The Sixth School Book II Ch. 017

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All Characters in the story are 18 years of age and above...

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Chapter Seventeen: Seclusion...

Greg couldn't help the sigh that left him even as the airship lifted off the ground and started its journey. If he had known two months ago just how much of a headache this thing would be, he'd never have asked Olivia to get it. Mage Hira and Grenad from the Draknar alliance had left the city a little over five weeks ago. In principle, they should have been able to leave Ethavel immediately. That, however, isn't what happened. The mages from the Draknar alliance did give them the airship but took their people with them. They had the airship, but there wasn't a soul on board to run the thing. They needed to find their own captain, crew, servants, guards, and formation experts to make sure that everything on board ran smoothly. This, however, was only the beginning of their headaches.

There was no doubt in Greg that Morpheus had managed to instill fear in the two mages from the Draknar alliance. This fact, however, didn't make him complacent in the least. The airship had to be scanned from top to bottom for any traps, trackers, or sabotage. Every room was carefully scrutinized for anything fishy. They had hired three different formation experts to go over the ship from top to bottom and see if any of the formations on it had been tampered with in any way, or any added to it. If Greg could, he would have pulled out the individual components of the ship and had them separately examined. However, there was only so much he could do. Their only comfort in this aspect was that Olivia had been smart to spring the demand for the airship on Mage Hira and Grenad. She'd then pressed them hard in it so that between the first request and the acceptance, there was only an hour. She'd also not been specific on which airship she'd pick, stating that she'd pick at random. These two facts should have made it impossible for them to plan anything too complicated against them. Which was why Greg didn't push for a fourth one when the third formation expert gave the ship the green light.

But even as the airship was being examined for any issues, Greg was also vetting the crew that would be serving on board. His family would be on board, and unlike him, they didn't have any magic to call on to protect themselves. If anyone they'd hired chose to do them harm, they'd be two powerless women unable to offer much resistance. Sure, he always had a clone of Olivia with them to protect them just in case of anything. But to grow overconfident just because they had a tier two clone to protect them, was the kind of stupidity that Greg had no intention of indulging, especially when it involved his family. No, prevention was still far better than a cure. All the highest ranking members of the crew like the captain, his first mate, the navigator, the quartermaster, and the boatswain were all required to sign seventh-tier contracts to ensure that they'd never do anything to compromise the boat or harm Greg's family or interests. For the lesser crew, tier-three contracts were used.

Part of the reason the Captain and his people were willing to sign the contracts was because Greg had, in a way, promised to let them have the ship after they reached their destination. To Greg, the airship was only a conveyance from one place to the next, he had zero ambitions or desire to become a captain. Greg would still own the airship, but once they reached their destination, the captain and his crew would be left to run the ship. According to the seventh-tier contract the captain signed, they'd get to keep sixty percent of everything they earned from their endeavors. The other forty percent would be deposited into this world's version of a bank. Given where he'd been born and raised, Roka didn't know anything about banks, which meant that Greg likewise didn't know anything about them either. Luckily for them, the healer did and could easily open up a new account for herself. Of course, she had old accounts with a significant amount of wealth in them, but wouldn't dare touch those as of yet as she feared that her enemies would learn that she was alive. Her ability to open an account led to what must have been a strange argument for anyone listening in, between the two.

If not for his teacher's vast resources, they might have been forced to just abandon the airship altogether. Everything from hiring the new crew to hiring the experts that assessed the airship and so on had been at her expense. Even the tier-seven mana contracts that Greg had gotten Calyn and the upper crew of the airship to sign came from her. Feeling like he was taking advantage of her, Greg had wanted to make it so that his share of the money the airship earned would all belong to her for at least a hundred years. With the magic shop, Greg wasn't that desperate for resources anyway. All he needed to do was gain mana points and he'd have almost any magical resource he needed from the first to the third tier. His teacher, however, would hear nothing of it, arguing that it was the least she could do after all that he had done for her. For almost three hours, they went back and forth trying to convince each other that the other deserved more for what they had done. By the end, Greg only managed to convince her to take only half of what his share was and only for fifty years.

After vetting the crew and having them sign mana contracts to ensure that they would never turn on them, Greg thought that the ordeal was over and they could finally depart. That, however, was when his newly hired captain, a man by the name of Tharion, pointed out that all that they had so far done was bring together the elements needed to have a flight, they hadn't actually funded the trip itself. Tolls, taxes, food, wages, and most of all fuel. All these were expenses that needed to be met if the airship was to go anywhere, most crucially, the fuel. There were arrays on the airship that allowed it to draw in ambient mana from the environment. That, however, was only a supplement and fell far short of what such a ship would need to function for more than a few minutes. Airships ran on a mana-rich blue gel that was the secret formula of some merchant organization that had the monopoly on the production of the stuff. Depending on the size of the airship, one could have between three and ten room-sized barrels of the stuff to keep the ship running. One barrel is enough to keep the airship in the air and moving at top speed for about two weeks. The airship they obtained had eight such room-sized barrels. When Greg saw the price of filling up one such barrel, he almost chose to sell the airship right there and then.

Their destination was the Arcana Islands, which as it turns out, was about seven continents away from where they currently were. Even with her vast wealth, the healer wouldn't be able to fund half the trip. This led to the inevitable conclusion, they'd have to take on passengers. Greg sat down with the captain and plotted out a route that would that would take the shortest amount of time without bankrupting them. Rather than stopping at every major city along the way to ferry people to the next one, they'd be filling the tank, so to speak, then making the longest trip that the airship could manage before stopping to refuel again. This would cut down what would have been a five-year trip to one that would take a little under two years. Consequently, they'd only be taking passengers who were planning to cross very long distances in one go. On the one hand, the number of such passengers wasn't high so it had taken some time to gather enough of them to make their next trip viable. On the other hand, the passengers who wished to cover such a long distance were willing to pay a premium to get there directly instead of experiencing the cost and delay of several connecting flights. This meant that they didn't have to wait till the airship was full to capacity before the trip was viable. Right now, they were about three-quarters full as they departed the city of Ethavel.

Turning away from the view of the city, Greg walked through the people on deck. It left him with a bit of an unsettled feeling to have so many strangers on board. He had gone to great lengths to vet the captain of the airship and his crew only for him to have total strangers fill up his airship as passengers. A part of him knew he was being irrational and that there was no possible way he could protect his family from the entire world. The desire to keep them safe, however, was a hard one to tamp down. He just had to trust that Olivia's clone would be able to hold off any immediate danger long enough for Greg and his allies to arrive and intervene in any situation that might arise.

Descending through the airship, Greg went five floors down. This was the lowest floor for passengers, right above the floor where the captain and navigation crew of the airship operated. Usually, it was reserved for nobles and the top crust of society based on wealth and their tier as a mage. Greg, however, had set it aside as the exclusive floor for himself and his people. If he had done this by word of mouth, it would have had the potential to lead to unnecessary issues. With how much the mentality of might-made-right was prevalent in this world, it more than likely would have turned into an issue of power being flexed by the prospective passengers wishing to use this floor. Greg thus went with the easier option, he set a ridiculously high price for getting a room on this floor. One room on the floor would be enough to fund them all the way to the Arcana Islands without them having to take on another passenger. It was a ridiculous price to set, no doubt. Still, the airship was his and he had every right to set whatever price he wished. People may not like it but, short of forcing their way on board, there was little they could do about it. And if anyone was crazy enough to pay that amount, they would have spared Greg the hassle of having to take on other passengers along the way. It was a win-win situation for him either way.

"Is it done?" Greg questioned even as he walked into one of the rooms near the center of the secluded floor. Every inch of this room, from the floor to the walls, to the ceiling was covered in intricate runes and lines that made an almost dizzyingly complex formation. Even the back of the door to the room was marked with runes that became contiguous with the others on the wall around it when the door was closed.

Both his familiar and the healer looked away from the formation they'd both been studying. "We finished a while ago," Olivia answered.

"We just can't make heads or tails of what it's supposed to be," his teacher added, clear curiosity burning brightly in her eyes. Greg couldn't help but smile at this. Giving his teacher a magical mystery was like giving candy to a child. Even without her powers, she was still as curious as ever. Greg knew that she would keep studying the formation until she had deciphered it. Her mind had bitten down on a juicy mystery and it wouldn't let go until it had plucked every bit of knowledge she could from it.

"Did you perfectly recreate it at least?" Greg questioned, moving deeper into the room and toward the center of the formation. The two nodded.

Under any other circumstances, Greg would have been wary of stepping onto a formation whose purpose the ones who inscribed it didn't know. In this case, however, he was the source of this formation. Or at least, Morpheus was. A nebula of stars replaced the light brown of Greg's irises even as he scanned the formation. White lines were overlaying the formation on the floor allowing Greg to see if they had truly replicated the formation perfectly. The white lines didn't truly exist in reality. Rather, in the same way Morpheus could create illusions of himself as a monk and other things, he was creating the illusion of the proper formation to help him see if any mistakes were made.

Despite having a clear visual of what the formation should have looked like, Greg didn't inscribe it himself owing to his inexperience. Both his teacher and Olivia were far more knowledgeable of the different arcane runes. Even more importantly, their hands were far steadier than his. Unlike in normal writing where one had some room to play with the shape of letters, Magical runes were rather unforgiving of mistakes. Changing the shape, incline, length, or breadth of a given symbol could change its meaning and consequently, its purpose inside a formation. Given the critical role this formation would play in what Greg was about to do, he couldn't risk inscribing it himself.

Greg had been forced to draw out everything on paper and hand it to his teacher and familiar to inscribe. After about five minutes of carefully going over every section of the formation, Greg nodded with satisfaction. They had perfectly replicated what Morpheus wanted. "Are you finally going to tell us what all this is about," his teacher asked, clear curiosity burning in her eyes as she regarded him. "I don't recognize most of the symbols in this formation, and the few that I do seem like they are aimed at keeping something contained," she said, her eyes once again drawn to the intricate lines that covered the walls and the wall to her right.

"Remember what I told you back at your cave, right before we had to go on the run?" He posed. It had been almost a year since the day so the question had largely been rhetorical, Greg not expecting an answer from her.

The healer's eyes, however, went wide as if something had clicked in her mind. "You are about to gain an aspect," she stated in shock.

Greg smiled and nodded, marveling at the woman's memory. Of course, this was an oversimplification of what was about to happen. After almost a year, they were no longer on the run. His teacher's mana pathways had been dissolved and in another two to three weeks, she would cross over into the first tier. For the first time in a long while, they weren't in an emergency, they were just traveling from one place to another. He fully planned to take advantage of this and finally receive the rewards from the system that he'd earned through merging the ten feats of lust. The aspect was just one of four different rewards that he'd be receiving shortly. Greg, however, didn't reveal this. Just like she more than likely had secrets of her own, Greg chose to keep this close to his chest.

"Do you have any idea how this formation will feature into the process?" The healer questioned, her curiosity having risen to another level. Her eyes studied the formation anew probably trying to figure out how it could confer an aspect to someone.

"Or how long it'll take?" Olivia added more practically. Given her connection to the system, she probably knew about the other rewards Greg would be getting and from the look in her eyes, she clearly approved of the fact that he hadn't revealed any of it. But while she knew of the other rewards, not even Olivia seemed to know the true purpose of this formation, hence her question. Greg had no way of knowing if Olivia's true self recognized the formation or not. If she did, she hadn't shared that knowledge with her avatar.

Greg nodding in confirmation to his teacher's question that he was about to gain a new aspect had given her the wrong impression that the formation they had carved out was related to that. In reality, however, this formation was Morpheus holding up his end of their agreement. He had promised that, as opposed to the one rank guaranteed by the mid-purity life order promotion elixir, he would help him gain at least three. This formation was part of how he planned to help Greg achieve that goal. Greg had asked Morpheus to explain how exactly the formation would work. The explanation, however, had quickly grown far too complex for Greg to follow, so instead he asked for a simplified version...

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'It's a stasis pod,' had been Morpheus' response after thinking about it for a while. 'It'll keep you from losing your sense of self once you take the elixir,' He explained.

"Why would I lose my sense of self from taking the elixir? " Greg asked at the time, suddenly feeling uneasy a what they were planning to do.

'Do you remember the different life order tiers?' Morpheus had asked instead of answering him.

"The lower tiers are inert, base, and mortal. The middle tiers are Demi, ascendant, and deity. Above the middle tiers are the elders, but little is known of them," Greg quoted what he remembered of Morpheus' teaching on the different life order tiers.

"Well, each tier can be further subdivided into five ranks. You are already at the mortal tier so I won't bother going into the five ranks of the inert and the base tier. The lowest rank in the mortal tier is the spark. This is when creatures, mostly monsters, start to exhibit the first glimmer of self-consciousness. They are no longer just monsters acting in accordance to base instinct but can suppress their instincts when it doesn't serve them or would put them in danger. Most monsters fall into this category. They may not be the smartest of creatures out there but have enough wherewithal to not act in blind accordance with their natural instincts.

The creatures that transcend this rank rise to the rank of foresight. Creatures in this rank have basically discovered the future. They don't act only to sate their base desires in the present, but plan for the future as well. Furthermore, creatures in this rank can anticipate future troubles based on present signs and act to either prevent them or escape from such trouble. Beings in this rank can also survive even if they are placed in unfamiliar environments due to their ability to plan ahead rather than just repeat what they are used to.

Beyond foresight is the rank of speech. As you'd expect, the higher you climb the fewer the creatures you will find in a particular rank. To most mortal beings, a stone is the physical item they encounter on the ground daily. There is no concept of a sound that represents the stone or any other concept for that matter. The ability to represent not only the physical world but abstract concepts in sounds that can be passed between individuals is the next great leap for mortal beings. All of a sudden, you don't have to burn for you to understand the concept of heat. A fellow creature can just utter the words, and you can experience the world without directly encountering whatever they are talking about.

Beyond speech is culture. The ability not only to learn from each other in the present but to pass knowledge across generations so that what one generation learns the next need not reinvent but rather can build upon and push even further than what their predecessors managed to. This is where you'll find most of the members of the major races like humans, Elves Dwarves, Orcs, and so on. What one generation learns, it passes on to the next making them a formidable force that has managed to subjugate most of the realm.

Naturally, above culture is magic. The only force that can allow a single individual to rise above all others in their culture and bring them to heel if they are strong enough. Mages from all races stand at the pinnacle of the mortal tier not only because they can grow to be immensely powerful but also because magic is the only way one can tap into the laws of existence. Without it, a mortal is all one can ever hope to be. This is not to say that everyone who has magic will rise to a new life order as evidenced by the fact that so many mages get stuck in the fourth tier and never grasp a law to help them ascend to the next tier. Nine out of ten creatures born in a certain life order rank will never rise above that rank, and the higher the rank, the worse those odds become."

"This last rank is the rank you currently occupy. Without my assistance, the mid-purity life order promotion elixir would only have taken you to the first rank of the demi tier, resonance. Mortals are completely blind to the different laws of the universe. An ant walking across a page has no capacity to understand that the surface it's on carries a lot more meaning than just a flat surface to walk on. Similarly, mortals are completely blind to the underlying structure of existence. Like the ant, they walk across the page of existence unable to perceive the deeper reality all around them. The first rank of the demi tier is a shift in perspective. From being completely blind to the laws, you start to be able to perceive the different realm laws and how they connect with your magic. Mind you, this isn't to say that you will be able to perceive the entire tapestry of realm laws and how they affect each other, rather, you will only be able to perceive the laws that resonate the most with your path of magic. This is why the first step is called Resonance.

Following resonance, you come to grasp. This is when you move from merely being able to perceive and resonate with a certain law, to being able to wield it in your magic. A fire mage that grasps the law of heat can make their flames a thousand times hotter than one with no insight into that law. Or, as your teacher told you, a healing spell from a healer with insight into the law of vitality, will always be orders of magnitude more effective than spells from one without it. Depending on how talented one may be, one could even grasp two or more laws. The number, however, doesn't really matter. It may make you more versatile, but it won't help you rise to a new rank. One's depth of understanding is the only thing that matters in rising through the demi tier, be it in one law or many.

Push your understanding of the law you have grasped far enough, and you rise to the rank of integration. This is where you start to incorporate the law into yourself. The particular mage or creature in question starts to exhibit immunity to being affected by the law they have grasped. an ice mage that isn't damaged by cold. And air mage that can turn into wind and be untouchable by any physical weapon that isn't magically augmented in some way, and so on. This is the rank I will be taking you to. But, straightforward as my explanation has been, do not for a second think that this process is easy or safe. The laws are not dead, or things that can easily be tamed by mortals. They define reality. If you think that your mortal mind can easily grasp them, think again. Even among powerful mages, grasping a law is a slow process that takes hundreds of years, you'll be trying to do that in a matter of months. Trust me when I say that you are in for a very rough next few months."

"Months?" Greg had questioned, taken aback.

"Yes, months. From the memories of your old world. I know you are used to things happening rather quickly, but magic isn't like ordering something online. You don't get same-day delivery of results. It takes focus, effort, and more than anything else, time. Besides, did you miss the part where what you are about to do usually takes other mages centuries to achieve? If any one of them heard you complaining that it'd take you just a few months to do the same they'd probably eat your flesh raw to vent their anger."

"As I was saying, this is what the formation is for. Once again, drawing on your previous world, think of it as a save file. It'll keep a record of everything about you, from your physical form to your mind, memories, soul, and personality. That way, no matter what goes wrong with the task ahead of us, you will always have an anchor that you can come back to and start over from, Basically, this formation is the net beneath the tightrope you'll be walking for the next few months," he finally finished his answer.

"What about the other two?" Greg had immediately questioned. "The final two ranks of the demi tier," he clarified.

"Substitution and severance," Morpheus answered. "In the third rank of the demi tier, you integrate the law into your mortal body. In the fourth, you slowly start to rid yourself of your mortal elements with pure law. You are considered to have succeeded at this stage when more than ninety percent of your mortal body has been substituted. The final stage of the demi tier is severance, this is when you try to break the hold other laws have on you. There is no such thing as true immortality as someone more powerful than yourself can always kill you. But should you succeed at this stage, then things such as time, physical injuries, and other mundane things stop being a threat to you. At this point, the only entities that can threaten you are those that hold a firmer grip on law than you do," Morpheus relayed.

Greg could remember what had happened during his ascension to the first tier when Morpheus had turned his gaze to Olivia's true self. His brain had felt like a spike had been driven through it and stirred as he was exposed to truths far beyond what his mortal mind could contain. Morpheus explanation about substitution finally put everything into perspective. Olivia's true self didn't have a physical body. What he had been looking at were the laws that she had used to encapsulate her existence after she gave up her mortal existence...

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Greg offered his teacher an apologetic shrug, a slight grimace on his face. "Morpheus tried to explain it to me. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to follow even a tenth of what he was saying," he admitted, answering her question about the formation. "As for how long I'll be gone, all I know is that it'll take months. What the exact number will be, I have no clue. To be safe, you should plan on me being gone for at least a cycle," he stated. "I've spoken to the captain. The two of you are in charge of things in my absence," he informed them

Despite being unbelievably busy over the past few weeks, Greg had made it a point to spend a lot of time with his family. He'd let them know in advance that he'd be away for a long time and that they could turn to either Olivia or his teacher should they need anything. Greg couldn't help the feeling that his pursuit of magic was slowly creating distance between himself and his family as he found himself having to stay away from them for longer and longer periods. Still, he was on a treadmill, standing still was simply not an option. Staying weak just so he could spend more time with them was actually putting them in danger so long as he was still being pursued by Fate. He didn't have the luxury of choice when it came to growing stronger. He just hoped they understood.

"I've sorted through everything that we managed to get from the mages from the Draknar alliance," Olivia said holding out a storage ring to him. "By my calculation, you should gain about seven hundred cycles from the all the longevity treasures I got from them. Some, however, are far too potent for you to take at your current tier. Inside this ring are the few that you can safely take presently, about three hundred and fifty cycles in total," she explained even as Greg received the ring.

It occurred to Greg that he had been so caught up in trying to get the airship up off the ground that he hadn't even taken the time to assess what other treasures Olivia might have squeezed out of his pursuers. A part of him was tempted to postpone taking the elixir so he could do just that. The impulse, however, came and went quickly. What he was about to do was just as important if not more.

"Be careful," his teacher offered encouragingly even as they both walked out of the room.

Greg remained standing for a while before letting out a sigh and lowering himself into the lotus position. Taking no chances, Greg spent the first few hours ingesting the different longevity treasures. They were four in total. The first was a single leaf that seemed to be bursting with vitality. His very soul felt like it was hungering the moment he caught sight of it. When he put it in his mouth, however, Greg was forced to endure the most sour taste he'd ever come across in both his lives. If not for being repeatedly trained to increase his willpower, Greg was almost certain that he would have spat it out. As things stood, he only just barely managed to chew and swallow it. The second was a pill that didn't give off any aura of power. Once he took it, however, Greg almost wanted to tear off his skin from how it heightened every sense that he received. The meager light in the room became unbearable, the sound of his breathing sounded like deafening bellows, and so on. Greg had to wait three hours for the effects of the pill to wear off before he took the third item. A golden serum this was the most tame of the items. Other than tasting like honey, there was little else to report about it. The fourth item was also a potion, only this one caused him to stare dazedly into the air for hours on end. When he finally snapped out of it, his eyes were painfully dry from not blinking for so long.

Greg gave himself an hour to center himself once again before pushing mana into the formation below him. Greg had feared that a formation put together by a god would suck him dry in an instant. Much to his surprise, however, the formation's drain wasn't that bad. Had he still been in the second tier, it would have been a bit of a struggle, but now that he had the mana to match a third-tier mage, the drain was sustainable. Enough so that Greg was certain that his mana regeneration could keep up with it. Once his initial surprise was passed, however, Greg could understand why it had to be this way. He was, after all, going to be depending on this formation for the coming months, if it drained him in seconds, it wouldn't be of much use to him. As for visible effects, other than the lines of the formation glowing slightly, there wasn't much else to see.

Reaching into his personal pocket space, Greg took out the first item he'd ever put in there, a vial full of a brilliant red liquid. With his heart hammering in his chest, Greg pulled off the stopper, closed his eyes, and in one quick motion brought it to his mouth and gulped it down.

Hmm... tastes like a door.

Greg didn't even have the chance to realize how irrational this thought was before everything changed...

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