The Trial of a Beginner

The headmistress stepped forward slightly, as it was her duty to deal with female students, "Katarina Shadowbloom, you stand accused of the most heinous crime of Necromancy and consorting with demons as a Warlock. How do you plead?"

Her eyes widened slightly, "Eh?"

"-(What the actual duck? Quack.)-"

Glaring at her, the headmistress tightened her fists, "Silence will not help you here, child. How do you plead?"

Katarina tilted her head as she had seen from Alys, and squinted her eyes as she had seen Paloma doing once or twice, "Well... the only illegal parts of being a necromancer are raising the dead as undead, controlling the undead with no intent to eventually destroy them, unleashing necrotic spells without the intent to purify the energy later to avoid killing someone accidentally thus creating an undead or accidentally raising a corpse as undead, or buffing a living creature with necromancy buffs."

She paused for breath, remembering Alys questioning her over it previously, "And the only illegal parts of being a warlock is summoning demons, controlling demons with no intent to eventually banish them, or buffing a living creature with warlock spells. Since these are the only things related to being a necromancer or warlock that are crimes, I must consider you to have accused me of such when stating 'the crime of necromancy' and 'consorting with demons'. As such, I plead not guilty."

Again Katarina paused; tilting her head, "Though, since you have recorded evidence of me creating and then summoning my wolf golems and buffing them with necromancy and warlock buffs, I assume you already knew that I had done nothing illegal today. And that begs the question as to who told you I had done such at some point in the past. Which as you likely know, so long as I submit to a truth orb to verify my lack of guilt, is mandatory according to the 'false accusations identification law' meant to allow someone to protect themself against harassment from an otherwise unknown source."

What could only be the leader of the city guards surrounding her stepped forward as the headmistress seemed to deflate almost instantly and tilt her head, "You dare to think you know the law better than headmaster Isenbert and headmistress Belessunu? It is a well known fact that necromancer and warlock are evil classes which are illegal to possess!"

Katarina blinked at the city guard, "Then someone should update the law books in the library to actually say that. I literally looked it up last night. It isn't illegal to be a warlock or necromancer, so long as you avoid the actually illegal class features. And I have avoided them."

Isenbert exchanged glances with Belessunu and nodded, "Well that should be a simple matter to ver..."

The city guard, seemingly not noticing his relatively soft voice; continued onward, "You're just trying to buy time for your escape, demon worshipper!"

Katarina stared at him awkwardly, "I am literally just standing here despite, according to all evidence provided, the fact that I have taken no criminal action and shouldn't be standing here due to this being a completely preventable misunderstanding."

He puffed up, "How dare you! I am the leading city guard in this incident. I have full power and control during this incident from start to finish. I will decide when there is enough evidence provided or if there was criminal action taken."

One of the other guards stepped forward, "Sir, I think you might want to recons..."

He held up a hand, "Quiet, I will handle this criminal. You are under arrest, demon worshiper."

A bit dazed, Katarina watched as he slapped a cuff on her wrist; only for it to automatically drag her wrist to the other side and clip to the other, "That's against the law. You can't arrest someone without just cause. Bricuria has an innocent until proven guilty clause. I literally know like a handful of things about the law in Bricuria and I still know that much."

The city guard unhooked a device from his shoulder, "For you, I am the law! Demon worshipping and Necromancer...ing ... scum like you are the worst trash!"

"-(Well that seems like a matter of perspective. But close enough, I guess.)-"

Both Isenbert and Belessunu stepped forwards with disbelieving eyes and spoke in near unison, "Excuse me?! Let go of my student immediately!"

He threw the device from his shoulder on the ground as a barrier went up over the, "Ma'am, Sir. I will hand things from here, there is no more need to trouble yourself with this criminal."

Completely blindsided, Katarina was yanked towards what seemed to be a magical doorway of sorts, "IF YOU STEP THROUGH THAT EMERGENCY PORTA..."

"Cuff Signature Recognized: Access Granted: Diverting to Temporary Cell."

The words of Belessunu and Isenbert were cut off and replaced by a soft feminine voice as Katarina found herself amidst the hustle and bustle of a temporary cellblock mid-morning. Her own temporary holding cell was a one meter by one meter cube with a chair on one side bolted into the ground.

A few feet away, the captain stood; looking far to pleased with himself.

"-(WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?! Crap, I cursed... damn it... shit... what do I do?!)-"

After looking around for a split second, she puffed herself up to her full height then pointed at him and yelled at the top of her lungs, "I, Katarina, invoke the law of Immediate Processing For the Unlawfully Arrested. That man kidnapped me from the royal academy with no evidence of any illegal activity. By law, he must be arrested and face trial with me and my trial must be held at the earliest time possible; with each minute that I am unlawfully detained, upon my being proven innocent, being worth the reimbursement of ten Large Gold coins."

Every single face turned to look at her as a white glow lit up the cell around her, making Katarina feel like an insect under intense scrutiny.

"-(What's the chance that they are all evil, stupid, and corrupt police the likes of which probably wouldn't wear masks in a mushroom goblin outbreak because 'they are above the law'; not realizing that being above the law wouldn't protect them from mushroom goblin spores even if they actually were above the law?)-"

Every single city guard in the building turned towards her kidnapper as what seemed to be, at first glance; a mustache atop a human body pointed at him, "YOU FOUR, DETAIN HIM! NOW! YOU! YOU'RE IN CHARGE UNTIL I GET BACK!"

"-(Apparently not high enough.)-"

A tiny bit of satisfaction built up inside her as a small half-smile/half-frown etched across her face as an almost perfectly straight and tight-lipped line.

She calmly sat down and listened to the man screaming as they put him into a temporary cell several meters away.

"-(Holy duck, quack... I thought I was going to disappear into some deep dark hole and never see the light of day ever again. I can't believe that boring quest to help that one peasant guy get out of jail in legal way actually came in handy.)-"

The Shadowbloom clenched her fists slightly, and hugged herself.

"-(What was that even about? I mean, I wasn't exactly cheeky by literally stating what is says in the very law book I was provided. Well maybe I was a little bit cheeky. But not enough to make a normal person go crazy like that.)-"

*******Eight Minutes Later*******

A single tear slowly slid down Katarina's cheek.

"-(If only I could access my inventory. I'm pretty sure I have a spare pillow in there.)-"

As it turns out, even a few minutes of sitting on a plain metal chair without so much as a curve to provide better 'butt support' is more than enough time for one's backside to start hurting if they aren't used to that sort of thing.

"-(I vow to never commit any crime, ever, unless it will result in saving dozens or more lives that would otherwise be lost and to always consider the weight of the crime compared to the dozens of lives that would be lost. Please don't let me be arrested again, oh great and mighty... er... god and or goddess of justice and or truth and or other stuff.)-"

Footsteps drew her attention and she looked up for the twentieth time despite knowing that such things usually took hours, if not days or weeks. Indeed, she half expected to be moved into a more permanent cell after an hour or so.

"-(I've been aware of my past life for two days. Not even, really. More like twenty four hours. How could this have even happened in that amount of time?! It wasn't supposed to happen according to the game. But then, I guess I never used necromancer or warlock buffs in game at a place where they could be easily found out like at the academy either.)-"

Her eyes widened as the guard, a female judging by the face showing through her crystalline faceplate, actually started opening her cell door, "Don't look so surprised. Money tends to grease the wheels around here. 'Budget this, budget that'. We don't even have the recyclable paper cups anymore. We have to bring our own mugs for coffee or tea. Anything that is going to be a draw on that money must be dealt with as fast as possible. And, lucky for you, someone up there seems to like you in particular. Your case got expedited by the king and queen."

Blinking rapidly as the guard took her elbow gently and firmly pulled her out of the temporary cell, "Usually, even with the law of Immediate Processing For the Unlawfully Arrested, it can take up to twelve hours for things to be processed."

She continued as a second, larger; city guard with a blacked out faceplate crystal flanked Katarina and took her other elbow, "But the king and queen authorized a retired but reputable neutral party to oversee the truth orb proceedings. He doesn't like the king and queen, but his honor is unquestionable. Though, to be honest, he doesn't particularly like anyone. He's very much an 'equal opportunity hatemonger', but I've seen him vet someone he passionately hates. So, as long as you're actually innocent, you'll be perfectly fine."

Temporary cells like the one she had occupied lined the 'bull pen' of Brimterel Mightholde, the actual capital city of Bricuria. And the bull pen itself was a massive rectangular room sitting on top of an equally sized room containing a massive remote portal generator; a device capable of opening one-way portals to distant places for either deployment or emergency pickup.

She spotted an armory through several doors on her left and what seemed to be the more 'permanent' cells through doors on the distant right.

The larger guard seemed to notice her glancing over, and spoke; confirming her slight suspicion that they might be male, "Don't worry, even if it turns out you are guilty of something and didn't realize it... which gives a much lesser sentence for someone your age in most non-serious-offense cases, it's actually not bad. There's separated male and female rows patrolled only by guards of the same physical gender. A bed, a shower head over a drain with an adjustable fogged crystal barrier from about shoulder to thigh height, a box to clean your clothes while you're in the shower, a toilet with a fogged crystal barrier, a tablet for reading or talking in group therapy sessions, and a small door leading to a very small plot of grass in the sun with a self-rotating path off to one side. There's even a viewing crystal that you can watch real trail walk recordings as you walk on the path."

Her thoughts raced at a mile a minute, drawing upon the barely functional but still active hivemind.

"-(Why are they telling me all this?! Do they think I'm going in there? Am I? Did they rig it? Change the law somehow? Maybe the king and queen heard I wasn't planning on marrying Edward, so they plan to threaten me with changing the law and backdating it before I got to school? What if I pretend to agree, but flake on it at the last minute? Or would they try and force me to marry him early? Would mother and the king's contract even allow me to marry him early?! Should I start considering jailbreak plans? Do other countries actually use the same currency? Wait... most of the other countries outside of the naval alliance are considered to be quite barbaric. Could I even survive in a place where I'm not considered a criminal if I break out of jail? Is it feasible to assassinate the king and queen? Probably not. Ingested or inhaled poison would pierce through the vitality barrier and apply direct damage to the body, but getting either one near the queen or king would be basically impossible.)-"

Katarina blinked rapidly as her head started feeling as if someone had driven a nail through it.

The female guard nodded, "We guards actually have those off the side of the armory as well and I often get some easy 'walking food' during lunch and go out there. It's very relaxing. Our 'short term' holding cells, for prisoners with six months or less, has the lowest repeat offender occurrence out of all Bricuria despite having one of the largest areas of land to cover."

"-(Six months? Is that really a short stay? I'm mean... I guess it is... there are life sentences. Still... how many cells do they have back there? How big is this place?)-"

She tilted her head and glanced at Katarina, "Not that there aren't repeat offenders, of course. Assholes will be assholes. But there's significantly less than other places."

Katarina cringed slightly.

"-(Ugh... I'm so not used to people cussing after all the hyper-banning from online interactions.)-"

The guard chortled slightly at her expression, "Ya, ok... it isn't perfect. But if you're going to be commit small-crime then you'd better be ready to do small time. Ya? Same with the big stuff, but far less intense."

They came to a series of iron-bar doors and one of the guards checked their papers before letting them through.

There, they entered into a long hallway with what seemed to be twelve double-doored courtrooms on each side. Down the middle of the left there was another hallway dividing the courtrooms into two sets of six, and then a slightly recessed set of doors divided the courtrooms on the right into another two sets of six.

As they approached the recessed doors, Katarina cast gaze over her shoulder to search out a familiar voice practically whining behind her, "Come on, take the cuffs off. You know me! We get coffee at the same place every day for the past five years."

Both of his fellow guards glanced at each other even as Katarina's own guards snorted.

After a moment of disbelief, one seemed to gather himself enough to actually reply, "First off, I don't drink coffee. I'm a Yorkshire Gold tea man through and through, every morning and at lunch. Thank you very much. Second off, you're always rude and 'pull rank' to get to the dispenser first starting from the moment you ranked up to squad captain. And third off..."

"-(Wait... is Yorkshire Gold actually available here?! Salvation.)-"

The guard paused momentarily before continuing, "Wait... is third off a thing... or is it just thirdly? Never mind. Third off, I could get fired. Which I'm definitely not going to do for a jerk like you who pretends that one rank difference actually allows you to push ahead at the dispenser line."

Her own male guard knocked on the door as the came up to it, however Katarina kept her attention on the approaching city guards, "Oh, and fourth... you laughed at my macaroni art. Which I understand not liking macaroni art, art is in the eye of the beholder, but it's not ok to laugh at it. Especially when I'm trying to make something during lunch to go home and compare with what my kids made at school. That's dad shaming, which is not ok. Dads have feelings to, so don't laugh at their pink macaroni art. Basically, it's an all around no and go fuck yourself."

Katarina narrowed her eyes at him as he cursed, ptsd flashbacks of being banned repeating through her head over and over again.

Then her thoughts paused momentarily as the door opened.

"-(Huh... if being banned is my ptsd flashbacks, well other than sitting on the preparatory academy benches waiting for my current set of parents, I've had a pretty decent set of lives actually.)-"

She smiled for a moment, then re-narrowed her eyes as she was lead to a podium.

"-(Still don't want to go to jail though. Not cool. Not cool at all. What if I wind up with a tattoo somehow, like a teardrop from the corner of my eye? I've heard that means the person has 'become a... special friend... for someone' against their will. Of course, I've also heard that has changed to mean 'they killed someone'. But that's not any better. No teardrop tattoos, thank you.)-"

Blinking slightly, Katarina refocused and glanced around. Within moments it became readily apparent that this was someone's office. A rather large office at that. There were twenty-four large crystal monitors halfway into alcoves on the wall and all facing a desk. Though each of these monitors were turned off, two more smaller monitors on the desk were turned to face the room.

One of the smaller monitors showed the king and queen, while the other showed Headmistress Belessunu and Headmaster Isenbert.

A glaring man that looked older than even Isenbert turned away from the desk and walked over to a second podium pointing to a pedestal with an orb at the center, "Someone dust off the orb of truth. Honestly, bringing this thing in here on my freshly cleaned carpet without even bothering to clean it. What kind of savages work here these days?! I don't even know what dust on the orb would even do. Might do nothing. I'm not going to find out though. So dust it off! Go!"

Katarina lifted an eyebrow and muttered, "Note to self, figure out how to craft an orb of truth and then test what happens when it's covered in layers of dust."

Every eye in the office turned to her briefly, earning a light dusting of pink across her face.

"-(Inside thoughts should be kept inside. I thought we talked about this, me.)-"

After a split second, the grumpy man turned back and placed his hands atop a metal plate connected, "My name is Bjarnharður."

The orb flashed green and he continued, "I am the chief judge of Brimterel Mightholde's main justice department. Usually I oversee the twenty-four judges handling cases during the weekdays to look for any sign of unfairness or tampering. But apparently, one of you two are a little shit who fucked up somehow. So I have to figure out which, assuming it isn't both, because all of the other judges are booked tight for another few days yet. For the recording; as witnesses we have four city guards alongside our king and queen of Bricuria, and then the headmaster and headmistress of the Bricuria Royal Academy."

He glanced at the orb as it stopped flashing green, "To ensure the orb is working, I will say this. We are here to pander to your every whim and pat you on the head when you fall over and bump your empty little heads."

The orb flashed red and he went on to say, "Scarves amazing even though you can just wear a turtleneck and not have something that can get caught in a cart wheel; killing you by choking you to death. My children aren't annoying brats. I hate them more than anyone. I will not whack anyone who interrupts me across the head even if it means I have to wait till the trial is done and follow them out into the hall so it isn't on record. I like puppies and kittens."

The orb flashed red five more times and Katarina glanced at him in horror.

"-(Who doesn't like puppies and kittens?)-"

Bjarnharður nodded, "Right, seems to work. Let's start then. From what I have been told you, Katarina Shadowbloom, buffed your golems with warlock and necromancer magic. Which, by current law, is not illegal. Your school's array picked up said magic and the sensory team panicked. Then your headmaster and headmistress brought you into their office to question you. They apparently realized you were, most likely, innocent and the sensory team had not actually looked at the camera recordings to see what was happening despite the relatively low level energy signatures which imply there was no demon summoning or even the lowest level of undead in the vicinity."

He paused, then turned his sneer on the city guard, "And then you over there went full retard and decided you needed to have a shlong measuring contest with an eighteen year old female. Which, might I point out, you seem to have lost. Well done. Not everyone can lose a twig measuring contest against someone who doesn't even have one. Very impressive."

Katarina stared at Bjarnharður with a slightly unsettled gaze.

"-(I guess he seems to be leaning more towards hating that guy. That's... technically good for me.)-"

Bjarnharður's head snapped back towards her, and Katarina half wondered if she had spoken aloud, "You! Katarina Shadowbloom, place your hands on the plate."

He hit a button on his own podium and his plate was closed off by a piece of wood as another on her podium opened up, "Katarina Shadowbloom, have you ever and do you ever plan to summon demons. Full sentences, please."

She shook her head, "No. I, Katarina Shadowbloom, have never summoned demons. And I have no intention of ever doing so."

The chief judge glanced at the orb flashing green twice, then nodded, "Have you ever created undead, and do you have any intention of doing so."

Katarina shook her head once more and opened her mouth to speak.

*******Seven Minutes Later*******

Katarina winced slightly as she listened to the sounds of a very pissed off city guard being dragged down the hallway by four others.

From the smaller monitors, now turned to face the desk; four tiny voices thanked the chief judge for agreeing to head the trial, "It's done, and completely fair as far as I can tell. Now get lost. You four young kids annoy me often enough as is with your 'party' and 'get togethers' invites. With this, I'm going to have to clock in about fifteen minutes late today."

Faint laughter burst through the monitors as Belessunu cackled, "I'm only a hundred years younger than you, old man."

He grumbled a bit, "And yet you're still an annoying brat."

Bjarnharður glanced up at her as he closed out the monitors on his desk, "So now that is settled, we can get you out of my damn office. Here is two hundred and seventy large gold coins. One hundred is standard for grievances of this level committed by city guard captains against civilians, the rest is for seventeen minutes of being detained while under the law of immediate processing for the unlawfully arrested. It's no small amount for an academy student, but it is not every day you get illegally arrested with no evidence while being called a demon worshiper and said to have been raising the dead."

He paused momentarily while opening up a trade request, then continued while sorting through papers on his desk, "Your 'visitor exit portal' will be finished calibrating in another minute, and no you don't get any more money for the wait. But you can get a cane whack over the head for asking and I could use the exercise. The official recording of your trial will stop as soon as you step through the portal. Any questions?"

"-(Questions? A million. This whole thing confused me. And by the sound of it, I don't even get much out of it. I don't even know what question to ask first.)-"

Nodding, Katarina accepted the money; briefly opening her inventory to watch it tick up, "Why don't you like puppies and kittens?"

The man froze and looked back up at her with an even more harsh glare than usual.

"-(Maybe I shouldn't have blurted out the first thing that came to mind.)-"

He stared at her for several seconds, then sighed, "You have an absolutely decrepit level seven hundred some-odd old man who knows countless builds and rune array patterns for spells in front of you. You are asked if you have any questions. You decide to ask a question unrelated to the actual incident. And the thing you ask about is... why... I... hate... puppies... and... kittens. Perhaps I should've declared you guilty just for your own protection. I wonder if you could even navigate your way out of a properly mapped dungeon."

Katarina sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, "S-Sorry."

Giving her a dry look for a moment longer, Bjarnharður sighed, "I have never liked either. They're both bity little brats that put off far to much fur. It is not illegal to hate puppies and kittens. Especially not if you've dealt with their little fangs first hand. Cat bellies are a trap."

Katarina tilted her head slightly, then shrugged and nodded.

"-(Ya, that's fair.)-"

Bjarnharður frowned thoughtfully, "Though I admit, I don't think I started actually hating them until my wife died. She loved them so much and was around them so often I can't see a puppy or kitten without thinking about her smiling face."

Katarina frowned for a moment, then gave a hesitant smile, "Maybe your wife is always with you and, when you look at puppies and kittens, she's smiling so much that you can feel it even through the afterlife?"

He lifted an eyebrow at her as a portal opened, then grumbled out, "And maybe I'm the dead one while my wife is still alive and this is my own personal version of hell. Anything is possible."

After a moment, he gestured to the portal, "What do you want? A medal for profound thoughts? Get out of my office before I chase you out with a few good whacks."

She nodded and stepped over to the portal as a knock sounded throughout the room, "Come in. Ignore the podiums, someone is coming to pick them up with a cart later."

Katarina's foot entered the portal as her gaze shifted over to see a black haired man with blue eyes, a brown haired woman with black eyes, a twelve year-old brown haired boy with blue eyes, a twelve year old girl with black hair and blue eyes, and a five year-old boy with brown hair and black eyes.

"-(Why do the man and woman look so... familiar?)-"

As the man raised his hand with a worried look in his eye, Katarina was pulled through the portal, "Ka..."

The Shadowbloom found herself in the headmistress and headmaster's office and frowned at the pair with her thoughts racing.

"-(Was he looking at me? I feel like... I should know them. But the only people I can think of them being... doesn't... make sense at all. Well, maybe if they were worried about me ruining their reputation. But other than that, I can't imagine my parents caring whatsoever.)-"

The headmistress cleared her throat, "Katarina Shadowbloom, I apologize."

She shook her head, "Just Katarina is fine. And there's no need to apologize. You two seem to be the only part in the first three links of that whole chain of command doing your job."

Belessunu paused momentarily, then nodded, "True enough, but it is also our duty to ensure that the sensory team knows to look at the recordings of an area while contacting us. That way, they can tell us exactly what happened. In this situation, the most that should have happened is that we called you in and asked why you were using necromancy and warlock buffs on golems. Without the presence of city guards. However, our sensory team is... apparently... not quite properly trained."

Pulling a glass of what seemed to be water out of thin air, she sipped it while eyeing Katarina, "We are prepared to make the same reparations that the city guards did and we offer either two hundred and seventy large gold coins, or the equivalent plus half in academy points. Academy points keep the money flowing through the academy at minimal cost to us, so we can easily increase the total amount you gain. Which would you prefer?"

Katarina lifted an eyebrow.

"-(There's no direct way to convert academy points to standard coins. So that's not really optimal. On the other hand, a few extra potions might come in handy even if I hadn't been planning on it. Obviously, things can turn bad a whole lot quicker than I thought they could.)-"

She glanced between the two heads of the academy, then squinted her eyes as she had seen Paloma doing, "Can I get forty in academy points, for a total of sixty, and the rest in large gold?"

Glancing at each other for only a moment, the two nodded and Isenbert shrugged, "We would have preferred to keep all of it circulating in the academy, but that is fine. We are the ones at fault in this instance. Well, aside from our high and mighty city guard captain."

Katarina accepted another trade request and eyed the currency section of her inventory thoughtfully, "Thank you."

"-(Five hundred large gold coins. It's not really all that much, but... I might be able to buy an extra bit of land in the north. Nobody really wants the land up there for industrial purposes, so it's pretty cheap overall. I can start by building a lower level to create production facilities, then plant crops over it to maximize my money. In the game, people up north tend to either eat mostly fish and a select few cold-weather plants or rely on expensive imports from down south. If that's true here, it's a good place to start selling reasonably priced produce.)-"

Suddenly grinning, Isenbert beckoned her over to the fourth door, "There's really not enough time to walk over to the far. So... let's use a bit faster of a method."

Belessunu snorted, "My greatest shame."

Pouting, Isenbert unlocked the door and led them inside, "Well if either of us could walk across campus without our hips hurting, I wouldn't have had them install a short-range pre-set portal generator. Shame or not, we're getting older and our students still need us to be on time to important events like the fourth year graduation or the first year's first dungeon."

The headmistress glared down at her own hips with an annoyed look, then glanced up and pulled a bracelet out of her inventory, "Here. Put this on. It will key you into the portal network as a guest."

Even as she took it, a portal popped into existence, "There we are, one portal straight to the north-west rest stop."

Katarina blinked rapidly, "Wait... do all the rest stops have portal beacons for this network? They're not just small shacks with benches to sit on and dispensers to buy from?"

Isenbert nodded, "Exactly. Though I do admit they didn't originally have a back room. We first built them as we were getting a bit... middle aged. See? About... maybe a hundred and ten. The back rooms are only about thirty years old."

He stepped through the portal and Belessunu waited a few moments with her hand held up, then stepped through herself.

Shrugging to herself, Katarina waited about the same time and stepped through as well.

And then immediately received a rolled up paper to the top of her head, curtesy of Belessunu, "If I ever again catch you stepping through the portal of someone who might have reason to make you disappear, I'll take you over my knee. Don't think I wont! You could've been killed! Or sold off to the black market and ended up who knows where. Maybe in a coal mine somewhere! Maybe worse!"

Staring at her with teary eyes, Katarina tried to avoid actually whining as she said, "But you were the one who invited me through the portal in the first place!"

The headmistress whapped her again with the rolled up paper, "No excuses! It's better to be late than dead or worse! And give me the bracelet. It can't even open the portals anyway, so it's no use to you if you're not with us."

She took off the bracelet with a dejected look, then Belessunu nodded, "Good. Now get to class. The first dungeon explanation will be starting soon."

Opening the rest stop door, the Shadowbloom heard Isenbert whispering to his wife, "You really shouldn't be so hard on the students."

However, Belessunu merely growled at her husband, "She'll remember the lesson better if it's harsh enough for her to keep thinking back on it. Less likely to get into real trouble that way."

"-(I think I like Headmaster Isenbert better.)-"

Katarina exited into the main portion of the rest stop, walking out past eight benches in a rough square with four more in the middle. Outside, protected from the rain by a decent sized overhang, were another three benches alongside a vending machine and water fountain.

"-(I'll spend more academy points on emergency supplies and chocolates to keep Paloma powered up once I get to the armor shops. Right now, I just need to focus on getting to the north western dungeon barricades before the headmaster and headmistress. Old or not, personal portal array to help them get around or not, I remember from the game that they tend to be speedy little things that could appear from seemingly nowhere. I half expect to find they have some kind of short-range portal spell on top of the actual portal generator.)-"

Moving as quickly as she reasonably could without to much risk of flattening her nose on the red bricks of the academy pathways, Katarina quickly came within sight of the dungeon barricade.

It was a relatively simple structure with a triple-thick outer wall containing small rooms for beds and food distribute inside the wall itself, alongside having a tower on each of its four corners with observation and automated anti-air crystals. The inner wall, though she could not yet see it, was a good five meters away and only came two meters above the ground. However, it was situated along a square of dug out rock around eight or nine meters into the ground; making the entire inner wall about ten to eleven meters in total height.

While it was a bit much for one of the weakest dungeons in all of existence, these defenses were set in place on the off-chance the dungeon ever managed to get enough mana to rapidly expand.

Katarina frowned slightly, as she remembered a few such events coded into the game. Some of them were simply natural phenomenon as far as she knew. Mana build up from beneath the surface managing to break through. Others were the result of evil people being douchebags.

"-(How can I put myself into a position to save the people who died in those events? Anonymous tips might work. But that could also get me found out. And then people will ask 'why do you know about this before hand'. Not good. There's also the chance that one of them might not happen, either because this isn't a game or because I opened my mouth. Which will bring doubt to further anonymous tips about such things.)-"

Katarina sighed as she got closer, then shifted her eyes toward two buildings outside the actual dungeon barricades.

These stores were some of the few stores where you could go into debt with the academy. Basic supplies to help get started without getting smashed in the face from not wearing armor of any kind and not using a weapon. But, most importantly, reasonably priced enough that it was easily possible to pay them off before leaving the academy and had good quality right from the start.

One store was labeled 'Armor: Light, Medium, and Heavy'. The inside was mostly segmented to help split up the new academy students a bit; though the long back counter was where you actually bought the items. Not only did this counter have automated vending similar to the dispensers, it was also currently manned by Cleaners giving out advice for the different types of armor on display inside of crystalline display containers around the shop.

Going straight to the counter, Katarina pulled up heavy armor, then filtered 'druid-beast form'. There were two different subtypes for such armor. The first being a 'base armor'; which amplified her 'natural armor'. The vital energy barrier infused into the user's skin could more easily withstand damage if said skin was tougher and thicker, so any 'natural' armor the user was wearing pre-transformation could drastically increase their survival even against rogue classes. On the other hand, secondary druid armor would be automatically equipped to the user post transformation; meaning they could apply non-'natural' armor.

"-(Layers upon layers of progressively harder leather. Ugh... thank the devs for cosmetic settings. Still going to be a pain to move around in, but at least I'll look ok. Let's see here. Cold immunity, acid immunity, extreme heat resistance, moderate magic resistance, mild physical resistance, auto-clean, and auto-repair are standard for the leather base armor. But my trinket should protect against cold and acid anyway. So... ah... extreme heat resistance, extreme magic resist, high physical resistance, auto-clean, and auto-repair. I doubt I'll be hit outside of transformations, meaning auto-clean and auto-repair are... somewhat limited usefulness. But the others... should... transfer like in the game and protect me. So I should be fine.)-"

She pulled up the secondary armor and picked up five sets; two for a bear body-type, one for wolves, one for a birds, and one for a snakes.

"-(There's metal this time, so extreme anti-magnetism, extreme disintegration resistance for electrical attacks since I already have heat resistance, and then high durability enhancement to boost overall hardness and flexibility of the armor. Oh, and auto-clean alongside auto-repair.)-"

The Shadowbloom waited a few moments, slowly starting to fear she would need to wait for armor with that specific enchantment to be crafted. However, it soon pinged and gave her a total.

"-(Huh... might as well just pay now. No need to overdraw and incur the five percent interest; even if the academy is nice enough to only apply interest once per year of not paying for it. And then I'll spend the rest on a bunch of additional stamina restore, vital energy restore, and eight-hour physical recovery booster potions. Ah... and a few more stacks of chocolate for Paloma, so I can give them to her as she runs out.)-"

Katarina smirked slightly.

"-(Judging by what little I know about her actual personality from both the game and meeting her in real life... I'm pretty sure giving her all of them would just increase her consumption rate rather than extend how long she has buffs available. Although, I could just be self-projecting.)-"

Before leaving, she equipped all of the gear except one set of bear armor; then placed her academy clothes into the cosmetic section and hid all four sets of animal armor behind empty cosmetic slots.

"-(Feels a bit stiff compared to the game version. But it should work fine I think. I've got enough strength from buffs to handle armor of this level and type.)-"

The other store was labeled 'Weaponry: Bows, Staves, Tanks, and Assorted Melee'. Four primary sections with several sub-sections each caused the display cases to take up as much room as the much larger armor displays. Or even more in some cases. However, it all fit in rather nicely and increased in weapon size from the smallest daggers on the far right to big axes towards the middle, then jumped to shields, before transferring to staves, then bows, and finally ending on different types of arrows on the left.

"-(Why don't they just let you buy the weapons and armor from any dispenser? Is it to force you to go past different armors and weapons so you're more likely to ask for advice?)-"

Most staves were capable of using all magic, but had one or two types of magic with which they were particularly strong. Naturally she picked up one good for 'Elemental magic', despite it being a bit weaker than a specific-element staff, and a secondary in healing. More importantly though, she made sure to get a druid friendly staff; allowing spells to be cast while in beast form, at the cost of plus fifty percent cast time.

"-(Survivability is key. All I need to do is survive. Which I can do. Probably. Maybe? Probably. As long as I can keep healing myself. And since the healing ultimate is instant-cast, there's no downside to using it in beast form besides the usual cooldown.)-"

Katarina headed through the dungeon barricade's first wall and headed around to the far side where the inner wall led down into the mined out area around the dungeon. There, waiting against the outer wall, she saw the majority of the first year class. And, considering they were mostly clustered into full or partial groups, it was relatively easy to scan over said groups for a familiar looking person.

"-(Ah, Reynaud. And there's the rest of them.)-"

More than ready for bed already, she nonetheless walked up to the group; mentally prepping herself for a long day.

Naturally, Paloma blindsided her by nearly shrieking upon landing eyes on Katarina, "What happened?! Have you been crying? Why do you look so tired?! Are you ok?!"

Sighing slightly, the Shadowbloom wearily explained what had happened to her over the next three or so minutes, "WE ONLY LEFT YOU ALONE FOR AN HOUR!?! WHAT ARE EVEN THE CHANCES OF RUNNING INTO A CITY GUARD WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR? Surely there can't be that many! I've heard we have a pretty respectable city guard. Don't we? Wait... should I be worried?! How corrupt are our city guards?"

"-(Does she think I did it on purpose?)-"

Katarina glared at her half-heartedly and took a slow and deep through her nose as Alys leaned over and whispered to her, "If eight minutes on a metal slab is the most you can tolerate, I recommend becoming a saint and avoid getting injured. You won't last long in a real prison or on a full-body scanning table."

"-(Well, she's not wrong...)-"

Giving them all a rather dry and deadpan stare, she went over to the wall and sat down, "Paloma, you're probably fine. The bad eggs tend to be a whole lot more noticeable than good ones."

"-(I don't have enough energy to be wasting it on this today. As is, that stamina potion is looking surprisingly tasty considering the last experience I had with drinking it.)-"

She leaned her head back and guided her golems over from the corner of the inner wall until they were close enough for her to apply the bear golem's armor before hiding it with empty cosmetic slots. True, she did want to minimize the risk of anything unexpected happening, but Katarina also wanted to avoid anyone knowing she was minimizing said risk. If possible, at least.