Raising Storm Formation

While my friends acted as if nothing happened, I visited the library. The top floor had defensive Formations much stronger than previous floors, but with the feather in hand, none of them activated. The top floor was rather peculiar, except being smaller compared to the previous floors.

There were five differently coloured pedestals, with an old looking book placed on top of each. Moreover, each pedestal had a small bookcase behind it. Each bookcase matched the colour of the pedestal preceding it, but there were only a few books on each bookcase. That struck me as a bit weird, but it wasn't important at that stage.

These pedestals and bookcases were arranged in a circle, while the middle had some sort of statue. The statue looked to be a man, but there were no swords or any other accessories around him. Perhaps except the unique armour he wore, which didn't belong to the whole 'Academy' vibe. There were also five tables, with five chairs around the room, and two of them were occupied.

One woman and one man, their age was about twice as mine. Both of them had different books in their hands, but only one book specifically. I wasn't sure whether that was a rule, or we could get a few books and sort through them. 'Grandpa didn't say anything. I'm sure notes aren't allowed though… I'll check out these pedestals first', I figured.

The pedestals were distanced equally from each other. The book on each pedestal had a different colour too, and they were all closed. 'The four colours must signify the water, earth, fire and wind... But what about the white pedestal?', I asked myself.

"Are you new here?", the female student joined me. "Ah, yes. I didn't want to disturb you", I replied. "...Just choose your specialisation, and take the book you want. Oh, and don't try to remove the books on the pedestals. We can view them, but not remove them… By the way, your name is?", she replied. "I'm Anna, and thanks", "Sure, then have fun", she said then returned to her own table.

Before checking out the other pedestals, I focused on the white one. '...Huh? These are…', to my surprise, the old book contained auxiliary Formations. There were a few types as well. Spatial, transmission and such. 'To think they knew transmission Formations… Wait a minute, this thing isn't used for objects, it's used for sounds', I figured after a closer examination.

That was a different concept to me, since we usually dealt with transmission of objects and living beings, not sound. The book contained a few other Formations absent in the North. 'That's a great chance to improve our own Formations back home. Perhaps aunt or Suly will be able to modify them with Elements. I'll be sure to memorize these later on', with that thought in mind, I moved on to the other four pedestals.

'Just as expected, red signifies the fire. In other words, the blue should be water and brown earth. Then the green is wind. I'll check all of them out, even though he only asked for the wind type'. The fire Formation was called Raging Flame Formation. The book didn't contain a single Formation though. There were a few, but without them, the Formation couldn't exist really.

In reality, the Raging Flame Formation consisted of a few Formations joined together. The bookcase actually contained the history, and more detailed explanations of the individual Formations. That same principle would apply to all other pedestals.

I studied the Formations for a while, but noticed something off. That thing was too simple, or rather, our North had much more advanced Formations. 'Disregarding Elements, this thing is just an advanced Formation… And they have only four of those? I'm a bit lost here'. They had those auxiliary Formations, but that didn't amount to much.

Instead of worrying about the triviality, I focused my attention on the wind Formation Peet asked for. The Formation was called Raising Storm Formation, and from the description alone, the power of that thing didn't seem small. The Formation would produce rapid winds, which would form a powerful twister able to damage even town walls. Moreover, the storm was sharp to a certain extent, which posed as a great attacking feature.

There was a downside. So long someone stood in the middle of that twister, there would be no effects or damages. Stone walls could be damaged, but not destroyed, therefore such Formation was better suited for use in forests or open fields.

'We have something similar, but much stronger than that. Our Formation can actually cut through stones, thanks to the Wind Element. Anyway, time to start the work', I thought. Since no notes were allowed, memorization was the only way. Fortunately, these Formations were assembled from a few other lesser Formations. I had to memorize the lesser Formations one by one, then correctly assemble them together. That would take time, but, it was better than memorizing the whole thing at once.

With no windows or sunlight at the top floor, there was no way to tell time. The two people I saw before were already gone. Someone else replaced them, but he didn't bother me. 'I'm not gonna sleep here... I'm quite tired and hungry as well. I'll continue tomorrow'. My hard work didn't go to waste. I memorized one of the easier Formations completely, and could draw it without any issues. Nonetheless, the process would take me at least one week, perhaps two, just to draw all the layers and links correctly.

'Heh, no wonder I'm hungry. It's already late in the afternoon', I realised once outside. Henry and others didn't appear to bother me, which was a nice change. Especially since they were there to spy on us.

"Hey, you look tired", "No kidding? Anyway, I'll grab something to eat, wanna tag along?", I asked Dawn upon my return. "Sure, let's grab Tara and Teri too. They should be back by now", she proposed. Both of them were inside their room, but Tara looked different. "What the hell are you doing?", I inquired about her new look.

"What? They said it's trendy. Moreover, loads of women wear this, you should try", she replied, oblivious to her own look. Teri wasn't different, he wore some loose clothing, but… They simply didn't fit them. 'I mean, how many colours can one dress have?'. Tara's dress had all sorts of shapes and lines, all with different colours. Only a lunatic would design that, but only a crazy person would believe it fit her.

"They are really comfy, and great for the weather. You should give it a try guys. I recommend", Teri encouraged us. "Yea, I'll stick to my own stuff, but hey. Dawn can give it a try", "Pah, I'm not crazy enough. You two look great in this, like a real pair. Pair of…", Dawn didn't finish. "Whatever, you just wear those plain clothes. Anyway, are you guys heading out?", Tara asked.

"Yes… Wanna join us?", I was a bit reluctant to ask that question, but they were my friends, no matter the look. "We just returned from the city, but we can tag along. Where are we going?", her first words gave me hope, but then she agreed. "Somewhere with food, I'm starving", I replied.

Tara was right, multicoloured clothing wasn't a huge rarity inside the city. I wasn't sure why, but there were a few people who wore them. "See, and you thought we were crazy", Tara complained. "Well, credit where credit is due, you guys aren't alone. Though I'm sure there were no clothes like these in shops before. Where did you get them?", Dawn asked.

"Aha! You see, a new merchant arrived with such trends today. He had loads of these, and they were sold for much cheaper than the clothes in other shops. Moreover, the quality isn't bad. Like we said, they are really comfortable, and people noticed that", Tara explained. That didn't change my perception, I preferred my clothes, and they were comfortable too. After all, my mother designed them for me.

We chose a quiet place for our meal, but Tara and Teri attracted attention anyway. People genuinely wanted to know where they got such clothes. What Tara did next stunned me a bit, because she began selling the clothes to others. She praised how comfortable and cheap they were, despite good quality. People were impressed, and bought their sizes.

This escalated to a point where a small group of people actually surrounded us. "Oi, just how many of these did you buy?", I whispered. "Oh, just a few, hehe", Tara replied. There were all sorts of dresses, pants, shirts and whatnot, and she sold quite a number of them before we dragged her away.

"Come on, they were selling so fast", she complained. "Yea, and making a lot of attention. You sold a lot, be happy with that", Dawn replied. "By the way, how much did you buy these things for?", "Oh, each piece for about four to six gold", Tara replied. "Huh? Yet you sold them for ten and upwards?... People should fear you", I said in disbelief. Tara could make money without even trying.

Either way, we returned to the Academy, and relaxed in our rooms. The following days looked mostly the same for me, with a few exceptions. I visited Remi a few times, and told her to not advance into the Second Class. After what Peet told me, I didn't want her to get involved.

Without advancing though, she wouldn't learn new Runes and Formations. That was something I took under consideration, and spent some time on the second floor to copy as many Formations as possible. Normally, she wouldn't be allowed to study that, but, who'd check her? Moreover, if anything happened, my grandpa would help out. Besides, since the second floor allowed notes, they weren't strict about Third and Second Class students all that much.

Henry and others bothered us a few times, but me and my friends acted as if oblivious to what they were doing. Peet managed to act the same as always, they couldn't know about our secret meeting or deal.

After one week, I managed to copy all the necessary Formations to assemble the Raising Storm Formation. That was in theory, I had to memorize all the layers, correct placements and links. My grandpa also asked about the progress. He was really eager to find out how fast, and well I'd learn one of the Formations on the top floor. Once he heard I've got links and layers left only, his eyes almost left the sockets.

"Hehe, don't try to fool old grandpa. I'll believe it, when I see it. Once you are ready, tell me and we'll have a go", "Sure, I've no reason to lie. Once I'm done, as promised, I'll show you", I replied. After that, I tried to assemble the Formation a few times, but all my efforts resulted in failure. Layers and links may seem simple at first, but even the size of Runes mattered.

The advanced Formations relied on details, and if details were wrong, the Formation wouldn't work, or work properly. The seemingly simple notion of layers and links, became the most frustrating part. 'Hah, I call this hard, but compared to the fast travel Formation, this is basically nothing. I shouldn't rush, the progress is great. Keep my cool and work. One day, everything will work', I reassured myself.