Chapter 80 Talent

  After meeting Lucius and Esmerelda at the front gate of the noble quarter of the school, which was really just a library, a male and a female dorm, and a mess hall, the four of them began their tour. To begin with, the front gate was made of brass and enchanted with a very common and low level repair enchantment. It was enough to handle random scuffs here and there and weather damage but not much else. On either side of the gate were solid conjured grey cobblestone walls. As usual with conjured stone, it was more dense and the crystalline structure of the rock was much more stable than with naturally sourced stone which made it more durable by a noticeable degree. The walls were enchanted with some strengthening enchantments and their own weak self repair ones but the main thing that stood out was the massive Reality Bubble enchantment that circled the entire compound. Apparently it had only ever been deployed once but it was definitely a necessity for a place that commonly housed noble children and those with enough talent to serve them.

  That was something else Isaac and Lenna learned. They called it the noble section of the schools but every competent spellblade found themselves a dorm in the noble section regardless of birth. Every talented mage and every talented swordsman found themselves living there as well. The number of people in the dorms fluctuated too quickly for them to be segregated which caused some problems from time to time but it was also for the best when one took into account all of the connections that could be made from young talents and nobles being forced to coexist in the same location. The nobles still ruled over the compound with little opposition from the staff but when there were people like Lucius around, most of the lower ranking nobles were on their best behavior.

  The dorms were classic rectangular buildings packed full of apartments style rooms with a few rooms on each floor by the stairwells that were noticeably smaller than the rest. According to Lucius and Esmerelda, the smaller rooms were originally for live-in guards but as the school grew, those rooms became the first ones that the non-noble talents were permitted to use. There were paintings hanging on many of the walls depicting famous people who had graduated from the academies on both sides. One of them specifically depicted Edward, the Guild Master of Safeharbor and the man known as the Blade Master. He wasn’t the only one, Alexander was even there as he had been the youngest graduate to ever complete the Court Mage program, which was an entire extra workload on top of the normal mage program. Isaac and Lenna didn’t know most of the people on the walls but one thing that they did notice was a large number of Victoria surnames written under the paintings. Apparently the Victoria family was a big deal when it came to wizardry and the crown. Every generation had a Victoria who became ‘The King’s Wand’.

  The mess hall was large and open and free enough for everyone to form their own groups and circles. The food smelled great but Isaac and Lenna weren’t there to taste test. They did notice a sudden drop in conversation as soon as they entered and then a spike as soon as they left however. Apparently Lenna was overdressed for the occasion. That point was driven home when one of the younger boys walked headlong into a pillar because he was staring at Lenna instead of watching where he was going.

  Lucius had made sure to inform them that family visiting was uncommon, and generally frowned upon, but it was well within the norm to see family of one student or another every week or so. There were just too many obsessive parents and too many kids getting into trouble with either each other or the staff. Usually when parents were called in it was because one of the noble brats had said something they shouldn’t have, and on a few occasions it had even escalated to full blown violence before the staff could properly intervene. No one had died and no one had been expelled, but it was a note on the timeline of Lucius’s years practicing the art of the spellblade.

  After their tour of the dorms and mess hall, they moved on to the library. They only entered the first floor of the library, as that was as far as visitors were allowed to go, but the library was positively massive. It also went straight down. The books were sectioned off by level and type of study. To enter each section required certain credentials like what level wizard or warrior one was or what noble rank they or their parents had. All of the books were curated for the type of people who would need to access them. Apparently there was talk of turning the library into a vault of knowledge for after the next dragon surge. If they went through with it, then it would either survive due to proximity to the Guild Leader or be blasted into rubble by a clash between the Guild Leader and a group of lesser dragons.

  The library itself was entirely made of conjured stone and glass without any wood or cloth anywhere to be seen. All of the lights were glowing stones and the inverted tower was covered in magical enchantments that did things like ventilate the building, remove dust, and keep the temperature stable in order to preserve the books for as long as possible. After the library, they were finally done with everything that Lucius and Esmerelda could give them a tour of. There was, of course, still an administration building but that neither interested Isaac and Lenna nor would be accepting of Lucius and Esmerelda guiding a pair of non-Altian nobles through it.

  “Well, what did you think?” Lucius asked the duo. “Will you be sending the future V’Nova Wexler to this school?”

  Isaac hummed in thought. “Maybe, only time will tell.” He gave a very noncommitted answer.

  “Maybe if there is also someone their age whom they know… we’ll see.” Lenna agreed.

  “Well then, now that we are done with the dorms and auxiliary buildings, let's move on to the mages’ side.” Lucius said and gestured towards a crystalline gate made of one large cobalt crystal. It was no doubt made with liberal use of magic and even so it was covered in enchantments, most of which were just strengthening and only the same weak repair function as the rest of the noble quarter’s structures.

  “That is truly magical.” Isaac said with some genuine awe. He hadn’t expected to see a full size gate that was larger than he was and twice as wide as he was tall made entirely out of blue crystal. “I see expense was not even a consideration when this place’s architecture is concerned.”

  “That’s what I thought at first too.” Lucius agreed. “But over time I learned that the academy has been built one piece at a time over the course of the last few hundred years. As more funding arrives, and more students who bring tuition costs, more of the academy is brought up to this ‘truly magical’ and opulent standard. As we go through the mages’ college you will see what I mean.”

  “Lead on then.” Isaac waved him on. The duo had been curious about the college for so long and it was finally time to actually get a good look inside of it.

  Through the cobalt gate, there was another stone pathway that led through gardens of clover and flowing bushes. There were over a dozen buildings, each spread out with at least thirty feet between them. Each building was somewhere between a solid stone box and a wooden gazebo that was exposed to the elements. There were three buildings, however, that looked like the dorms in the noble quarter.

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  “What is with the normal buildings?” Isaac couldn’t help but ask.

  “Dorms and the professors’ offices.” Lucius explained and then pointed to a bunker made out of a singular massive piece of stone. “That is the wizardry library. We won’t be able to get you inside, but that is where it is.”

  “Locked behind levels in wizard I take it?” Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Or cleric as long as you worship a knowledge deity. Sometimes sorcerers are allowed normal access but even then, the wizards tend to be a bit uppity about their library of spells.” Lucius answered.

  “Why are all of the buildings so different?” Isaac wondered.

  “Each school of magic requires or at least benefits from a different environment.” Lucius began. “Offensive magic is done inside of the stone box or the yard behind it. Both areas are covered in enchantments designed to counter different types of destruction, that is also one of the newest buildings.” He then gestured towards a building that was open with wooden walls folded outwards to make awnings at the first floor level and then the opposite at the third floor level, with the walls folded down to make balconies. “That is where the divination classes take place. Each type of divination benefits from a different kind of environment but most of the time natural and fresh air is helpful.” He gestured towards a building that was in between the wooden and open divination building and the offensive’s stone box. “That is the alchemy building.” Lucius explained. The bottom half was solid stone but the top half was wooden. “Sometimes they need to air it out but mostly the stone foundation is just in case something explodes.” He then gestured towards a building that was similar in design but had a much larger floor area and was only two stories tall instead of three. “That is the artifcers’ building. Only the magically obsessed and inept go there.” Lucius went on.

  “Inept?” Isaac questioned.

  “Yes.” Esmerelda answered in place of Lucius. “Only those who lack talent in the art of actually casting spells focus on artificery. Artificers waste time slaving over the same spell sigils and how they change between each medium and fold in fabric only to add a ten percent boost in effectiveness to a door or gate. They are a necessary part of the magical world, but so is a carpenter. Imagine spending a hundred thousand hours slaving away at improving upon someone else's work and still being horrible at actually casting spells.”

  Isaac was hit with a sudden realization. “Ah, so you have never actually been in combat then.” Isaac realized. “What about you Lucius?”

  “I have, and enchanted gear can make or break a battle. Often it comes down to whether your or your opponent’s gear is enchanted.” He explained. “I do agree that it is not a position where one can easily become famous, and it is often thankless and artificers are often copperless, but I appreciate their end products every time they save mine or one of my men’s lives.”

  Esmerelda wrinkled her nose. “I suppose I can see where you are coming from, but if you have a true wizard with you in those situations, then how many of you would have even been put in such a position in the first place?” She countered.

  “Sure.” Lucius conceded. “But how many companies of soldiers can an artificer equip with life saving gear? How many battalions by the time they finish their carrier? And that gear will last through multiple soldiers.”

  “At a monetary cost in the millions, if not tens of millions.” Esmerelda countered.

  “And more gold will be mined after the next dragon surge, but there will be noticeably less mortal mages to assist the common soldiers and knights.” Lucius once again made an excellent point.

  Esmerelda sighed. “I see where you are coming from, but I still believe that only those incapable of becoming combat mages become artificers.”

  Isaac thought about Walter and how the once-human elf was a master at turning physics into offensive might via artificery and a brain that never stopped trying to come up with a new way to break physics with mana. Maybe there was some truth to what Esmerelda said. Walter was a horrible spell slinger. He could only ever cast a small handful of spells that he had to consciously think about. It was like he had a list of spells that he was allowed to use that day and that list was small. Also, none of the spells he cast were ever instinctual. They all seemed like he had to make the spell sigil in his brain one line at a time before they could be cast. It slowed him down and only served to reinforce the fact that his guns would just do a better and faster job of killing people and monsters. If Walter was any good at actually casting spells, then Isaac doubted that he would have so many levels into warrior. He knew that Walter would still be using crazy inventions, which went against what Esmerelda was saying, but his main armaments would be normal spells instead of guns.

  “Huh.” Isaac said to himself which got the attention of the spellblade and diviner who were still bickering.

  “What?” Lucius asked.

  “You are both exactly right at the same time.” Isaac told them. “Have you ever met or heard of the Engineer?” After explaining to the pair everything that had just gone through Isaac’s head, Esmerelda seemed far more surprised than Lucius.

  “There is a combat artificer?!” She exclaimed. “I never knew that was even a thing.”

  “I have heard about him, yes.” Lucius confirmed. “But I cannot imagine any normal artificer would be capable of that. I think, for the most part, artificers should stay in their workshops. Just because you hear a story about a smith walking out of his smithy and beating a bear to death with his hammer doesn’t mean every smith should try.”

  “Wise words and properly thought out, my young friend.” Lenna praised him. “What about the rest of the buildings?”

  “That is the summoning building.” Lucius replied and gestured towards a building that was basically a large gazebo. “Summonings of living beings are not permitted except as the graduation exam or training for it and even then, at least two instructors or professors must be present. That is why it can be seen clearly from every single other building across campus.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever truly seen a summoning take place.” Isaac confessed.

  “Summoning a living being, like a fey, demon, angel, or elemental, is always a risky endeavor.” Esmerelda explained. “If the spell is even slightly off, then something other than the intended target may be summoned. In which case, you are screwed. The binding spells that must be precast are always extremely specific so if you get something that isn’t right, they will breach containment and probably try to eat, pummel, or stab you to death.”

  “Any thoughts on the kinds of people who become summoners?” Isaac wondered with a smirk.

  “Geniuses who can’t stand not being the center of attention for their greatness.” Esmerelda replied flatly. “Either that or the bravest cowards around. People who are willing to risk their life for the chance to have someone to protect them when their life is truly in danger. Regardless, you will never catch me in that class.”

  “Aren’t familiars summons?” Isaac wondered. “Doesn’t Alexander have a familiar?”

  “He does, and yes.” Lenna confirmed.

  “Okay, but that is The Genius of Altesia.” Esmerelda said with a shake of her head. “And court mages have to pass at least the moderate level course of each discipline. I am not going to be a court mage.”

  “What’s that one?” Isaac wondered. It was the last building and one that looked like it was being held up by Reality Shields and mana alone. There were no walls but there were magic boundaries. It looked like it was just a roof and a floor otherwise, one made of wood and the other of stone respectively.

  “The conjuration building.” Lucius explained. “It is the prerequisite for summoning, yes,” He answered Isaac’s next question before he could even ask it. “and it is also its own divergent study. They mostly focus on trying to understand how spells function. The lead professor believes that every spell is a conjuration spell to some degree or another.”

  Isaac wasn’t sure how to reply to that so he just moved on to his next question: “Where are all of the lectures for normal topics like history and math?”

  “There is an indoor lecture hall under the professors’ office building but quite a few choose to use the conjuration gazebo whenever possible.” Esmerelda explained. “That is where my grand uncle prefers to teach history. Something about nature and breathing the same air as our ancestors.” She waved the thought off. “Speaking of, I think we are more or less finished, right?”

  “Yes.” Lucius agreed. “Each of the dorms have their own kitchen and dining area which is why you didn’t see a mess hall anywhere, just in case you were wondering.” He told Isaac and Lenna. “I don’t think we missed anything else.”

  “Good, good. Then let’s meet this strange history teacher who can teleport back and forth to Safeharbor.” Isaac said and waved Lucius and Esmerelda on. They were running out of time to get the crown’s gifts if they didn’t want to look like they were being specifically rude, and it was never a good idea to look like you were trying to be rude to royalty.

  Amaranth Serentia V'Nova Wexler