I stared at a familiar signature, copied throughout the eons.
My signature.
Elaine.
A few things suddenly made sense, and thousands more questions popped up. Like, I’d been complaining that my name was the word for ‘healer’, and how aggravating it was that I was now elaine Elaine.
Well. Turns out I was the architect of my own demise. I’d apparently written the defining text on healing, and while I’d tried to spread it around while I was in the past, I hadn’t thought I’d reach this level of success.
That was about when the realization properly hit.
Holy shitballs. Something of mine had survived all this time! I was famous! Known the world around! If it was this easy to find something of mine that had made it all this time, how easy would it be to find other things? Were there records of me? It let me know that I was in the same world, that I had mattered. I had a legacy. My name was spoken throughout the world.
Back when Papilion was asking me if I wanted to be reincarnated, I thought that people died twice. Once when they died, and a second time when their name was spoke for the last time.
I’d obtained a second type of immortality. I’d beaten out Arthur.
My name wasn’t spoken for a thousand years, no.
My name was spoken for twenty thousand years and counting.
Also, the stack of books was much thicker than I’d imagine the Medical Manuscripts could be. If nothing else, there were more than six books, and I’d only written six volumes. Without saying anything, I cracked the first book open, idly paging through it.
The first few pages weren’t my creation at all, and answered a lot of questions. The first word, the one I understood, was “Contributors”, and topping the list was a name that rang a vague bell.
Lumornor.
After a moment I placed it. Aegion had mentioned his friend might be interested in the Medical Manuscripts, and I guess he’d been more than a little interested.
My High Elvish wasn’t good enough to read the dense technical jargon inside, but the book was beautifully illustrated. I hadn’t made images like this, and clearly people had been expanding on my initial work. I closed the book after spotting what had to be my [Oath] in beautiful calligraphy - the words First, do no harm were easy enough for me to understand - and made a quick count of the stack.
Sixteen. There were now sixteen volumes, all neatly numbered, compared to the original six I’d written. I had serious doubts that my original work had gotten split up that much, and the Contributors page made it clear that others had expanded on my work.
In a sense, I was the author.
In another, I couldn’t claim ownership of what they had become.
“You’d never believe me if I said I wrote these, right?” I asked Marcelle.
She laughed.
“Of course you wrote those! Everyone’s written them. Well, everyone studying medicine at least. One of my first tasks from my teacher was to copy his entire set into my own set of reference books. It was so tedious! It did get me intimately familiar with the material though, and I have to admit, it was a great study aid. I’m a little curious, and I’m sure there’s an [Archivist] who’d love to pick your brain, how many volumes were there when you read them?”
I paused for a moment.
Ranger training emphasized taking action now. Immediately reacting to the problem, because a bad reaction was better than no reaction, and would keep us alive more often than not.
I was impulsive, and my training hadn’t helped quench that aspect on the fly. However, I had time to stop and think.
Did I want to try and convince Marcelle that I was the author? Did I want to try and prove who I was?
The answer was yes, but despite what the screaming-with-joy Elaine stuck in my skull wanted me to do, not right now. While being famous was occasionally fun, it had its fair share of headaches, and that was when I was a Sentinel, and one of the most important people in the Empire. By my reckoning. If I did manage to persuade Marcelle that I was the apparently very famous author of a famous text, I could see my happy days of anonymity coming to a rapid end, and this time I wasn’t in a position to tell everyone to fuck off, I didn’t have the backing of a powerful organization to help me make people fuck off. I still wanted to go to classes. I still wanted to just… enjoy a somewhat normal life. I could always let the cat out of the bag, stuffing the cat back into the bag just ended up with a torn bag and a pile of scratches.
In the end, I didn’t bother to explain that, no, I hadn’t rewritten them, I’d written them. At least, the initial drafts, the core of the manual. I suspected that Marcelle had limited time, and devolving my entire advisor meeting into “no no, I’m the original author” argument would be entirely counterproductive towards actually getting advice.
It also confirmed my theory why [Oath] had capped out. I had thought that I’d gotten some residual experience from being the initial author, and that had indeed been the case! The Medical Manuscripts had spread my [Oath] around.
I was determined to prove that I was the author before I left the School though. My age was going to make it awkward, but I had five years, and the fact that my signature looked like it was still somewhat there was a good step towards proving it.
Things to do another day. Marcelle was trying to have a discussion with me, and ignoring her was plain rude.
“Six.” I answered. “There were only six volumes when I had my hands on it, and somebody must have reorganized them since I worked on them. I’m fairly confident that I was in a time period extremely close to the originals.”
“Oh my! I know some historians will want to talk with you about that! And more! However, don’t let them bug you too much, you’ve got your studies to think about, and they’ll just incessantly hound you without paying you, muttering that ‘it’s for the good of everyone’ and other such nonsense. As for the number of volumes, that makes sense. Did you take the [Healer’s Oath]?”
I grinned.
“I made it, yes, and it’s capped at 513. I’m fairly certain I’ve got a few hundred levels of stored experience left in it.” I was bending the truth a bit. I was certain I had a few thousand levels of stored experience left, but that was unbelievable.
“Ok, wow.” Marcelle poured herself another drink. “That’s something. I’d love to hear the story behind how you leveled it so well, but I’m afraid we don’t have time for that today. I’m going to encourage you again to take up biomancy. Well, depending on your mindset. Many healers who take the [Oath] consider biomantic modifications to be healing, which will let your bonuses kick in. That’ll let you modify people with higher vitality, and there’s insane demand for biomancers with enough power to modify high level individuals. You could make an absolute killing, and be set for life. It’s a good field.”
Marcelle glanced at a rune on her desk and cursed.
“I’m sorry, this meeting’s run quite a bit longer than I intended. Let’s focus on you and your Tracks and classes. Tell me more about your medical knowledge, and I’ll make suggestions where on the Healing Track you should start, along with which classes you should take.”
“I’ll start with anatomy. I’m intimately familiar with humans, but I got destroyed in the interview when it came to other elvenoids. When it comes to diseases…”
I gave Marcelle a rundown of what I knew, freely admitting what I didn’t know when she asked some probing questions. All the while, her little slate kept getting new items added to it.
“Alright. I’ve got a solid grasp. Give me some time to think and cross-reference a few things.” Marcelle tapped her slate, filled with colorful words. She pulled out a pair of reference books, cross-checked a few items, and more words were slowly added to her slate.
Finally, she finished up.
“Right. Here are my recommendations to you, in order from strongest to weakest. First, you must learn some of the common languages. Vitus and I have helped you with the Vampire’s Tongue, but strictly speaking we’re not supposed to let any of it leak to anyone. This is the most I’ve used the language since coming to the School, and I genuinely hope not to use it again. Vampires need to stick together as a group, and our own private language is one way we keep that. I know a few purists that would be furious to learn that you know the language, but I don’t care. Second, your Tracks. I recommend the general Elvenoid Healer Track, the War Medic Track, and the Public Health Track. That’ll get you certified for nearly every situation you could want to find employment in the future. There’s also the Monster, Dinosaur, and Animal Healer Tracks if you’re into that idea. It’s mostly a lot of additional anatomy classes, although if your skills don’t currently cover healing those areas, you’re unlikely to hit 768 in a mortal lifetime to change your class. You’ve got some solid basics, and I recommend you start with the Comparative Anatomy or Advanced Medicine courses. There’s an argument to be made that you should take the Introduction to Medicine class, just to see if there are any fundamentals you’re missing. That one’s up to you. It could be nice to take an easy class to ease yourself into how the School works.”
Marcelle handed me the slate, with what she’d said at the top.
“Radiance Sorcery Track is another easy one for you to take.”
I mentally agreed in principle, and since my class was all about evolving skills, I was planning on using the chance to see how many powerful skills I could pick up. I had a free slot and everything, although I did want to investigate wizardry. There had to be an Introduction to Wizardry class or something out there.
“Lastly, I recommend the Elvenoid Biomancer Track, unless you want to get into modifying plants or animals. However, the School… disapproves… of true chimeras, and you might find more obstacles than normal when trying to study them.” Marcelle had obvious distaste for the restrictions on chimeras.
My eyes were practically dragged to Marcelle’s collection of creatures, each with their own set of modifications.
I decided not to ask if they were chimeras or not.
“Outside of Tracks, there’s a number of courses that, combined, make a sort of unofficial Track. The impolite term for it is the de-bumpkining Track. Long story short, there’s a number of talented individuals who come to us knowing very little outside of the corner of their world and area of expertise, and this pseudo-Track is designed to get them to learn a bit more about the world around them. I believe you could benefit from such an education. Your situation is similar, even if the background is different than usual. I’ve added in a dozen courses to the bottom of the list that effectively form that not-Track.”
A gentle chime went off in the office. Marcelle got up, and started to pack a few things together.
“I apologize, I need to run. Sign up for classes at the smaller administration building. It was lovely meeting you. Bye!”
Marcelle left me with the slate, and I quickly debated trying to catch Artemis and Julius at the greenhouse, or dropping this back off at my dorm first.
I elected to keep the slate safe, heading back to drop it off.
Along the way, I bumped into Iona, who waved me down.
Purple robes were a good look on her.
“Elaine! I was looking for you!”
“Oh?” I asked as she fell in stride with me, heading back to our rooms.
We walked for a few moments in silence, Iona clearly getting her thoughts together.
“You’re a powerful healer.” She stated, and I just wanted to explode about what I’d discovered about the Medical Manuscripts. But no. That was a topic for another day, and right now she had a question for me. “Do you know much about mind healers? Are they actually a thing, or do they just string you along for your money?”
I cocked my head, unsure of the term.
“Mind healers? Maybe? Tell me more?”
“Someone who helps fix your head. They claim they can’t just snap their fingers and use a skill, you need to talk with them a bunch over months. Naturally, you’ve got to pay them the entire time, and they don’t promise it’ll work. It sounds fishy to me, but… I probably need a mind healer.” Iona confessed.
Heavy stuff. I looked at her with a critical eye, remembering some of her stories.
Getting eaten whole by a wyvern.
Watching her sister squires and Valkyries get cut down one by one.
The endless fights she found herself in.
And those were just the stories she was comfortable sharing with relative strangers. There had to be more, deeper, more personal losses she’d had.
Yeah, I could see why she might need a mind healer.
We got to our rooms, used our mana to open the door, and since the conversation was lively, we sat down on the sofas, continuing to chat. It just felt right and natural.
“That sounds a bit like a therapist. I’m not trained as one, but yes, they’re a real thing, and if you think you need to talk with one, you absolutely should. There’s no promises on anything, but give them a shot.”
I studiously ignored my own deteriorating mental state. I was fine. I’d tough things out and get through it.
Iona relaxed, shooting me a huge grin, and I only just noticed how tense she was.
“Thanks Elaine! You’re a huge help. Let me know if I can ever do anything for you, yeah?”
“Of course! Do you know much about biomancy?”
Iona grinned.
“I’m caught in the act! Yes, I know a little about biomancy. A biomancer helped modify me when I was a kid.”
I tilted my head at her, not seeing the extra eyes or whiskers.
“What’d he do?”
Iona flexed and slapped her bicep.
“Made me tall and strong! It’s given me a significant advantage in life. I wouldn’t be nearly this tall or have nearly as much muscle if he hadn’t given me a boost. Great stuff, and it’ll last for my entire life. Helped a ton with the path I’ve taken.”
That little tidbit was like an earworm, and made perfect sense. Modifications lasted a lifetime.
Iona’s entire life.
If I modified myself, they’d permanently make me stronger, or faster, or… something. I’d need to do some research to find out the exact limits of biomancy.
Something to think about, and talk with Artemis and the like… and speaking of, I needed to go meet them!
“Gotta go! Thanks! That’s super helpful.”
With that I dashed out the door, hoping I could find Artemis in a reasonable timeframe.
=======
I caught up with Artemis, Julius, and Auri.
“Brrpt BRPT! BRRRRRRPT!! Brpt brpt BRPT!”
“Cinderwood? Inferno roses? Volcano palms? Wow! Yeah, I’m totally going to have to see those with you! Let’s see the Museum of All Things first though, yeah?”
“Brrpt?”
“I bet they have a fire exhibit…” I tempted the little bird.
“BRPT!”
We headed down along the path to the Museum.
“Productive meeting?” Julius asked.
“Yup. Got a ton of suggestions on classes and Tracks to take. She also thinks I should class up, and thinks biomancy is a viable option for me.”
“Wait wait, don’t tell me.” Artemis covered her eyes with one hand like a fortune teller, holding the other one out. “She’s a biomancer herself.”
“Got it in one.” I agreed.
“Everyone’s going to suggest they take what classes they have. You’d suggest people get healing classes, I’m going to suggest Lightning and Earth mage, Julius thinks there’s nothing better than being a speedster…” Artemis quickly listed off the point on her fingers.
“True. She had an interesting point that simply learning biomancy might help improve my healing class down the line, and Iona mentioned that body modifications are permanent. Which has me thinking I should grab the class, learn enough to do some modifications, ask everyone for advice on the rest of my options, then reset my class and pick the ‘for real’ class. Thoughts?”
I gave a quick explanation what biomancy was, and what I’d learned of it so far.
“The idea has merit.” Artemis tapped her lips. “Get some permanent upgrades for life, then ask a variety of people that you’ll meet here for advice on what the best third class is for you, take that, then get a ton of powerful skills for it. I like it!”
“BRPT brrpt brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppt??”
“I’ll tell you all about the phoenix related classes I get, I promise.” I told my little friend.
“Brrpt! BRPT.”
“Wait, don’t take a phoenix class?”
“Brrpt!!”
I facepalmed.
Auri didn’t want me to burn bigger and brighter than she did. The risk of me overshadowing her was too great in her mind… which was something of a compliment.
“The only question I have for you to think about is: Do you think you can significantly improve your first class?” Julius asked me.
“I have no way of knowing. The recent skill upgrade I got suggests no, but like, I have no way of knowing otherwise. Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t.”
Julius shrugged.
“Yeah, it’s hard to know. Hey, the Museum is supposed to be helpful with classing up, and we’re leaving soon. Why don’t we enjoy ourselves here, you take a look at everything you can, class up quickly, then give us a list of everything you’re considering. Artemis and I can look it over before we next meet up, and give you our personal suggestions. Of course, you’re more likely to get good advice here, but I’d like to think we can help.”
“Appreciate it Julius! Marcelle also mentioned a book I should read. I’ll take a look at that.”
With that, we were at the museum, and without further ado, we entered it. It was something. None of us could properly read, but the designers of the Museum had anticipated that. The entrance had clear signs that we weren’t to touch things in the Museum, except for the things that had a ‘touch’ icon. It also made it clear that some places were off-limits, usually with a locked door with a red skull on it.
“What do you think is off-limits?” Artemis wondered.
“Plague samples.” I immediately rattled off. “This is the Museum of All Things, designed to help show off the world. A cold storage containing every single plague they know of would be on-brand for them, while also something you don’t want casual visitors to get access to.”
“Why on Pallos would anyone store that sort of thing?” Julius griped.
“I imagine it could be useful to expose healers to it?” I ventured a guess. “The more we know, the more efficient our treatments can be.”
“Maybe they have fancy skills in gems, and they don’t want people to be able to see them.” Julius guessed. “You’ve told me about some catastrophic skills you’ve seen.”
We entered the main room of the Museum, and I was immediately blown away.
On the floor was an enormous diagram of the 44 elements arranged in a wheel, a gemstone as large as my head representing each element in the wheel. I found a Diamond for Light, an Obsidian for Dark, then followed the line connecting the two to find a Moonstone for Celestial.
Exhibits tastefully lined the walls between hallway openings, and the Museum spiraled up and up, showing at least six floors, before a beautiful skylight let in the sun.
Before I could get a good look at the smaller exhibits, Auri made my decision for me.
“Brrpt BRPT!” Auri zoomed off to a hallway, and I followed along.
“Have fun!” I called back to Julius and Artemis, who were already arm in arm.
I wanted something like that.
Auri, predictably, went into the hall of flames. I had no idea if there was any heat leaking from the flames or not, my immunity to fire completely killed the sensation of heat from anything actually burning.
A small campfire was in the first case, merrily burning in spite of being enclosed in glass - or some other transparent material. I found a little card near the case, which explained it was a simple wood fire, which happened to be one of the basic flames that most untrained sorcerers got, and was one of the lowest tier flames that existed.
I felt slightly attacked. I’d gotten those types of flames when I’d picked up [Firebug]. They were the only type of fire I was intimately familiar with, and it seemed only natural that’s what the flames I conjured were.
Might also explain why the class had been, frankly, weak. Bless [Ranger-Mage] for getting me Radiance.
The second fire took me a moment to realize it was grease that was burning, not wood. Behind the burning flame an illusion was playing, showing a small elvenoid trying to pour water on a grease fire, and the entire thing blowing up instead of extinguishing.
Interesting. It showed some applications of the particular type of flame, along with what it was made out of. Also potentially a cautionary tale.
Auri was fascinated by the fires, hovering like she was hypnotized in front of each one before going onto the next one. I noticed that she was spending longer and longer flying before needing to take a rest. My little bird was growing up!
Some flames used oozes, while others were clearly gas. I was more than slightly horrified at what looked to be flesh on fire, and had to remind myself that the Museum wanted to show everything, and getting familiar with burning bodies in a safe environment was good for healers.
Then I started to get to the weird flames. Silver fire off of a silver metal. Bright green flames off of what looked like copper. Dark green flames. Spitting yellow-green flames, deep blue, bright orange, blinding yellow, all the colors of the rainbow!
Black fire. White fire. Invisible fire, which had Auri way more interested than I liked. A flame so bright that the enclosure was dimmed, and it had a second layer of runes around it. Even after that, the heat was causing the air inside the case to ripple. I could imagine if that had been my base flame as a Fire mage, Maximus would’ve never rated me as having a “low stopping power”.
The weirdness was just starting.
Dancing flames. Flames with little eyes and a mouth, with a little sign that suggested it was an elemental. Fire that burned downwards. Pyronox. Flames that screamed. Lightless fire that just looked like flame-shaped smoke. Fire that burned cold, frost and condensate on the glass panes. Interestingly, my immunity stretched enough that I didn’t feel any chill coming from the display. Fascinating. It wasn’t just heat and the like I was immune to.
Flames that had a plant growing in the middle, only to bloom a single flower, then wither back down to repeat the cycle again. A hovering ball that was brighter than the sun, frozen in a stasis field. Fire that had lightning inside of it, flames that looked like the sea.
A flame that had Auri entranced near the end of the hall. It wasn’t the last flame in line, and the image behind it showed a phoenix, shaped like an owl, soaring through the air.
The hallway ended with a metal grate, marking the furthest we could go. Red skulls were plastered on it, and a few dozen feet behind the grate, surrounded by dozens of layers of runes, was one last, tiny flame.
“Brrpt.” Auri perched on my shoulder, then bowed reverentially towards the fire.
“What is it?” I asked, only for the illusion behind the flame to activate, showing what the flame was. I instinctively cowered at the illusion, fear striking deep into my heart.
Dragonfire.
They had dragonfire here. As a learning aid.
Well, I was here to learn, and I spent a few minutes studying the flames. There wasn’t much to get out of them.
I mentally slapped myself.
I’d gotten directly scorched by dragonfire, needing to cut off my arm to save my life. Studying a tiny tame flame inside a museum wasn’t going to help my classes any more than my direct, real-life experience. It was a good reminder just how much I’d accomplished.
Classing up was the right move. I could delay, but I’d be frittering away a once in a lifetime opportunity by doing so.
“Want to move on, or stay here a bit?”
“Brrpt brpt.”
Auri wanted to stay, but she was fine with me moving on. I wouldn’t properly enjoy the fire like she would.
She had a point.
I went to the hall of Lightning next, naively thinking there’d be one or two types.
Nooope.
Apparently, there were differences between the “rumbling” type of lightning, the striking type, the little jolts that happened when I rubbed my clothes the wrong way, sustained types, balls of lightning, green types, blue types, black types. I bumped into Artemis and Julius in the hall, them leaving as I was still exploring.
There was a final enclosure to the Lightning hall, not nearly as well warded and guarded as the Fire hall. A crackling bolt of crimson Lightning was frozen, with the little panel describing it as “A captured bolt from Raiju, God of Lightning. Thrown while attempting to smite a heretic.”
That was just another elemental hall. They just got crazier from there.
Ice, formed in a dozen different ways before getting to the snow section, let alone the non-water section, which was itself before the magical section! A block of everfrozen ice on a frying pan over an impotent flame, a levitating cube behind another red skull with the picture behind it implying whatever it froze would spread. I didn’t know there were so many different types of ice, let alone that the element could come in non-frozen water form. Learned something new every day.
I bumped into Artemis and Julius coming out of what looked like the Sound hall, and Julius looked shaken.
“Don’t go deep in there.” He warned, his voice wavering.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“It starts off normal, but they’ve got a cautioned area. You can go in, but…” He shuddered. “Don’t do it.”
My curiosity was piqued, and it clearly showed on my face.
“A massacre got recorded by a skill, and it’ll play for you if you want.” Artemis explained. “If you want to hear a few hundred people being made sport of before getting killed in slow, cruel ways… just don’t.”
Julius shuddered again.
“I think we’re done here. Sorry.”
The two of them made their way out.
I decided to pay more attention to the place’s warning signs.
Metal was next, and I got another flashback to Lun’Kat’s lair. There were samples of every base metal the School knew of and a truly stunning array of alloys of those metals as well, along with a detailed card describing hardness, along with a whole host of technical terms that I was lacking. I suspected even if I knew the words, the numbers were meaningless to me without further education. At some point, it linked up with Crucible, and the mallium display cycling between liquid and a whole host of solid shapes was endlessly fascinating. Sparkling mithril, corrosive stygium, unbreaking and unbending adamantium, and countless other metals whose names I couldn’t translate lined the walls, each fantastic in their own way.
There were roughly 40 different magical metals. I was no expert - it was why I was here, to learn - but whenever something magic-related ended up being around 40, I got suspicious of elemental alignments. 44 elements? 40ish magical metals?
Something to research one day.
The whole section filled with magical metals reminded me of Lun’Kat, although a fraction of the size that the dragon had in her lair.
Gods, that’s what this place vaguely reminded me of. A dragon’s collection.
Earth was next to Metal, and I spent more time perusing all manner of stones. Granite, sandstone, pumice, slate, marble, the hall was practically endless with mundane rocks, each one with a cubic sample neatly labeled.
Water. Light. Dark was interesting. The total darkness of the void. The soft darkness of a starry night. The dark that rushes in right as the candle is blown out. The cloying blackness of claustrophobia. The eternal ‘night’ which existed in the tunnels beneath the surface. Clouds of darkness made by magical octopi, the darkness which covered the moon, a material which absorbed all light, a really confusing display which, after some time spent trying to puzzle it out, contained ignorance, a room that rendered the occupants completely blind. Not even a soft, harmless Radiance glow could light things up, the darkness ate it all.
Wind, which included not only different types of air and gasses but also gentle breezes, biting winter gusts, miniature tornados, wind from the flap of powerful wings, and that was all just in the first quarter. Pyronox, which came not only in black but also blood-red, bright green, pure white, black as dark as anything in that element’s hall, fire which absorbed light rather than emitting it… Acid, packed with a mishmash of strange substances that decidedly weren’t actually acid, their only apparent commonality being that they didn’t fit elsewhere. Gemstone, which of course included all of the elemental gems but others as well, and some truly magnificent creations incorporating them. Arcanite had dozens of different ways of carving it. Steam. Sand. Every place had its own hall, every level of the Museum had more interesting and fascinating things to show me.
Ooze had a whole three halls dedicated to it, and even then they were packed like sardines, the element having unbelievable variety to it. Some oozes were good at being sticky, others were great for burning. Some flowed uphill, others were solid when struck. A dozen different types of mud were shown off, and it just kept going.
Radiance was of particular interest to me, and I was pleased that ‘sunlight’ appeared to be top-tier, above the light of campfires, the cozy warmth of a hearth, and the flickering light of a torch, and on par with a strange beam of light only visible as a dot of light on the substance it hit and only really topped by the burning presence of the more warlike gods of light and fire. Auri joined me again for this hall, the little pyromaniac interested in all the fire-related elements.
Lava had molten glass samples, and doing a bit of reading confirmed that, yes, pure molten glass and several other molten substances all fell under Lava’s umbrella. The more I learned!
Celestial didn’t have a hall, simply a note saying that people interested in the cosmos should visit the observatory. I wanted to visit the observatory, but one thing at a time. The island just had so much to see and do! I should find out if there were going to be any eclipses.
A few halls were locked and sealed up tight. Poison and Miasma had smaller halls, with the most benign and mostly harmless poisons possible. Rat poison. Weedkiller. Insecticide. Useful things to be sure, but the hallways had clearly sealed off the good stuff. I didn’t even see snake venom, let alone exotic jellyfish and the like!
There was a side-room to the poison hall, a room filled from floor to ceiling with tiny shelves, each one with a small shot glass of alcohol. A tiny card was attached to each one, with what I assumed was the name of the drink. Great for any [Bartender]!
Similarly, there were no Sylvan, Spore, or Forest halls, with similar notes to the Celestial element that people should visit the greenhouse or arboretum.
Gravity was more interesting than I gave it credit for initially. A couple of ‘empty’ containers showed different effects behind them, but then each container ended up with a red skull. While I couldn’t detect anything with my senses - I had to assume the magic was well-contained - the graphic images behind each section told a story. A person pulled in two directions, a person getting “sheared”, someone accelerating to crazy speeds and vanishing off the planet.
Half the exhibits were on the ceiling, and I climbed one of the ‘stairs’ to take a look, feeling gravity shift around me as I made it ‘up’ there. It was clear that gravity was relative, and it was only with long experience flying that I didn’t feel queasy as my entire mental model flipped upside down.
More interesting were the objects. It took me a few minutes to work out that the sword on the pedestal was light as a feather, but still hit like it had its full weight, no skills needed. A disk that seemed to do nothing other than eat angular momentum. The note seemed to imply that it was one-of-a-kind, and no other objects that could do something similar were known.
Void and Space were similar. Darkness, distortions, emptiness on each platform, with vivid images of what that particular container did. A room that ate sound, another room that was pitch black, I was seeing a lot of overlap between Dark and Void.
It was hard to show the absence of things, which is what Void did exceptionally well.
Spatial had the classic set of a hundred different spatial containers. Spatial crates were a classic that I’d seen with the elves, and they had pouches, cups, wardrobes, an ocean in a bottle, and so many more different types of expanded spaces. Some twists in space had impossible shapes that twisted back on themselves in ways they couldn’t in normal space.
Both halls cut off a bit early with more large red skulls. Not as quickly as the Poison or Miasma halls had, but short enough to imply some truly dangerous things weren’t being displayed.
Eventually I moved on from the elements, and ended up with the artifacts, critters, insects, bugs, a taxidermy zoo, and other notable historical trinkets. There was a hallway dedicated to elvenoid biology, which had a scribbled green puking face. It didn’t look officially Museum-sanctioned, and I thought the students were soft. It was just every organ from every elvenoid neatly displayed in cases, and displayed one more time as a carved-up cadaver, it wasn’t like it was gross or anything.
The fantastical creature section was just as impressive. Unicorn horns next to wyvern scales, manticore stingers and hydra heads, the hall had everything!
With a notable absence of anything draconic. Curiouser and curiouser.
I skipped the dinosaur floor, saving it for another day, instead touring with Auri, seeing what she wanted to see. Even then, there were so many things we didn’t see, the building seemingly endless. More activities to do another day! We eventually called it quits, and headed home.
“Brrpt brpt?”
“The ice that was also a mirror was pretty cool.” I punned at Auri.
“Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppptttt…..” Auri couldn’t groan, but she could do the next best thing. “Brrpt BRPT!”
“Really? The Lava?”
“Brrrrrpt!” Endless flaming rocks were interesting to Auri. The fire was inside the rock, which was all sorts of interesting!!
“Brrpt?”
I chewed my lip, not expecting Auri to put me on the spot like that.
“I guess there’s nothing stopping me from classing up at this point.” I reluctantly admitted. “Although, I should read that book Marcelle suggested. It’ll help me figure out what class I want to take, and what the requirements are.”
“Brrpt!”
“Yeah, let’s head to the library!”
At long last, I was heading towards the best place on campus. The building that was the reason for my existence. The store of all things wonderful.
The library.
To find a real book that I’d read before reading all of the soul books in my classing up space.
I stared at a familiar signature, copied throughout the eons.
My signature.
Elaine.
A few things suddenly made sense, and thousands more questions popped up. Like, I’d been complaining that my name was the word for ‘healer’, and how aggravating it was that I was now elaine Elaine.
Well. Turns out I was the architect of my own demise. I’d apparently written the defining text on healing, and while I’d tried to spread it around while I was in the past, I hadn’t thought I’d reach this level of success.
That was about when the realization properly hit.
Holy shitballs. Something of mine had survived all this time! I was famous! Known the world around! If it was this easy to find something of mine that had made it all this time, how easy would it be to find other things? Were there records of me? It let me know that I was in the same world, that I had mattered. I had a legacy. My name was spoken throughout the world.
Back when Papilion was asking me if I wanted to be reincarnated, I thought that people died twice. Once when they died, and a second time when their name was spoke for the last time.
I’d obtained a second type of immortality. I’d beaten out Arthur.
My name wasn’t spoken for a thousand years, no.
My name was spoken for twenty thousand years and counting.
Also, the stack of books was much thicker than I’d imagine the Medical Manuscripts could be. If nothing else, there were more than six books, and I’d only written six volumes. Without saying anything, I cracked the first book open, idly paging through it.
The first few pages weren’t my creation at all, and answered a lot of questions. The first word, the one I understood, was “Contributors”, and topping the list was a name that rang a vague bell.
Lumornor.
After a moment I placed it. Aegion had mentioned his friend might be interested in the Medical Manuscripts, and I guess he’d been more than a little interested.
My High Elvish wasn’t good enough to read the dense technical jargon inside, but the book was beautifully illustrated. I hadn’t made images like this, and clearly people had been expanding on my initial work. I closed the book after spotting what had to be my [Oath] in beautiful calligraphy - the words First, do no harm were easy enough for me to understand - and made a quick count of the stack.
Sixteen. There were now sixteen volumes, all neatly numbered, compared to the original six I’d written. I had serious doubts that my original work had gotten split up that much, and the Contributors page made it clear that others had expanded on my work.
In a sense, I was the author.
In another, I couldn’t claim ownership of what they had become.
“You’d never believe me if I said I wrote these, right?” I asked Marcelle.
She laughed.
“Of course you wrote those! Everyone’s written them. Well, everyone studying medicine at least. One of my first tasks from my teacher was to copy his entire set into my own set of reference books. It was so tedious! It did get me intimately familiar with the material though, and I have to admit, it was a great study aid. I’m a little curious, and I’m sure there’s an [Archivist] who’d love to pick your brain, how many volumes were there when you read them?”
I paused for a moment.
Ranger training emphasized taking action now. Immediately reacting to the problem, because a bad reaction was better than no reaction, and would keep us alive more often than not.
I was impulsive, and my training hadn’t helped quench that aspect on the fly. However, I had time to stop and think.
Did I want to try and convince Marcelle that I was the author? Did I want to try and prove who I was?
The answer was yes, but despite what the screaming-with-joy Elaine stuck in my skull wanted me to do, not right now. While being famous was occasionally fun, it had its fair share of headaches, and that was when I was a Sentinel, and one of the most important people in the Empire. By my reckoning. If I did manage to persuade Marcelle that I was the apparently very famous author of a famous text, I could see my happy days of anonymity coming to a rapid end, and this time I wasn’t in a position to tell everyone to fuck off, I didn’t have the backing of a powerful organization to help me make people fuck off. I still wanted to go to classes. I still wanted to just… enjoy a somewhat normal life. I could always let the cat out of the bag, stuffing the cat back into the bag just ended up with a torn bag and a pile of scratches.
In the end, I didn’t bother to explain that, no, I hadn’t rewritten them, I’d written them. At least, the initial drafts, the core of the manual. I suspected that Marcelle had limited time, and devolving my entire advisor meeting into “no no, I’m the original author” argument would be entirely counterproductive towards actually getting advice.
It also confirmed my theory why [Oath] had capped out. I had thought that I’d gotten some residual experience from being the initial author, and that had indeed been the case! The Medical Manuscripts had spread my [Oath] around.
I was determined to prove that I was the author before I left the School though. My age was going to make it awkward, but I had five years, and the fact that my signature looked like it was still somewhat there was a good step towards proving it.
Things to do another day. Marcelle was trying to have a discussion with me, and ignoring her was plain rude.
“Six.” I answered. “There were only six volumes when I had my hands on it, and somebody must have reorganized them since I worked on them. I’m fairly confident that I was in a time period extremely close to the originals.”
“Oh my! I know some historians will want to talk with you about that! And more! However, don’t let them bug you too much, you’ve got your studies to think about, and they’ll just incessantly hound you without paying you, muttering that ‘it’s for the good of everyone’ and other such nonsense. As for the number of volumes, that makes sense. Did you take the [Healer’s Oath]?”
I grinned.
“I made it, yes, and it’s capped at 513. I’m fairly certain I’ve got a few hundred levels of stored experience left in it.” I was bending the truth a bit. I was certain I had a few thousand levels of stored experience left, but that was unbelievable.
“Ok, wow.” Marcelle poured herself another drink. “That’s something. I’d love to hear the story behind how you leveled it so well, but I’m afraid we don’t have time for that today. I’m going to encourage you again to take up biomancy. Well, depending on your mindset. Many healers who take the [Oath] consider biomantic modifications to be healing, which will let your bonuses kick in. That’ll let you modify people with higher vitality, and there’s insane demand for biomancers with enough power to modify high level individuals. You could make an absolute killing, and be set for life. It’s a good field.”
Marcelle glanced at a rune on her desk and cursed.
“I’m sorry, this meeting’s run quite a bit longer than I intended. Let’s focus on you and your Tracks and classes. Tell me more about your medical knowledge, and I’ll make suggestions where on the Healing Track you should start, along with which classes you should take.”
“I’ll start with anatomy. I’m intimately familiar with humans, but I got destroyed in the interview when it came to other elvenoids. When it comes to diseases…”
I gave Marcelle a rundown of what I knew, freely admitting what I didn’t know when she asked some probing questions. All the while, her little slate kept getting new items added to it.
“Alright. I’ve got a solid grasp. Give me some time to think and cross-reference a few things.” Marcelle tapped her slate, filled with colorful words. She pulled out a pair of reference books, cross-checked a few items, and more words were slowly added to her slate.
Finally, she finished up.
“Right. Here are my recommendations to you, in order from strongest to weakest. First, you must learn some of the common languages. Vitus and I have helped you with the Vampire’s Tongue, but strictly speaking we’re not supposed to let any of it leak to anyone. This is the most I’ve used the language since coming to the School, and I genuinely hope not to use it again. Vampires need to stick together as a group, and our own private language is one way we keep that. I know a few purists that would be furious to learn that you know the language, but I don’t care. Second, your Tracks. I recommend the general Elvenoid Healer Track, the War Medic Track, and the Public Health Track. That’ll get you certified for nearly every situation you could want to find employment in the future. There’s also the Monster, Dinosaur, and Animal Healer Tracks if you’re into that idea. It’s mostly a lot of additional anatomy classes, although if your skills don’t currently cover healing those areas, you’re unlikely to hit 768 in a mortal lifetime to change your class. You’ve got some solid basics, and I recommend you start with the Comparative Anatomy or Advanced Medicine courses. There’s an argument to be made that you should take the Introduction to Medicine class, just to see if there are any fundamentals you’re missing. That one’s up to you. It could be nice to take an easy class to ease yourself into how the School works.”
Marcelle handed me the slate, with what she’d said at the top.
“Radiance Sorcery Track is another easy one for you to take.”
I mentally agreed in principle, and since my class was all about evolving skills, I was planning on using the chance to see how many powerful skills I could pick up. I had a free slot and everything, although I did want to investigate wizardry. There had to be an Introduction to Wizardry class or something out there.
“Lastly, I recommend the Elvenoid Biomancer Track, unless you want to get into modifying plants or animals. However, the School… disapproves… of true chimeras, and you might find more obstacles than normal when trying to study them.” Marcelle had obvious distaste for the restrictions on chimeras.
My eyes were practically dragged to Marcelle’s collection of creatures, each with their own set of modifications.
I decided not to ask if they were chimeras or not.
“Outside of Tracks, there’s a number of courses that, combined, make a sort of unofficial Track. The impolite term for it is the de-bumpkining Track. Long story short, there’s a number of talented individuals who come to us knowing very little outside of the corner of their world and area of expertise, and this pseudo-Track is designed to get them to learn a bit more about the world around them. I believe you could benefit from such an education. Your situation is similar, even if the background is different than usual. I’ve added in a dozen courses to the bottom of the list that effectively form that not-Track.”
A gentle chime went off in the office. Marcelle got up, and started to pack a few things together.
“I apologize, I need to run. Sign up for classes at the smaller administration building. It was lovely meeting you. Bye!”
Marcelle left me with the slate, and I quickly debated trying to catch Artemis and Julius at the greenhouse, or dropping this back off at my dorm first.
I elected to keep the slate safe, heading back to drop it off.
Along the way, I bumped into Iona, who waved me down.
Purple robes were a good look on her.
“Elaine! I was looking for you!”
“Oh?” I asked as she fell in stride with me, heading back to our rooms.
We walked for a few moments in silence, Iona clearly getting her thoughts together.
“You’re a powerful healer.” She stated, and I just wanted to explode about what I’d discovered about the Medical Manuscripts. But no. That was a topic for another day, and right now she had a question for me. “Do you know much about mind healers? Are they actually a thing, or do they just string you along for your money?”
I cocked my head, unsure of the term.
“Mind healers? Maybe? Tell me more?”
“Someone who helps fix your head. They claim they can’t just snap their fingers and use a skill, you need to talk with them a bunch over months. Naturally, you’ve got to pay them the entire time, and they don’t promise it’ll work. It sounds fishy to me, but… I probably need a mind healer.” Iona confessed.
Heavy stuff. I looked at her with a critical eye, remembering some of her stories.
Getting eaten whole by a wyvern.
Watching her sister squires and Valkyries get cut down one by one.
The endless fights she found herself in.
And those were just the stories she was comfortable sharing with relative strangers. There had to be more, deeper, more personal losses she’d had.
Yeah, I could see why she might need a mind healer.
We got to our rooms, used our mana to open the door, and since the conversation was lively, we sat down on the sofas, continuing to chat. It just felt right and natural.
“That sounds a bit like a therapist. I’m not trained as one, but yes, they’re a real thing, and if you think you need to talk with one, you absolutely should. There’s no promises on anything, but give them a shot.”
I studiously ignored my own deteriorating mental state. I was fine. I’d tough things out and get through it.
Iona relaxed, shooting me a huge grin, and I only just noticed how tense she was.
“Thanks Elaine! You’re a huge help. Let me know if I can ever do anything for you, yeah?”
“Of course! Do you know much about biomancy?”
Iona grinned.
“I’m caught in the act! Yes, I know a little about biomancy. A biomancer helped modify me when I was a kid.”
I tilted my head at her, not seeing the extra eyes or whiskers.
“What’d he do?”
Iona flexed and slapped her bicep.
“Made me tall and strong! It’s given me a significant advantage in life. I wouldn’t be nearly this tall or have nearly as much muscle if he hadn’t given me a boost. Great stuff, and it’ll last for my entire life. Helped a ton with the path I’ve taken.”
That little tidbit was like an earworm, and made perfect sense. Modifications lasted a lifetime.
Iona’s entire life.
If I modified myself, they’d permanently make me stronger, or faster, or… something. I’d need to do some research to find out the exact limits of biomancy.
Something to think about, and talk with Artemis and the like… and speaking of, I needed to go meet them!
“Gotta go! Thanks! That’s super helpful.”
With that I dashed out the door, hoping I could find Artemis in a reasonable timeframe.
=======
I caught up with Artemis, Julius, and Auri.
“Brrpt BRPT! BRRRRRRPT!! Brpt brpt BRPT!”
“Cinderwood? Inferno roses? Volcano palms? Wow! Yeah, I’m totally going to have to see those with you! Let’s see the Museum of All Things first though, yeah?”
“Brrpt?”
“I bet they have a fire exhibit…” I tempted the little bird.
“BRPT!”
We headed down along the path to the Museum.
“Productive meeting?” Julius asked.
“Yup. Got a ton of suggestions on classes and Tracks to take. She also thinks I should class up, and thinks biomancy is a viable option for me.”
“Wait wait, don’t tell me.” Artemis covered her eyes with one hand like a fortune teller, holding the other one out. “She’s a biomancer herself.”
“Got it in one.” I agreed.
“Everyone’s going to suggest they take what classes they have. You’d suggest people get healing classes, I’m going to suggest Lightning and Earth mage, Julius thinks there’s nothing better than being a speedster…” Artemis quickly listed off the point on her fingers.
“True. She had an interesting point that simply learning biomancy might help improve my healing class down the line, and Iona mentioned that body modifications are permanent. Which has me thinking I should grab the class, learn enough to do some modifications, ask everyone for advice on the rest of my options, then reset my class and pick the ‘for real’ class. Thoughts?”
I gave a quick explanation what biomancy was, and what I’d learned of it so far.
“The idea has merit.” Artemis tapped her lips. “Get some permanent upgrades for life, then ask a variety of people that you’ll meet here for advice on what the best third class is for you, take that, then get a ton of powerful skills for it. I like it!”
“BRPT brrpt brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppt??”
“I’ll tell you all about the phoenix related classes I get, I promise.” I told my little friend.
“Brrpt! BRPT.”
“Wait, don’t take a phoenix class?”
“Brrpt!!”
I facepalmed.
Auri didn’t want me to burn bigger and brighter than she did. The risk of me overshadowing her was too great in her mind… which was something of a compliment.
“The only question I have for you to think about is: Do you think you can significantly improve your first class?” Julius asked me.
“I have no way of knowing. The recent skill upgrade I got suggests no, but like, I have no way of knowing otherwise. Maybe there is, maybe there isn’t.”
Julius shrugged.
“Yeah, it’s hard to know. Hey, the Museum is supposed to be helpful with classing up, and we’re leaving soon. Why don’t we enjoy ourselves here, you take a look at everything you can, class up quickly, then give us a list of everything you’re considering. Artemis and I can look it over before we next meet up, and give you our personal suggestions. Of course, you’re more likely to get good advice here, but I’d like to think we can help.”
“Appreciate it Julius! Marcelle also mentioned a book I should read. I’ll take a look at that.”
With that, we were at the museum, and without further ado, we entered it. It was something. None of us could properly read, but the designers of the Museum had anticipated that. The entrance had clear signs that we weren’t to touch things in the Museum, except for the things that had a ‘touch’ icon. It also made it clear that some places were off-limits, usually with a locked door with a red skull on it.
“What do you think is off-limits?” Artemis wondered.
“Plague samples.” I immediately rattled off. “This is the Museum of All Things, designed to help show off the world. A cold storage containing every single plague they know of would be on-brand for them, while also something you don’t want casual visitors to get access to.”
“Why on Pallos would anyone store that sort of thing?” Julius griped.
“I imagine it could be useful to expose healers to it?” I ventured a guess. “The more we know, the more efficient our treatments can be.”
“Maybe they have fancy skills in gems, and they don’t want people to be able to see them.” Julius guessed. “You’ve told me about some catastrophic skills you’ve seen.”
We entered the main room of the Museum, and I was immediately blown away.
On the floor was an enormous diagram of the 44 elements arranged in a wheel, a gemstone as large as my head representing each element in the wheel. I found a Diamond for Light, an Obsidian for Dark, then followed the line connecting the two to find a Moonstone for Celestial.
Exhibits tastefully lined the walls between hallway openings, and the Museum spiraled up and up, showing at least six floors, before a beautiful skylight let in the sun.
Before I could get a good look at the smaller exhibits, Auri made my decision for me.
“Brrpt BRPT!” Auri zoomed off to a hallway, and I followed along.
“Have fun!” I called back to Julius and Artemis, who were already arm in arm.
I wanted something like that.
Auri, predictably, went into the hall of flames. I had no idea if there was any heat leaking from the flames or not, my immunity to fire completely killed the sensation of heat from anything actually burning.
A small campfire was in the first case, merrily burning in spite of being enclosed in glass - or some other transparent material. I found a little card near the case, which explained it was a simple wood fire, which happened to be one of the basic flames that most untrained sorcerers got, and was one of the lowest tier flames that existed.
I felt slightly attacked. I’d gotten those types of flames when I’d picked up [Firebug]. They were the only type of fire I was intimately familiar with, and it seemed only natural that’s what the flames I conjured were.
Might also explain why the class had been, frankly, weak. Bless [Ranger-Mage] for getting me Radiance.
The second fire took me a moment to realize it was grease that was burning, not wood. Behind the burning flame an illusion was playing, showing a small elvenoid trying to pour water on a grease fire, and the entire thing blowing up instead of extinguishing.
Interesting. It showed some applications of the particular type of flame, along with what it was made out of. Also potentially a cautionary tale.
Auri was fascinated by the fires, hovering like she was hypnotized in front of each one before going onto the next one. I noticed that she was spending longer and longer flying before needing to take a rest. My little bird was growing up!
Some flames used oozes, while others were clearly gas. I was more than slightly horrified at what looked to be flesh on fire, and had to remind myself that the Museum wanted to show everything, and getting familiar with burning bodies in a safe environment was good for healers.
Then I started to get to the weird flames. Silver fire off of a silver metal. Bright green flames off of what looked like copper. Dark green flames. Spitting yellow-green flames, deep blue, bright orange, blinding yellow, all the colors of the rainbow!
Black fire. White fire. Invisible fire, which had Auri way more interested than I liked. A flame so bright that the enclosure was dimmed, and it had a second layer of runes around it. Even after that, the heat was causing the air inside the case to ripple. I could imagine if that had been my base flame as a Fire mage, Maximus would’ve never rated me as having a “low stopping power”.
The weirdness was just starting.
Dancing flames. Flames with little eyes and a mouth, with a little sign that suggested it was an elemental. Fire that burned downwards. Pyronox. Flames that screamed. Lightless fire that just looked like flame-shaped smoke. Fire that burned cold, frost and condensate on the glass panes. Interestingly, my immunity stretched enough that I didn’t feel any chill coming from the display. Fascinating. It wasn’t just heat and the like I was immune to.
Flames that had a plant growing in the middle, only to bloom a single flower, then wither back down to repeat the cycle again. A hovering ball that was brighter than the sun, frozen in a stasis field. Fire that had lightning inside of it, flames that looked like the sea.
A flame that had Auri entranced near the end of the hall. It wasn’t the last flame in line, and the image behind it showed a phoenix, shaped like an owl, soaring through the air.
The hallway ended with a metal grate, marking the furthest we could go. Red skulls were plastered on it, and a few dozen feet behind the grate, surrounded by dozens of layers of runes, was one last, tiny flame.
“Brrpt.” Auri perched on my shoulder, then bowed reverentially towards the fire.
“What is it?” I asked, only for the illusion behind the flame to activate, showing what the flame was. I instinctively cowered at the illusion, fear striking deep into my heart.
Dragonfire.
They had dragonfire here. As a learning aid.
Well, I was here to learn, and I spent a few minutes studying the flames. There wasn’t much to get out of them.
I mentally slapped myself.
I’d gotten directly scorched by dragonfire, needing to cut off my arm to save my life. Studying a tiny tame flame inside a museum wasn’t going to help my classes any more than my direct, real-life experience. It was a good reminder just how much I’d accomplished.
Classing up was the right move. I could delay, but I’d be frittering away a once in a lifetime opportunity by doing so.
“Want to move on, or stay here a bit?”
“Brrpt brpt.”
Auri wanted to stay, but she was fine with me moving on. I wouldn’t properly enjoy the fire like she would.
She had a point.
I went to the hall of Lightning next, naively thinking there’d be one or two types.
Nooope.
Apparently, there were differences between the “rumbling” type of lightning, the striking type, the little jolts that happened when I rubbed my clothes the wrong way, sustained types, balls of lightning, green types, blue types, black types. I bumped into Artemis and Julius in the hall, them leaving as I was still exploring.
There was a final enclosure to the Lightning hall, not nearly as well warded and guarded as the Fire hall. A crackling bolt of crimson Lightning was frozen, with the little panel describing it as “A captured bolt from Raiju, God of Lightning. Thrown while attempting to smite a heretic.”
That was just another elemental hall. They just got crazier from there.
Ice, formed in a dozen different ways before getting to the snow section, let alone the non-water section, which was itself before the magical section! A block of everfrozen ice on a frying pan over an impotent flame, a levitating cube behind another red skull with the picture behind it implying whatever it froze would spread. I didn’t know there were so many different types of ice, let alone that the element could come in non-frozen water form. Learned something new every day.
I bumped into Artemis and Julius coming out of what looked like the Sound hall, and Julius looked shaken.
“Don’t go deep in there.” He warned, his voice wavering.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“It starts off normal, but they’ve got a cautioned area. You can go in, but…” He shuddered. “Don’t do it.”
My curiosity was piqued, and it clearly showed on my face.
“A massacre got recorded by a skill, and it’ll play for you if you want.” Artemis explained. “If you want to hear a few hundred people being made sport of before getting killed in slow, cruel ways… just don’t.”
Julius shuddered again.
“I think we’re done here. Sorry.”
The two of them made their way out.
I decided to pay more attention to the place’s warning signs.
Metal was next, and I got another flashback to Lun’Kat’s lair. There were samples of every base metal the School knew of and a truly stunning array of alloys of those metals as well, along with a detailed card describing hardness, along with a whole host of technical terms that I was lacking. I suspected even if I knew the words, the numbers were meaningless to me without further education. At some point, it linked up with Crucible, and the mallium display cycling between liquid and a whole host of solid shapes was endlessly fascinating. Sparkling mithril, corrosive stygium, unbreaking and unbending adamantium, and countless other metals whose names I couldn’t translate lined the walls, each fantastic in their own way.
There were roughly 40 different magical metals. I was no expert - it was why I was here, to learn - but whenever something magic-related ended up being around 40, I got suspicious of elemental alignments. 44 elements? 40ish magical metals?
Something to research one day.
The whole section filled with magical metals reminded me of Lun’Kat, although a fraction of the size that the dragon had in her lair.
Gods, that’s what this place vaguely reminded me of. A dragon’s collection.
Earth was next to Metal, and I spent more time perusing all manner of stones. Granite, sandstone, pumice, slate, marble, the hall was practically endless with mundane rocks, each one with a cubic sample neatly labeled.
Water. Light. Dark was interesting. The total darkness of the void. The soft darkness of a starry night. The dark that rushes in right as the candle is blown out. The cloying blackness of claustrophobia. The eternal ‘night’ which existed in the tunnels beneath the surface. Clouds of darkness made by magical octopi, the darkness which covered the moon, a material which absorbed all light, a really confusing display which, after some time spent trying to puzzle it out, contained ignorance, a room that rendered the occupants completely blind. Not even a soft, harmless Radiance glow could light things up, the darkness ate it all.
Wind, which included not only different types of air and gasses but also gentle breezes, biting winter gusts, miniature tornados, wind from the flap of powerful wings, and that was all just in the first quarter. Pyronox, which came not only in black but also blood-red, bright green, pure white, black as dark as anything in that element’s hall, fire which absorbed light rather than emitting it… Acid, packed with a mishmash of strange substances that decidedly weren’t actually acid, their only apparent commonality being that they didn’t fit elsewhere. Gemstone, which of course included all of the elemental gems but others as well, and some truly magnificent creations incorporating them. Arcanite had dozens of different ways of carving it. Steam. Sand. Every place had its own hall, every level of the Museum had more interesting and fascinating things to show me.
Ooze had a whole three halls dedicated to it, and even then they were packed like sardines, the element having unbelievable variety to it. Some oozes were good at being sticky, others were great for burning. Some flowed uphill, others were solid when struck. A dozen different types of mud were shown off, and it just kept going.
Radiance was of particular interest to me, and I was pleased that ‘sunlight’ appeared to be top-tier, above the light of campfires, the cozy warmth of a hearth, and the flickering light of a torch, and on par with a strange beam of light only visible as a dot of light on the substance it hit and only really topped by the burning presence of the more warlike gods of light and fire. Auri joined me again for this hall, the little pyromaniac interested in all the fire-related elements.
Lava had molten glass samples, and doing a bit of reading confirmed that, yes, pure molten glass and several other molten substances all fell under Lava’s umbrella. The more I learned!
Celestial didn’t have a hall, simply a note saying that people interested in the cosmos should visit the observatory. I wanted to visit the observatory, but one thing at a time. The island just had so much to see and do! I should find out if there were going to be any eclipses.
A few halls were locked and sealed up tight. Poison and Miasma had smaller halls, with the most benign and mostly harmless poisons possible. Rat poison. Weedkiller. Insecticide. Useful things to be sure, but the hallways had clearly sealed off the good stuff. I didn’t even see snake venom, let alone exotic jellyfish and the like!
There was a side-room to the poison hall, a room filled from floor to ceiling with tiny shelves, each one with a small shot glass of alcohol. A tiny card was attached to each one, with what I assumed was the name of the drink. Great for any [Bartender]!
Similarly, there were no Sylvan, Spore, or Forest halls, with similar notes to the Celestial element that people should visit the greenhouse or arboretum.
Gravity was more interesting than I gave it credit for initially. A couple of ‘empty’ containers showed different effects behind them, but then each container ended up with a red skull. While I couldn’t detect anything with my senses - I had to assume the magic was well-contained - the graphic images behind each section told a story. A person pulled in two directions, a person getting “sheared”, someone accelerating to crazy speeds and vanishing off the planet.
Half the exhibits were on the ceiling, and I climbed one of the ‘stairs’ to take a look, feeling gravity shift around me as I made it ‘up’ there. It was clear that gravity was relative, and it was only with long experience flying that I didn’t feel queasy as my entire mental model flipped upside down.
More interesting were the objects. It took me a few minutes to work out that the sword on the pedestal was light as a feather, but still hit like it had its full weight, no skills needed. A disk that seemed to do nothing other than eat angular momentum. The note seemed to imply that it was one-of-a-kind, and no other objects that could do something similar were known.
Void and Space were similar. Darkness, distortions, emptiness on each platform, with vivid images of what that particular container did. A room that ate sound, another room that was pitch black, I was seeing a lot of overlap between Dark and Void.
It was hard to show the absence of things, which is what Void did exceptionally well.
Spatial had the classic set of a hundred different spatial containers. Spatial crates were a classic that I’d seen with the elves, and they had pouches, cups, wardrobes, an ocean in a bottle, and so many more different types of expanded spaces. Some twists in space had impossible shapes that twisted back on themselves in ways they couldn’t in normal space.
Both halls cut off a bit early with more large red skulls. Not as quickly as the Poison or Miasma halls had, but short enough to imply some truly dangerous things weren’t being displayed.
Eventually I moved on from the elements, and ended up with the artifacts, critters, insects, bugs, a taxidermy zoo, and other notable historical trinkets. There was a hallway dedicated to elvenoid biology, which had a scribbled green puking face. It didn’t look officially Museum-sanctioned, and I thought the students were soft. It was just every organ from every elvenoid neatly displayed in cases, and displayed one more time as a carved-up cadaver, it wasn’t like it was gross or anything.
The fantastical creature section was just as impressive. Unicorn horns next to wyvern scales, manticore stingers and hydra heads, the hall had everything!
With a notable absence of anything draconic. Curiouser and curiouser.
I skipped the dinosaur floor, saving it for another day, instead touring with Auri, seeing what she wanted to see. Even then, there were so many things we didn’t see, the building seemingly endless. More activities to do another day! We eventually called it quits, and headed home.
“Brrpt brpt?”
“The ice that was also a mirror was pretty cool.” I punned at Auri.
“Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppptttt…..” Auri couldn’t groan, but she could do the next best thing. “Brrpt BRPT!”
“Really? The Lava?”
“Brrrrrpt!” Endless flaming rocks were interesting to Auri. The fire was inside the rock, which was all sorts of interesting!!
“Brrpt?”
I chewed my lip, not expecting Auri to put me on the spot like that.
“I guess there’s nothing stopping me from classing up at this point.” I reluctantly admitted. “Although, I should read that book Marcelle suggested. It’ll help me figure out what class I want to take, and what the requirements are.”
“Brrpt!”
“Yeah, let’s head to the library!”
At long last, I was heading towards the best place on campus. The building that was the reason for my existence. The store of all things wonderful.
The library.
To find a real book that I’d read before reading all of the soul books in my classing up space.
