Amazon Apocalypse 4: Chapter 15

The teleportation array took us away from Cyra’s adoring and annoying fans. A few had been interested in me as well, but a bit of cold shoulder had gotten them off my back early.

The teleportation array took me somewhere I recognized immediately. We were at an old-fashioned train station. People streamed around us in all directions, most of them in wizard’s robes. Glancing to the side, I saw a teller window and motioned Cyra toward it.

“I think we get our ride over there.” I gestured to the window and Cyra followed me there. Once there, I spoke to the woman behind the counter. “We’re new graduate students. Can I get two tickets to wherever we’re supposed to go?”

“Medallions?” the woman behind the teller asked. She had green skin and looked like an older, grumpier version of Gobgob.

Cyra and I presented our medallions.

“Between platforms nine and ten. Passage comes out of the contribution points stored in your medallions. Next!”

I eyed the piece of jade dangling around my neck.

Jade Dragon Lodge Medalion (Epic)

Owned by Carter Smith

Current Dragon Lodge Contribution Points: 998

It looked like the Dragon Lodge had their own currency system. It reminded me a lot of the points available at my Obelisk back in Crownhill. Maybe whatever the Dragon Lodge used had started with something similar and had expanded the system from there.

Checking with Cyra, she had a hundred and ninety-eight points, so she’d probably started with two hundred, and I’d started with a thousand. That was a pretty good welcome gift, comparable to what I gave out to people back in Crownhill when they first joined up with us.

“We’re over here,” I directed Cyra over to partway between platforms nine and ten. I eyed one of the unmarked brick pillars, three-fourths of the way to ten.

“Carter?” Cyra looked at me curiously.

“She said midway between nine and ten, right?” I stared dead ahead and walked confidently toward platform nine and three quarters. My face soon planted against the brick wall.

“Carter, why did you just walk into a wall?” Cyra asked me.

I peeled myself away from the bricks. “Uh, testing something. Nevermind that, our train’s coming!”

“Is that a type of carriage?” Cyra asked.

“Horseless carriage, sure.”

I pointed and a train whistle sounded. The heavy machine billowed a gust of steam high overhead, though I smelled no charcoal or coal in the air. It was probably a magic-powered steam engine. Still, I was impressed. Compared to Themyscira’s medieval setting, a place with a working train would be a land of technology and innovation. Even Glacia was at most renaissance-era by Earth standards. The mystic realm of the Dragon Lodge was clearly a cut above the rest.

“By the ancestors! Monster attack, back!” Cyra yelled as she held out a hand and reached for her sword. A few bystanders chuckled. Apparently, seeing foreign warriors react this way to their first train wasn’t an unusual occurrence.

“It’s not a monster, Cyra. It’s our ride.”

Cyra pulled her hand away from her weapon as the train slid to a stop. When Cyra saw people piling out of the doors and me walking up to enter them, she pulled her hand away from her sword reluctantly.

From there, we found seats and sat. The ride was crowded, but I was pretty sure Cyra didn’t mind squeezing up against me on the bench.

I’d expected her to be impressed at our speed, but she was C-Grade and could run at a comparable speed to this train. This just made things a bit more comfortable.

Soon, we were at the Dragon Lodge’s campus, or at least the part intended for graduate students. The cobblestone streets were filled with adults, and a few people were walking around in remarkably revealing robes, so I was pretty sure this was the adult-only part of campus.

We walked around a bit. Thankfully, there were maps sitting on pillars all over the place. It reminded me a lot of walking a new mall as a kid. The various schoolhouses were all named after some long dead wizard, as were many of the stores.

“Looks like you can rent student housing here, get food over there, and sign up for classes there. The shops are down this way...”

Cyra and I walked through the whole area. I stopped by class signups, where it turned out I could also hire tutors. The place was a big room with several smaller obelisks scattered around. They reminded me a lot of the one in the center of Crownhill and Shadefall, but these had been redesigned to serve a different purpose. A few dozen people milled about, some sitting on benches as they browsed invisible menus only they could see. Others worked diligently on the tables nearby, copying down information onto paper.

Welcome student Carter Smith!

Please select a class or tutor from the following list....

I browsed the list and eventually found someone selling theorycrafting services for fifty contribution points. Their specialty was Early C-Grades with a focus on affliction spells. That sounded like me, so I scheduled time with them for later in the day. Cyra also made similar plans based on a recommendation in the stuffs Galbatorix had given her.

“I see you’ve made a few arrangements. Shall we meet up again for dinner and a final round of shopping before returning to Themyscira?”

Cyra shrugged. “Sure. Might as well make full use of being official graduate students. Seems like the program is flexible enough for the both of us to keep the titles for a while. At least until we’ve gotten what we can out of this academy.”

“Agreed. See you tonight.”

The two of us parted ways, and I went to my theorycrafter session. The theorycrafter I’d just bought a session with was available in fifteen minutes, which was just enough time to stroll past a shop of enchanted equipment on my way to their office. There were a few things that stoked the flames of hunger in my inner artificer. I’d have to stop by this street later.

The instructions I’d gotten from the class signup obelisk directed me to an office. A primly dressed older woman held the door open for me, and I found myself following her up to one of the offices on the third floor. When I followed her into her office, I realized she was the theorycrafter I came here to see.

“You’re not one of my students, so I take it you’re here for a theorycrafting session?” she looked me up and down. “Let me guess, you’re the son of someone important? You’d have to be to spend fifty contribution points for me to drop everything and rush here.”

“Hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.” I ran fingers through my hair sheepishly.

She snorted. “Honey, for fifty contribution points I’m happy to drop whatever. Now, sit and share your status screen with me. Don’t worry, I’ve sworn all the privacy oaths...”

She pointed to the nearby wall, where a placard hung. It was visibly fancier than the diploma that Marol the Theorycrafter had on her office back in Valkyrie’s Watch, and it had a few more embellishments on it. It seemed to check out to me, and I guessed the extra embellishments meant she was qualified to analyze the abilities of C-Grades instead of just D-Grades like Marol. I used examine on her and found her to be mid C-Grade. The level wasn’t particularly impressive, but all the information matched her credentials.

She reached into a drawer and picked up an elegant porcelain pipe, which she lit with a snap of her fingers. A sweet scent filled the air, more like citrus than the tobacco I’d been expecting.

She leaned back in her chair, eyes closed as she puffed on her pipe and inspected my character sheet. She straightened as she read through the list, and by the time she was done reading, she’d forgotten about her pipe entirely.

Nearly two minutes later, she stared at me with hard eyes. “You’re not messing with me, are you? You’re really a Forerunner of your world?”

I nodded.

“Arranged by your family, I presume?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m an all-natural Earthling.”

Her frown deepened, like she didn’t believe me.

This line of questioning was going to be unproductive, so I gave her the answer she’d be happy with.

“However, these days, I’m associated with the Samhain Clan, and I’m married to one of the daughters of their main family.”

“Ah. I understand now. Yes, that makes more sense. No doubt they’ve invested heavily in you. I was never fond of the Samhain Clan’s obsession with selecting the perfect mates, but if you’re getting this much out of it, I suppose the men they invite into their family are fully willing participants.”

She drummed her fingers on the table. It seemed to me like she was getting the wrong impression about how much help the Samhain Clan had provided me on my adventures. From what I’d learned, they were quite opposed to hand-holding their descendants. At least, that was the case with the descendants of the main family. I had the impression that things were different with the branch families.

“Okay, so you’re a mage with a lot of afflictions?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes I get close and dirty with Arcane Blade. But yes, usually I’m attacking with spells.”

She drummed her fingers more before clutching around her desk for her pipe, which had fallen to the floor some time ago.

“Normally, I have a list of textbook recommendations to give. If you didn’t have all these high-rarity titles, I’d urge you to ditch a few of the spells and abilities that don’t fit your focus and pick up new ones. Normally I’d recommend a shield too, either as an item or an ability. Looks like you’re using some sort of luck based defensive ability? Hand of Fate? I’ve never even heard of anything like that. Luck abilities are rare enough. Ones at Epic rarity are frankly just not something I’ve ever come across. I bet you the skillbook would be worth a fortune if you were willing to sell copies.”

“Maybe someday.”

She pinched her brows, thinking. “Alright. I’m going to give you a list of classes you can take, as well as a few lists of skillbooks you should look into. Most of them are hard to acquire, so you’ll have to use your own judgement based on what you can get.”

“Instead of classes, can you recommend tutors? Sorry, but I’m short on time these days.”

The theorycrafter nodded and hastily scribbled the names of various professors and what they taught, with the caveat that all of them had students of their own who I should approach for tutoring first to learn the basics. The list wasn’t entirely out of my expectations. If I’d been one of the younger students being issued a curriculum for the year, it might look something like the piece of paper before me.

I looked through the lists of professors and the subjects they taught. There was a professor who taught classes on how to deal with melee fighters as a spellcaster, the basics on what someone like me should be doing as they progress through C-Grade, a professor who specialized in affliction damage, and a few other combat subjects. All of them were surprisingly focused and immediately applicable.

“I’m surprised. No theory classes?”

“Hmm?”

“Maybe it’s called something like Thaumatology or something? Anything that teaches the fundamentals of how magic works? Or did I miss that by joining the academy as a graduate student?”

The theorycrafter scoffed. “Why would we need to learn how magic works? The System gives us skills that handle the tedious energy flow and whatnot on our behalf. There’s little point in learning that sort of thing. And little reward, too.”

I frowned. “Back home, learning fundamental theory was a part of any education.”

“Yeah, well sounds like they wasted your time. You know how to cast spells. If you don’t have the right spell for a job, ditch one of them and learn a new spell. It’s not hard, and usually you can relearn your old spells pretty quick when you switch back.”

“Still. There’s got to be someone with a working model of how mana actually forms spells. I’ve always been curious.”

“What, like some sort of heretical cultivator?” the theorycrafter snorted. “Listen, magic has a lot of uses exploring the natural world, but don’t question how it works. That’s the territory you don’t want to go down. It’s forbidden knowledge for a reason, young man. You’ll hurt yourself trying to figure it out and end up wasting your time. Got it?”

“Okay, got it.” I shrugged. She seemed oddly firm about this subject.

“Well, that settled. I’m going back to lunch. Feel free to throw the big bucks my way again, young man.” She opened the door to her office. I still had a few minutes left, but she suddenly seemed eager to get rid of me. I stepped out, and she handed me the papers on which she’d written her recommendations. After one last glance, I stuck them in my satchel for safekeeping. I’d paid fifty contribution points for all that, after all.

With that, we said hasty goodbyes and soon we were gone. She’d gotten a bit weird toward the end there, but maybe she’d been hungry or really needed to use the bathroom. She did mention I took her away from something important.

With a shrug, I returned to the street I’d been walking past before attending my theorycrafting session. My last set of questions was still on my mind, though. Despite scholarly inclinations in other subjects, the professors here seemed reluctant to delve too deep into the fundamentals of how magic worked.

To me, that seemed like the obvious question to ask, but apparently others thought it pointless. Or more likely, delving too close to forbidden territory. The theorycrafter must have seen my Death Defier title, as well as my curse from the System for breaking the rules. Maybe that was why she’d been so adamant about me going no further down that line of questioning.

Still, that kind of knowledge had saved my life once. It couldn’t hurt to take a peek. And maybe what the professors wouldn’t teach me, the artificers here would.