A Scholarly Week (5)

Walking down the academy halls, still unsteady on his feet but was able to manage with some extra effort, Cyrus made his way to the café that Minerva had shown him not too long ago. All the while being shadowed by an older student who was wearing a black robe similar to the one that Cyrus was wearing.

An idea coming to him, he pulled out something to write on and with and quickly wrote a short contract out much in the style of the directives that the Academy so liked to give out.

"This is a chance opportunity, having access to a second-year student who could answer some questions for me. Although I can imagine that there is a certain level of information control placed on him either by Caligo, the Academy itself, or both" thought Cyrus as he wrote the contract to award five Fidem from his personal account to the one holding said contract upon answering a question.

"Hey" began Cyrus, "would you perhaps answer a question of mine for some Fidem?"

The student stopped walking, which Cyrus followed suit in and turned towards him.

"Not too bad for fresh blood, you know how the game is played" remarked the student as he took the paper that Cyrus handed him, reading it for a moment he then looked back and nodded.

"What can you tell me about the whereabouts of the second and third years" asked Cyrus.

"Nothing, but I can tell you about what you could expect moving forward if you would like"

Pondering for a moment and deciding that it was still worthwhile information, Cyrus gestured for the second year to continue.

"This year will be difficult, full of trials for you to overcome. Yet, everything you experience from the second year onwards will make this look like a journey through a bountiful meadow of peace and tranquility. The difficulty will only raise, so much so that you can even expect casualties to occur among the students" explained the second year, still giving only the bare minimum of information.

"Useful information it is, even though it raises more questions than answers in the end" remarked Cyrus.

"Hah, what can you expect for only a measly five Fidem but hey I suppose I am the desperate one for even considering such scraps. Now let's move along, I was only authorized to answer a single question if prompted" said the second year with a slight mocking tone, as he took the lead to the café.

"Damn, I should have expected that there was a limit" grumbled Cyrus as he followed along.

The journey there was quite uneventful, although there was more than one student who looked upon Cyrus extremely unfavorably with clear malicious intentions, the second year that was escorting Cyrus silenced them all with a single glare.

"It seems the second years are no pushovers, they have mastered their sense to such a high degree that they can silence those lacking similar gains with ease" noted Cyrus as he tried to make a calculation of the second year's strength, in hopes that he could puzzle out the difficulty of the next year by extension.

Alas, the time they were together was short and no one was prepared enough to try to take Cyrus down despite his protection.

"It seems the Labyrinth has caused these students to not be so eager to jump into a conflict, becoming far more cautious now that they are aware of their limits. Although I suspect that more survived in the other departments, as the Mors domain was indeed fairly limited in that environment, it still should have crushed a vast majority of the students here" thought Cyrus as he entered the café, looking around for some familiar faces.

The café was far more crowded than it was when he had stopped by before, only just that as before it was downright empty. Cyrus saw Cornelius sitting with two vaguely familiar faces, perhaps they were apart of the hostages before. The seemingly all knowing Bavol was also present speaking in quiet tones with a shady looking individual from the Aqua department, as well as Cyrus' own two allies sitting across from one another.

Taking a seat next to Minerva, who showed little reaction at his return other than a slight nod, he greeted the two.

"Good evening, how were your classes today?"

"Good evening Cyrus" replied Imran, always the more talkative between him and Minerva.

"The classes were actually quite fascinating, going over magical topics that I would never have thought of myself until perhaps much time had passed. Also, my professor is a bit…unique?" began Imran, a look of confusion on his face as he tried to come up with words to describe what he was feeling.

"The professor in charge of the Terra domain…if I recall it was Master Sabina, she did not give off much of an impression besides being extremely pleasing to the eye if I recall."

Seeing that his partner was not understanding, Imran sighed as he tried to explain.

"You know…she was so…alluring…"

A sudden coughing fit erupted from Imran, perhaps provoked from a glare from a certain someone sitting next to Cyrus.

"Ah well, she is nothing like you would expect. Extremely down to earth, laid back, and extremely easy to get along with. I think a few of the more passionate students in my class have even made a group worshipping her as the ideal life partner or something. Still, her teaching ability is all present and her magical might terrifying to say the least. For example today we were taught how connecting body movements to specific spells and essence manipulation can increase the speed and efficiency of using certain spells although it is at the cost of revealing that you are about to make a move" explained Imran.

"Agh, its hard to explain all the intricacies as she walked us through them quite literally over the course of hours but you can think of it like writing with a pen or drawing in the dirt with your fingers, it provides an anchor to the world of essence that we are all familiar with that brings it more inline with what we expect from our other senses" fumbled Imran with his words, trying his best to articulate a complex theoretical topic.

"I can somewhat understand, but I will need to try it myself to cement it fully. Unfortunately I am not quite capable of doing that right now, I can barely use my sense let alone try to cast a spell" explained Cyrus as he produced some of the last of his wine with some difficulty, not wanting to make the journey to the refreshment stand.

"What did your class put you through to make you unable to do that?" asked Imran incredulously, with even Minerva pausing her chewing and raising an ear to listen.

"We were taught about how you can use sense as a weapon to attack others who have a magical sense like we do, much like you can with a blade or spell. Not only that but due to the high resistance I have with raw sense pressure I was put through an extra lesson where I made my sense stronger than before. The method of doing so is quite strenuous, so much so that the side effects of doing it put me out of commission for several hours after the fact" explained Cyrus.

"A method to make sense stronger, I never knew that such a thing existed. I never even really thought too much about it now that I look back on my usages of it…what a blunder" murmured Imran as realization dawned upon him.

"I had the same reaction; it just goes to show that the Academy serves its purpose well. Magic is extremely complicated and there is no obvious method to practice it, just whatever path we happen to stumble upon. The purpose of the Academy then is it take all those paths that others have tread and extract them to be taught to the next generation of mages. Over time mages would become more and more competent, being able to contribute more to the Empire as well as becoming more of a destructive force for those walking such a path" analyzed Cyrus, in slight awe of the system that was created.

A poke at his side interrupted such awe, however, as he turned his head towards the source and was greeted by Minerva's icy stare.

"Explain more about the method" demanded Minerva.

"Of how to strengthen sense?" asked Cyrus for clarification.

Minerva nodded, apparently eager for information that could enhance her strength.

"Its quite simple really, all yo-" began Cyrus, but was interrupted as his other half pushed a certain idea to the front and center of his mind.

"Really…well, I suppose I am interested as well. Not only that but I do want to get to the bottom of this mystery, for both our sakes" thought Cyrus as he went over the idea that was given to him.

"On second thought, I can tell you but first you must complete a task for me" said Cyrus as he grabbed a spare cup from the center of the table and poured some of his wine into it, not even one full mouthful but enough to taste it.

"Drink this" said Cyrus, presenting the cup towards Minerva.

She looked at the cup for a moment, perhaps wondering why such a prerequisite was required to speak of such information.

Speaking up for Minerva, Imran began to explain, "she does not partake in drinking, not only is she a lightweight but it's a habit to not drink anything she has not poured herself."

"I suppose that would explain why I have only ever seen her drink water. Having access to the Aqua domain means she can just fill her glass herself whenever she wants, perhaps even having a method to detect if the drink was tampered with. The question is, why would she have to worry about that? I am familiar with such a custom as it's not uncommon in the wasteland…but why in the Empire?" thought Cyrus as he began to move the drink away.

"Its fine" said Minerva, much to the shock of Imran, as she took the cup from Cyrus and drank it in one go.

She handed the cup back to Cyrus, with a look that resembled something like 'Well, satisfied now?'

"Well, satisfied now?" asked Minerva.

With a slight chuckle Cyrus asked, "What did it taste like?"

"Like water, but a bit more acidic. Leaves a bit of an after taste in my mouth as well…" described Minerva uneasily, her eyes looking towards Imran's direction for a moment as she froze in realization.

"Oh, I suppose my wine is basically water. Just some cheap bottle I picked up during my travels" explained Cyrus, covering for Minerva.

"Although you will be explaining later as to why such information needs to be obfuscated from Imran in the first place" thought Cyrus whose thoughts were almost perfectly in line with his other half for once.

"Hah, I will get you some real wine Cyrus. Auster Wine, the finest that the south has to offer and the most expensive at that. Not that watery drink you have there" laughed Imran as he smoothed over the silence.

Suppressing the need to laugh, as the very wine he had was what Imran was offering, Cyrus gracefully accepting the offer before explaining the method to increase sense.

"-And so it is simple upon just hearing the words, but to experience it in person is far worse. Especially whatever Professor Caligo did to allow me and Caliban to break through the barrier…it was the closest I have ever felt to death before in my entire life which is surely saying something as I have been through many close shaves in my younger years" said Cyrus, having just finished explaining the process to his two allies.

"That does sound horrifying, I do not think I would like to go through that no matter how much I desire power. I do not value it so much either way, I prefer my coin and connections over raw might" declared Imran.

"Could I also go through that process?" asked Minerva.

"When your professor goes over that specific material I am sure that you will have the chance to as well, although if it is anything like what happened in my department only those with a high resilience in the first place can take the next step. The next bit of free time I have I can help you test this, although it will be a few days from now as I am quite busy, but it will still be faster than when the actual lesson rolls around. Once we figure out your level of resilience, raising it if it does not meet the standard, I am sure some Fidem can get us a session with Caligo if you really want to go through with it" explained Cyrus.

"I will take up the offer then" said Minerva, who then turned to finish up her unending green feast.

It was at this time that the food that Cyrus ordered during his explanation of the sense strengthening method had arrived, as well as some newcomers to the café…