Aether Engineering

Chapter 17

Candis East Highway

The Voidlands outside Maston

The atmosphere in the cramped wagon was tense. Kate had brewed a medicine using the herbs she had gotten the previous night. They had immediately applied them to Silas’ wound. Myles could tell that his friend was already starting to regain a little bit of color. Silas remained unconscious though.

Myles also had his leg wound treated. Kate had briefly explained that her mother was a doctor of some kind, so, Myles was happy to let her treat their wounds.

In spite of the medicine, Myles still felt like their problems had multiplied. The vexenaught’s howls could still be heard as it searched the area around them. They were forced to stay quiet on several occasions when they could hear the beast sniffing around just on the other side of one of the hills that blocked the view of their wagon.

Fortunately, the construct Myles had built into the wagon was able to keep the scent from escaping, so, the vexenaught left each time. Still though, as the hours passed by, the stress accumulated.

Powering the construct was a constant challenge. While the ogren cores contained a great deal of mana, they weren’t limitless. Myles and Kate poured their mana into her old knife which Myles had converted into a basic battery. Using all their mana, waiting for it to recharge and then using it all again was a strenuous exercise, but it bought them time. At this rate, they would be able to keep the construct powered for at least another day, maybe even two.

It was another full day before Silas finally woke up. The first thing he did was scrunch up his nose in disgust. The wagon construct was keeping all smells from leaving the wagon after all.

Myles quickly moved to his side to give him a damp cloth to put in front of his nose before Silas could start gagging.

Silas took the cloth gratefully while Myles quietly explained what had happened since the ogren pack had come for them. By the end, Myles noticed his friend growing weary and allowed him to go back to sleep.

That night, the dwindling supply of ogren cores finally ran out. Myles watched in dismay as the nearly translucent barrier around the wagon fell and a wave of fresh air poured in even as the odor that had accumulated in the wagon was finally released.

Kate hopped outside and began stretching, working on her back. Of them all, she was the least injured. The vexenaught pup she had fought had managed to burn her, but the fabric of her uniform had somehow managed to survive and give her some degree of protection. The result was that the burn that stretched over a large portion of her back was fairly light. Myles had been able to reassure her that the burn would heal without scarring. Burns were some of the most common injuries that had come up in the job shop he used to work at. He had seen much worse burns, although admittedly most of those had been on a much smaller scale.

Myles limped out after her. His leg had healed quite a bit, but it still hurt to put too much weight on it.

Silas was the last out and he had to be supported by both of them. His wound still hadn’t completely healed.

The three of them staggered forward, each evoking a thin wisp of mana to block off their wounds, but it wouldn’t be enough. They all knew it. They were in no condition to make the journey back to the academy and that was assuming they didn’t run into any monsters, an unlikely scenario.

Sure enough, before they even got past the first hill, they all heard a familiar roar and the crashing of paws. The three wearily turned around to find the massive vexenaught running right toward them. There was nothing they could do. None of them were fast enough to avoid its charge. It barreled towards them, roaring out a battle cry.

That was when something odd happened. The monster’s terrifying battle cry turned into a pained yelp mid-charge and the beast sprinted away. Myles eyes widened in confusion for a moment before he felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. He turned to find Reah standing there casually.

“Wh..what are you doing here?”

Reah laughed lightly. “I told you I was doing contract work for the academy right? Turns out I was assigned the job of scoring you on your exam.”

Kate looked at Reah with distrust. “How were you scoring us if weren’t even nearby?”

Reah looked down at the ground and gently shook her head. “I was here the whole time; I just used some light mana to keep you from seeing me.”

Silas let out a surprised cry as he was lifted up from his feet on what looked to be a stretcher of evoked pure mana. “Let’s get moving.” Reah turned around, already walking forward, then seemingly as an afterthought made a gesture with her hand and generated a sort of dome around them.

As they moved forward, Myles was struck with a feeling of awe. The dome around them was constantly shifting, seemingly reflecting the scenery around them. Myles had no idea how it worked, but he could tell that anyone who looked at the dome from the outside wouldn’t notice it at all. They would look right at the dome and only see the normal scenery of the voidlands.

That suspicion was confirmed as they walked past a pack of ogren that simply ignored them, unable to even sense their presence. Myles was beyond impressed. With the size of the dome of light and the density of the pure mana stretcher, Reah had to be consuming more mana every minute than they had spent keeping the wagon construct powered for two days.

Myles had found Reah to be an oddity before, but now he knew she was not only an arcanist, but she was an incredibly powerful one at that. Myles suspected that Primrose could probably match the amount of mana Reah was spending, but he couldn’t know for sure. She had only ever used tiny amounts of mana in class.

The bizarre thing about the whole situation was that Reah didn’t look much older than he was.

They didn’t stop to rest along the way. At one point, Myles grew too tired to continue on. His leg had started shaking and he wouldn’t have been surprised to find that his wound had reopened. Instead of stopping though, Reah simply evoked another stretcher of pure mana. It was embarrassing, but Myles wasn’t about to complain. The faster they could get out of the voidlands and back into the safety of Maston the better.

When they finally returned to the academy, Myles was far more appreciative of the town’s meager defenses and the academy’s moat and walls.

Instead of heading back to their dormitory, Reah instead led them straight to the infirmary. For some reason, a memory of him joking with Jane on their way to their aether engineering class came to mind. They had each taken turns joking about how they had built the infirmary way too big. The building was to be fair enormous, but now Myles had a hard time seeing it as too big. Being one of the new buildings on campus, it wasn’t built out of bricks, instead it was fashioned from some bizarre substance Myles had never come across before. Myles made a mental not to ask Silas if he recognized the material. That wasn’t important now though. What was important was that the massive building was filled with patients.

The number of injured students was shocking, but in a morbid way, Myles was relieved. At least they weren’t the only ones who had failed their exam spectacularly. They couldn’t kick everyone here out, could they?

Myles only spent a brief time in the infirmary before his leg was looked at and he was allowed to go back to his dorm room. When he got back, Kate was the only one there. Silas had been forced to spend the night at the infirmary.

Myles was more than a little worried about the other three they shared their room with. He recalled that Jane, Mercy, and Seth had been given the task of killing a plaguetoise. Myles had no idea what a plaguetoise was, but he remembered Seth going pale when he had heard it mentioned. Considering that he was part of the monster hunting course with Kate, Myles decided to ask her.

Myles knocked on Kate’s door. Hearing no response, Myles called out then opened it. He found Kate quietly meditating. Myles couldn’t be sure, but her posture and focus definitely suggested that she was delving, pushing her mana well’s barriers and making it even larger.

Myles grimly returned to his room and started to do the same. It was hard work. Myles felt like everything was made more difficult by having repeatedly emptied out his mana well over the past few days, but that was all the more reason to delve. He needed more mana and he needed to learn how to fight better before their next exam.

Considering how poorly they had done this month; they would likely need to have a massive improvement for the next test. Myles’ dream of becoming an aether engineer depended on staying here for a full year after all.