Quest Academy: Silvers, page 12
Core Modules: (M = Mandatory)
(M) Skills: No Grade
(M) Survival: No Grade
(M) Combat: No Grade
(M) Crafting: No Grade
Elective Modules:
Analysis: No Grade
Administration: No Grade
It would have been ideal if he could have switched out Survival with something else, but there was nothing he could do about it considering it was mandatory. He shrugged, and was about to close out of it, when he caught sight of the abilities list. Skill Master and Mythcrafter both sounded incredible, and he smiled at the sight of them. Even if he was kicked out of the university and went home to his parents with just that ability, he’d see it as a complete success. It would be useful to their auction house, even if he didn’t know how to use it, yet, or how good it was, but he was confident.
Taking a step back, Sal almost tripped over one of his suitcases. It was now coming into day two, and he still hadn’t unpacked.
“Might as well get it over with…” Sal muttered as he started going through each of the cases.
It was a mini adventure in itself as he managed to find a whole set of things he didn’t know were in the apartment, including a washer and dryer. Packing the shelves of his closet took a bit longer than it should have, as Sal kept switching things around to see what felt right. Just when he was about to reach for the T-shirts again, his eyes ignited and displayed the most optimal arrangement that could be completed. The small sensation made Sal pause.
“That’s new…” He spoke quietly as he turned to the rest of his luggage.
Using his eyes again, the same thing occurred, and Sal even knew how to pack and stack the cases to minimize their floorspace. With his eyes in constant use, Sal followed their instructions and was amazed to have it done in absolutely no time. It was like each task became a checklist item for him.
Just when he was about to finish up, there was a faint knocking on the door. Quest and Upgrade had put him to bed in his uniform, so he didn’t need to throw anything on. Sal walked around the bed and went to the door, only to pause in surprise. What had previously been a door that operated on a hinge…was now a sliding door that opened with a touch of a button. Upgrade had said she’d fixed the door. But her ability wasn’t Restoration or Repair; it was Upgrading, and that’s exactly what she had done.
Sal tapped the button and the door glided into an unseen recess in the wall. He watched it go in astonishment, as did Hannah from the hallway. She pointed at the door, her face a picture of confusion.
“Ah, I completely forgot!” They had agreed to meet up in the evening, but that seemed like a lifetime ago.
Hannah hiked her thumb over her shoulder. “Want me to leave?”
Sal shook his head. “Do you want to come in, or go somewhere else? Where’s Kane?”
Hannah raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, he’s definitely not going to want to talk to people after that Combat encounter.” Before Sal could reply, Hannah looked over his shoulder and into his room. “Hey, is yours bigger than mine?”
Without so much as another word, she walked straight past him and into the room. Sal followed her in, only to find her counting her steps toward the glass wall. When she reached her destination, she frowned.
“Only looks bigger—it’s the same as mine. What did you put in your workroom?” Hannah poked her head into the room with the bench, and looked disappointed to see the default options. “Didn’t you pick a specialist package from the Administration office?”
“Just…wait a second.” Sal raised his hands to stop her talking. “I’m a bit behind with everything. I was knocked unconscious during the registration event. Woke up here a while ago, so I missed whatever the Administration package thing is, and I’ve no idea what happened to Kane.”
Hannah’s eyes widened. “You’re the one who fried the machine? They said a core was faulty, but nobody believed them.”
Sal shrugged. “I don’t know…maybe?”
Hannah made a contented noise as she sat on his bed and put her feet up. “You better get comfy, Sal, there’s a lot to catch up on.”
Sal smiled as he wheeled out a chair from the workstation and sat down.
Hannah turned and gave him a level look. “Basically, we’re in a university filled with monsters. That Combat encounter was just…horrific! Kane had his leg shattered by this little girl. She builds momentum by running and took him out immediately. Everyone laughed when she tried to help him up, but she wasn’t strong enough. He’s probably going to hide in his room until he gets kicked out.”
Sal felt horrible for Kane, but Hannah was only getting started.
“There’s a guy who throws lightning. It looked really cool, and he pretty much teleports or moves at super speed. It took like, four or five rounds before he was taken out. Oh, sorry, the Combat encounter was kinda like a survival thing? One person would be challenged, and the winner stayed on. The longer the person stayed, the higher their result. After five wins, they would retire and someone else would start. Only way out of it was winning five times or being beaten. That whittled down everyone real fast, but then they started pitting the winners against each other. That Momentum Girl was one of the first to go, slide tackle from Lightning Guy. There was a girl who literally made every guy surrender, but she got her ass kicked by a girl who could alter her size.”
Hannah made a gesture of picking something off the floor and then throwing it down at the ground. “It was awesome! Apparently, her charm ability didn’t work on the same sex. Thought Giant Girl was going to take the prize, but…get this. There’s a guy with super strength who can jump ridiculously high. Literally head-butted Giant Girl under the chin, and she was down. Pretty sure she fell on some people, which was pretty funny. He was the front-runner, but then there was a guy with fire and yeah, strength guy is weak to fire.”
Sal didn’t even bother to stop her. He was amazed at hearing about all these abilities.
Hannah paused for a moment. Her mumbles were complemented by her fingers, which counted the different competitors at different stages. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
“Ooooh! Have you seen the Rank #1 yet? First of all, she’s gorgeous, and I kinda hate her. She can control minds. Remember I said that Charm Girl made people surrender? Not this one—she made them fight themselves. Full on punching themselves in the face, or making them choke until they fell unconscious…It was, really dark. Ah! There’s a guy who can make ghosts. They’re super weak and were destroyed almost immediately, but it was a really odd skill and I thought it was cool.”
Sal gave Hannah a tentative look but didn’t say anything in case she wasn’t done, but she folded her hands on her lap and took a breath before shaking her head. “You really should have seen them, man. These people are strong.”
“What about you? How did you fare with the combat?”
Hannah’s face broke into a smile. “Are you trying to find out my power?”
Sal laughed. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.”
Hannah sat up properly and pointed the two fingers of her right hand like a gun. She closed one eye and aimed at a location over the edge of the bed. Her thumb came down on the pretend gun and a floating orb of blue light left her fingers and suspended in mid-air where Hannah had aimed. She did this on all four corners of the bed, until there were four floating orbs above her. Raising her two fingers to her lips, she blew on them with a laugh, causing the orbs to shoot lasers into each other and then down at the ground. By the time Hannah had holstered her gun hand, she was surrounded by an impenetrable barrier.
Sal tentatively touched the wall. It was rock solid. He pressed his full body weight against it, but it didn’t even flicker.
She raised her hand. “I’m able to keep people out.”
The resistance disappeared, and Sal face-planted into the mattress.
Hannah’s laugh was explosive. “I’m sorry, but that was hilarious.” She lifted her feet closer to her torso to give Sal room to recover. “As you’ve probably figured out, I can also let people in. It’s very much a defensive ability, and I managed to win three rounds by forcing opponents into a stalemate. Ran out of energy and couldn’t continue, so I had to surrender.” Hannah shrugged as she dispelled the prison and looked at Sal expectantly. “Okay, you’re next. What’s your power?”
Sal rolled to his back on the mattress and told Hannah everything that had happened throughout the day. He even told her about the awkward encounter in the workshop. Hannah’s face was priceless when he told her how he had found out about the skill from conversations in the future with Divinity, but Sal kept going, happy to have her undivided attention. He explained how his power worked, and how energy was usually the limiting factor…
“The core! That’s why it shattered. Holy shit, how much power did you take?”
Sal laughed and raised a hand. “I’m getting to that part.”
He explained how the registration went, and how he had wanted to have the best outcome, and had maxed out all the skills he had on hand.
“But I didn’t have enough room in my body, so I integrated them…which apparently created a whole new skill.” Sal finished with a clap, startling Hannah.
He groaned momentarily as he got to his feet, went over to the screen, and activated the terminal. He pointed to his registered abilities and smiled back at Hannah. “Here’s the proof. I’ve got two skills. Skill Master, which lets me use weaves and create skills. Also, Mythcrafter! Which is a combination of Upgrade, Restoration, and Appraisal. I don’t know much about it yet, but the headmaster was pretty excited about it.”
Hannah stared at the screen and then back at Sal in absolute disbelief. “You’re able to Craft Mythic-grade items!”
Sal just stared blankly at Hannah. “Oh, yeah…that’s probably why the headmaster was so excited.”
Chapter 15:
First Time
The sound of Hannah running back from her room made Sal laugh. He couldn’t believe what was happening. Only a few seconds after telling her about his ability, and then making the excuse that he didn’t have any materials to work with…she was off the bed and racing to her room.
Sal was certain the other students could hear her shouting for him to wait for a minute. True to her word, she came back with the widest smile ever and a hastily stuffed backpack in her hands. Without any prompt or ceremony, she flipped the bag and allowed the contents to fall onto the bed. In between breaths, she gestured at the different items on display.
“This…from the…administration…Use whatever you can!”
Sal reached for a bottle of water to hand to Hannah, but she waved it away. “No, no—this first. Come on!”
Her excitement was probably clouding her judgment, but Sal relented as he took a knee beside the bed. Activating his power, he was studying the components she had brought when he heard a stifled gasp from beside him. Looking up, he saw Hannah staring at him with her hand covering her mouth.
“Dude, your eyes are fucking awesome!”
Sal shot her a relieved smile. “Ah, I thought it was something bad. Thank you.”
“I mean the silver was super cool, in a cold and intense way…but the purple looks magical!”
Sal paused. “Purple?”
Hannah tilted her head. “You should probably check yourself out in the mirror…”
Without another word, Sal jumped up and rushed past her to get to the bathroom. She was obviously winding him up. There was no way his eyes had changed color.
He gripped the sink and looked down at his hands, psyching himself up before looking at the mirror.
His irises pulsated with violet, and he was fascinated by the vibrancy reacting to the amount of power he pushed through it. For the first time in his life, he was looking at his eyes without getting an immediate headache. Sal continued to just stare wordlessly at his own reflection, not believing it was real. A smile crept onto his face as inspected his eyes closely for the first time.
He wanted to see what they looked like when he activated the power fully, so without any sort of preparation or testing, he channeled his internal energy into the weave and gasped when everything in the room suddenly changed.
His eyes emitted an ethereal glow as countless blueprints flooded his mind. His brain unconsciously discounted many of them but held on to some that had potential. Sal could see a customization path for nearly every item in the room. Looking back into the mirror, his eyes caught sight of his uniform and the reaction was much more prominent.
Sal couldn’t explain why, but he instinctively knew how to improve it. It took a lot of willpower to resist the urge to customize his uniform. He couldn’t help but wonder whether he’d be able to make a cool armor like the one Upgrade had. As he left the bathroom, an image of Upgrade’s suit appeared in his mind. A second later, Sal froze on the spot as he stared off into the distance.
Hannah looked up from where she had been sorting through the different materials. “Oooooh, they’re super bright now! Are you using them at maximum?” When she didn’t get an answer, a hint of concern crept into her voice as she got to her feet. “Hey, you okay in there?”
She waved her hand in front of his face, causing him to blink and stagger back.
He focused on Hannah, lost for words. With a great amount of difficulty, he closed his eyes and deactivated his power. The rush of adrenaline that coursed through his body was unlike anything he had experienced before. He reached for the bottle of water that he had offered to Hannah and took a long drink before looking back at her.
“Welcome back?” Hannah asked cautiously. “You kinda spaced out there. You okay?”
Sal had no idea how to phrase what he’d seen, but he decided to try. “I thought of a suit of armor, and it literally appeared in my head!”
Hannah just laughed. “Yeah…that’s normal.”
Waving his hand at her and shaking his head, he laughed. “No, I mean…the blueprint appeared, from something I had only seen in passing, without this ability! I’ve somehow managed to break down a memory of an item and I know how to re-create it!” Sal was excited as he explained. “But the version that I saw was incomplete. I can see everything that was wrong with it. Well, not everything, but a lot. But then something cool happened.”
Turning suddenly, he pointed at Hannah, which startled her. “You waved your hand in front of me, and the armor changed. It morphed and suddenly had a protective barrier as a feature. Your protective barrier!”
Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to tell me that your eyes want to turn me into armor?” She folded her arms and tilted her head with a smile. “I’ll be honest, it’s not the worst chat-up line I’ve received.” She made a show of flicking her hair and gave him a mock satisfied smile.
Sal continued to think about the blueprint he’d just seen. It had only been a passing thought, but his body was practically itching to start on the armor. He didn’t even need it. He wasn’t going to be heading into battle any time soon. His mind shifted to the gloves Upgrade wore. They looked so basic, but transformed into something incredible. A rustling noise caught his attention, and he turned to see Hannah holding up some of the raw materials that she had sorted on the bed.
“They probably aren’t good enough to make anything cool, but they should cover the cost of a premium coffee.”
“Let’s see if we can make something,”
Sal activated his ability again, looking at all the components with an open mind. His instincts were to Upgrade each component, but he resisted that prompt. He wanted to build something useful, but his eyes dismissed the materials in front of him. It was going to take some getting used to, but there was a layer of resistance that he couldn’t explain. It was like the ability didn’t want to use low-grade material.
As if to test the theory, Sal picked up a small ingot of discolored metal. Hannah visibly perked up, but Sal put it down and picked up another. Hannah’s shoulders sagged as Sal did this with every piece of material on the bed. Folding his arms, he looked at them for a few more minutes and when Hannah seemed on the verge of snapping at him, he let out a relieved sigh.
“Okay! Let’s go!” Sal grinned at her, but she had absolutely no context about what was happening.
Getting to his feet, Sal groaned. The leg he had been sitting on had fallen asleep. With an awkward stagger, he managed to get to his closet and withdrew a set of gloves. He was going to try to make Crafting equipment like Upgrade.
Sal sat back down. “This might take a little while, but hopefully it’s not too painful to watch!” His eyes glowed even more vibrantly as his fingers started to compress the solid metal into a new shape.
Hannah moved around on the bed as she stared at the process intently. When Sal started making adjustments to the now pliable metal, her eyes widened ever so slightly. When Sal’s hands smeared the metal against the fabric of the gloves, Hannah almost interrupted. She had probably guessed what he was doing by now and realized that there wasn’t enough metal to cover all of the fingers, but Sal just smiled at her.
After a few moments, he glanced up. “Hannah, can you put one of your blue orbs here, please?” He gestured at an area beside the glove.
Her expression went from excitement to trepidation. She stared at him, as though weighing up the pros and cons before she eventually gave him a nod. With the same gesture as before, Hannah shot an orb of blue essence to the location he specified.
He smiled as he continued to shape the metal in his hands. “Thank you!”
Hannah looked like she desperately wanted to ask what he was doing, but she didn't utter a word. She leaned forward and watched him pinch the blue orb and trace an invisible line to the gloves. The result was instantaneous; the blue orb disappeared, causing Hannah to gasp and jump up.
“Now for the fun part,” Sal joked as he studied the crudely designed gauntlets.
