jmclarke

Chapter 197: The Birthday and the Rainbow Tower

Alex wiped away the sweat from his brow and slipped the messenger construct into its big, wooden box. Completing it had gone down to the wire which meant he’d finished up late the night before, but it had been worth it. Since he’d finished so late, he’d only had time for a short practice with Summon Elemental Beetle, a bit of time to just start his assignment for Magical Botany, and then he’d flopped into bed for a few hours....

Chapter 196: Magic Mushrooms

“Does…anyone know about this?” Alex asked, dispelling Force Armour and Orb of Air as he checked out Kybas’ underground garden.

“Just you now,” Kybas said with a little cough. “Well you and Harmless! …but Harmless only talks to me so that’s okay. …you won’t tell anyone about this will you?”

“I…it doesn’t look like you’re growing monstrous world-ending plants down here or anything, and you’...

Chapter 195: Beneath the Garden

“Okay, so there’s a spooky hole in the ground in there,” Alex said. “Like the kind you’d expect a ghost or gob-” he paused. “Er, beast-goblin to crawl out of. I took a look around and I think I saw tracks…but I’m no Theresa. She’s the expert on tracks….”

“That does indeed sound ominous,” Khalik muttered, squinting through the foliage as if trying to see the hole for himself. “Bah, I cannot see anyt...

Chapter 194: Digging a Hole

Think. Adapt.

Think. Adapt.

Think. Ada-

It was no use.

Alex had stopped thinking.

“Selina.” Mr. Lu smiled sweetly at the little girl. “Why don’t you tell us aaaaaall about it.”

The young girl looked up, then saw the expressions on Theresa’s parents’ faces. Her eyes went wide, and she leaned forward past her frozen, ice statue-like brother to look at Theresa....

Chapter 193: The First Briefing...and a Big Mouth

Alex recalled how Prince Khalik had described ‘dragonfear’ as a power he’d experienced when he’d come upon a dragon near his kingdom once.

“Dragons have an aura around them of supernatural fear, and the older they get, the stronger it grows. The fear penetrates the mind and infests the heart. Not fear from within-” He’d said. “-but fear from outside.” He’d gestured all arou...

Chapter 192: Rumours

“What was that?” Mr. Lu asked, with a twinkle in his eyes. “Some wizard thing?”

All around the dock, a wave of tension swept through the crowd. People clotted together in muttering groups, some pointing in the direction of where the sound of the blast and flash of light had come from. Some looked simply curious, others, worried.

“What was that?” an orcish sailor standing nearby asked a centaur dockworker.

Chapter 191: Old Acquaintances and Reunions

By the end of the information session and the sign-up that followed, Alex’s group had registered for several events, some individually, and some as a team.

Fortunately, Kybas could participate too since he’d taken and passed first year battle magic. He’d entered Harmless in the Duel by Proxy Event: Lightweight Class.

Grimloch, Theresa, and Thundar had entered the Grand Melee as a team of three. As she’d told Selin...

Chapter 190: A Brewing Rivalry

Tucked in his room in the early morning, Alex guided his way through the spell array one final time, checking the last notation in his notebook.

Force Armour: 98%

The spell was pretty challenging, so he was applying a lot of what he’d learned in force magic to help him get past The Mark’s usual interference, and since Generalized Force Construct’s spell array was so similar to a lot of the other advanced fo...

Chapter 189: Like a Marriage (Interlude)

“I suppose it was left somewhat vague as to how we came upon such a sample,” Baelin said. “Letters being letters, and our communication before now being so…impersonal.”

He watched the king, and the elderly advisors carefully; his senses took in the guards around him, making note of every move and every twitch. It was a skill he’d learned long before he’d come to even the crudest of his magic.

The skill of a ...

Chapter 188: The Patterns and Scripts of Time (Interlude)

At times, life could be frustrating.

Especially when life lasted long enough.

In ages past, it would have been normal to simply take a resource when it was discovered. The stone-flint blade, the bronze speartip, and the iron axe-head would claim what words or inheritance could not.

But things grew more complicated with each passing age.

Now, one could hardly turn around without needing to consider a d...

Chapter 187: Reflections on Death

Alex’s jaw dropped as he stepped into the room.

“Really?”

The doors quietly closed behind him.

“Indeed!” Baelin gestured to the mountains of paperwork. “The gods of parchment and fruitless bureaucracy are appeased, diplomatic envoys have shaken each other’s hands enough times, and the city has completed their part of the arrangements. Tomorrow morning, I—and one of the city’s councillor’...

Chapter 186: The Night of Long Stingers

There was something both beautiful and hideous about the creature.

Its wings flashed in the night, shimmering like diamonds as they buzzed through the air. And that’s where all beauty ended. The monster attached to those wings was almost humanoid, with four arms and two legs that were disproportionately thin and long. Its body was lean and maybe eight or nine feet, thanks to strikingly long legs.

Angry-...

Chapter 185: Raging Wasp

Baelin often said that a wizard’s greatest enemy was another wizard.

They came with a number of abilities that one would prefer an enemy not have.

Not only would they attack other wizards…well, way more than they should, but in combat, much of what gave a wizard the advantage didn’t matter as much when their opponent was another wizard.

If they had lots of spells to call on, they were harder to predict, so fig...

Chapter 184: Wasp and Strange Circumstance

“Are you serious?” Alex asked quietly, “What’re people doing in here? Don’t they know there’s a wasp-death-monster around, and didn’t the steward say it was forbidden to come in here? Who in their right mind would come in here on their own…”

He frowned, looking down at the indentation in the soil she was pointing at. It was clearer and more defined than the other tracks they’d seen earlier.

“It’s s...

Chapter 183: Honey and Wine

“Hmmm, I expected someone a little…older,” the steward of the nobildonna said somewhat sceptically. His eyes swept between them. “You are truly Alexander Roth and Theresa Lu, slayers of the mana vampire and allies of Patrizia DePaolo on that unfortunate evening?”

“Well, I feel old on the inside sometimes,” Alex said, then jerked his thumb at Claygon. “Would the four-armed golem be enough proof?”

“Maybe...

Chapter 182: The Rain

Alex and Theresa strolled through the quiet beauty of the university campus. They weren’t in any particular hurry: it was too early for their reservation, and the grounds were beautiful. It had been a long time since they’d just walked through campus to simply enjoy the sights without having to worry about hurrying from class to class, or work, or some other appointment.

Now, though…

“It’s so quiet,” Theresa s...

Chapter 181: Kitchen Nightmares

Things had started off well.

The dessert he’d planned to make was called a ‘spit cake’, which sounded disgusting, but wasn’t actually made of spit. People only got the disgusting kind of spit cake if they really made their baker mad.

No, the kind of spit cake he’d be making was one of the more challenging recipes he’d learned about since coming to Generasi; very labour intensive, but supposedly very t...

Chapter 180: New Prey

The City Hall of Generasi—seat of the ruling council of wizards and their vast bureaucracy—was enormous. It was an absolute monument to the power and advanced level of the ‘City at the Center of Creation’.

Rising hundreds of feet in the air, its main dome—carved from a single slab of marble that must have been magically conjured and carved—spread wide enough to contain an entire city block. Perched on square columns...

Chapter 179: Messenger Constructs and Limits

Messenger constructs were relatively simple compared to golems; they didn’t require a constant connection to a master or an ability to process mental commands.

Instead, they only needed simple enchantments that allowed them to recognize a destination, and then the ability to navigate to it. From there, they would use whatever form of propulsion that the creator had built into it and seek out the destination. The receiver woul...

Chapter 178: Relations Across the Planes

Alex jotted down his thoughts.

Maybe The Traveller’s name was written somewhere, maybe it wasn’t. He doubted—that if it was—it would be in the university’s library. Baelin had looked  there for histories about The Traveller and had only found information that was commonly available; like general history books from Thameland.

For the first time since he'd gotten The Mark, he began to wish he could go near a ...

Chapter 177: The War-Spirit

One by one, members of the summoning class raised their hands to suggest rules for the seminar. It took a bit of encouragement for Professor Mangal to get someone to speak up at first, but once that first person did, others soon followed.

By the end, the long sheet of parchment was covered in glowing ink that laid out the so-called ‘rules of engagement’ for the class. Most were fairly simple: respect during discussions, avo...

Chapter 176: The Power of Names

Alex stepped closer to Claygon.

A creeping feeling slithered along his skin; the kind of feeling he got when something was watching him. Though he couldn’t see anything in the circle, a presence filled it, making the hair on the back of his neck creep up and cold sweat bead on his brow.

He didn’t see another soul around but he thought he heard screams from somewhere in the distance. Screaming, and th...

Chapter 175: Binding Circles

Alex had been paying attention to Professor Jules, but hearing her mention the empire where the hunter was spotted so many years before—and her grim tone—gave him a twinge of shock.

“It must be pretty bad.” Alex said. “Binding isn’t usually too friendly a word, especially when it’s used in wizardry, so I’m already imagining the worst.”

“Imagining the worst is correct,” she said. “When the first gol...

Chapter 174: Respect and Questions

Alex watched Claygon for a while longer, but he gave no other signs of coming to life, or showing intelligence, or turning evil and going on a killing rampage. He pulled out one of the notebooks from the basket attached to his forceball and wrote down the observation.

There was no doubt that Baelin and Jules would want to hear about what he felt he might be experiencing, even if nothing was actually going on. It wouldn’t be t...

Chapter 173: A Little Magical Botany Class of Horrors

“Oh yes,” Khalik said emphatically. “The games are run by The Watchers, but they are sponsored by the city. A number of the events have different prizes: usually fine items for one to display—laurels of platinum, dragon-bone flutes, clasps of gold—while some of the competitions provide the winners with actual magical items, which are donated by the finest shops and crafters in Generasi. At least, that’s how it was in my b...

Chapter 172: The Hydra and the Beast

The Ursa-Lupine Brotherhood was immediately recognizable by their green shirts adorned with the silver symbol of a two-headed beast. The young men walked with the swagger of one trying to actively appear as big and impressive as possible.

Alex raised an eyebrow.

He’d seen that walk from time to time back in Alric—though not so much here—displayed by the young sons of trades folk in town. After a night of drinking or...

Chapter 171: Blood Magic and Incoming Visitors

Blood magic had a complicated history.

According to his Magic Lore class, it was largely considered to be one of the most dangerous sorts of wizardry in existence. The spell arrays of blood magic were somewhat similar to body enhancement: magic that directly enhanced—or hindered—the physical body would create magic circuits that directly connected to one’s body.

Blood magic created magic circuits that connected dire...

Chapter 170: Birthdays and Spell-Guides

“It’s an army, Alex!” Selina proudly showed her newest clay sculptures to him. “An army of cool wizards and fighters and good monsters to get rid of evil monsters!”

“Well, well, and what an army it is,” he said appreciatively. “Wow, you keep getting better and better at this whole sculpting thing.”

“Yep!” Selina vibrated with excitement. “My teacher said I can be really good one day. Maybe I’ll m...

Chapter 169: The Migration

“Well, look at that, none of us flunked out.” Alex grinned as he looked up at the board. That was an understatement.

For Magic Lore II, Art of the Wizard in Combat II, and The Alchemy of Potions II, Alex’s name was emblazoned in glittering gold letters at the top of the lists of the top ten best performing students in each class.

Across the board, dozens of lists were posted and scores of students had gathered aroun...

Chapter 168: The Final Debrief and Youth

“Congratulations, to each and every one of you.” Baelin clapped his large hands together. “You have all passed the final exam and thus passed The Art of the Wizard in Combat II. And so thus ends your first year in my course. But, this is not truly an ending. This.” He pointed to the sky. “This is a beginning. The Proper Wizard—girded against the dangers of the cosmos—has as little to fear from the dark between ...