the flow of energy when it was clear everyone – even those with broken bones – were done. 

I was a little disappointed that she’d killed the skill, but calling forth my vault info, I could not help but be a little smug.

Vault 1: Health

Conserved: 107.24 days

“Well, that was interesting,” Pialleni muttered, and, at the look Rayzan gave her, smiled enigmatically. Raising her voice, she continued. “One of the other reasons I do this, is so that I can understand what skills some of you might have. It’s always important to understand the interactions between skills.” A nod to the pudgy kid who’d brought up the back. “Like the way Mars learnt to use your skill to affect others, Inamit.”

Inamit grunted, looking smug. I wanted details of his reflection skill, because it seemed rather overpowered to me. It also left me wondering how I was meant to beat him, if we had to fight. Was there a mass limitation? An awareness one? 

I had to admit, I was looking forward to when we would be allowed to fight one another. If that was even part of the curriculum. After all, we were not monsters – and those were, ostensibly, our enemies.

“All of you took the test alone. You are used to focusing on your own strengths, on the ways you could improve your skills, your combat ability, your fitness and knowledge of the dungeon.” More than a few were nodding at her words, but not Rayzan, who looked a little bored by it all. I caught him flexing subtly, testing his newly healed body or just admiring his biceps. Either-or. He was a late teen after all. “That is important and necessary. However, your continued progress as a delver will be entirely dependent on your ability to work with others. Think of the famous groups who have passed furthest into the dungeon.”

Because I was watching Rayzan, I saw the slight shake of his head, the way he refuted her words for himself. He was too smart, too polite to talk over her directly, but I could sense his disagreement radiating off his body.

“What is it?” Yorrick muttered. He wasn’t the only one confused by the non sequitur.

“She’s talking about teams. Delving teams,” Inamit said, out loud. “The Crimson Guard, the Five Flags, Unstoppable. All those who passed the third stage.”

Most people talked of the dungeon in terms of stages, since the actual levels varied depending on the dungeon. The first stage – currently, the nineteenth floor in Haeros – was where adventurers worked. Individuals who were trained to go into the dungeon, cleaners and those who were not scared of death. At the later stages, they took multi-week expeditions to clear and haul up resources.

However, they were not true delvers. The second stage was characterized by the need for portals, for the ability to return to their existing portion. Rather than wasting long weeks traveling back and forth, second-stage delving was characterized by the use of a skill to transfer down. In Haeros’ case, the nineteenth-floor boss core offered a portal skill. Other cities had similar equivalents on varying levels.

The third stage was then characterized after the hundredth floor: the major line in the sand where the Kilvoy Empire lay. An underground empire that was antagonistic to us surface dwellers, finding a route through them was often a major task and one that saw significant losses among the adventuring groups. The ninety-ninth floor also hosted the major underground cities, our first line of defense against the empire.

It was also around the eightieth to hundredth floor or more that most delvers never returned to the surface. They were too deep, their mana adaptation so high that returning to the surface was actively painful. 

Never mind the fact that, really, there was little reason to come back. The ninety-ninth floor was particularly fascinating, a whole different world and culture, and the world after that, well… 

Those were stories for another day.

“Now, you’ll all want to get a good meal and a proper wash.” Pialleni let her gaze rove us, that smile lingering on her lips. “Don’t worry about the training Marshall gave you. You’ll understand why eventually, but you’ll want to be ready next week.” A wider smile. “He won’t be as nice once you’re settled in.”