Sharp

I am a lot busier this semester than I was the last two. I think this is because more of my courses are very flexible in their time requirements. Alchemy takes way longer than the allotted time. Astral Spaces mean extended time in the Astral Spaces and the Adventuring contracts never went as easy as the first one.

The academy was not a large place, so there was no chance of avoiding the peacock-coloured Leonids. I did my best, though. I am lucky they are still in their first years and have compulsory courses, so we don’t have a lot of shared courses. I can’t see them taking a lot of the crafting-type courses, so I should be reasonably safe.

Both Jabari and Keon have still come to the Bonds and Familiars club, so I ran into them. They are nice enough and sensible. Jabari’s sabertooth tiger bond, Nkwe, is growing. She thinks in another six months, she will be able to ride him. She has already pencilled them into the Learn to Ride and the Mounted Combat courses. She has already completed the Bond Care course and is doing Introduction to Veterinary this Semester. Bonds are animals that can be killed and need care and healing. She actually seems nice. I don’t know how she was ever convinced to marry the asshole.

Keon is a tail chaser. I think he has hit on every female Leonid in the academy, and that probably includes the staff. He has had some success based on my observations. He is nice enough, too, like his sister. Maybe they were attached to the asshole’s team to be the nice face to the world.

Chuki and I avoid each other when at all possible, and she steers her husband firmly away from me, so that is good.

“What is this I hear about you being a Cleric of the Death Goddess?” Keon asked me about it at the club one day.

“I don’t know. What did you hear?”

“That you were a Cleric of the Death Goddess,” he said.

I shrugged, “And?”

“So it is true?”

“Yes, it is true. The Goddess looks at people's souls, and they are all beautiful to her regardless of them just being vegetable-eating peasants or arrogant ass… nobles.”

“You are never going to let that go, are you?”

“It was firmly shoved in my face, so probably not.”

He frowned but didn’t push it any further.

I was well over being offended about that if I ever was, but it was a convenient reason to push them away. Plus, he was an arrogant bully. He might be trying to be nice to others now, but I wonder if it will stick once he gets back into his own culture.

My goddess gave me a choice between going with them and not, and I chose not—not that I have given them a chance to ask at all.

Val won’t give up, though. Her obsession with arena fighting runs deep. She has dragged me to watch some at her family’s viewing box. They were impressive—even the bronze teams. We watched a bronze team take out a silver-ranked fire griffon. Then, we watched team on team in a monster surge scenario. That was chaotic. The team on the team in an ancient ruin was clever. The stealth specialist won that for them. The ruin was not only a complicated environment, but it also had ancient traps and rock falls. I wonder if it was based on a real place.

Then, the silver-ranked team took that up a notch again. It seemed to me that the key was knowing the other person's skills and cooldowns. It was quite technical. Val confirmed that a lot of the class time was spent on skill analysis and viewing arena recordings and analysing them. They only fight once a week, and that is one-on-one at the moment.

The first time I went to the Temple of the Lost, Baru congratulated me. “You stepped up to join the honoured priesthood, I see. My goddess is a bit disappointed. She was hoping to get you on this side of the fence.”

I raised my eyebrow.

“OK, I was hoping. She said you wouldn’t,” he said.

“Well, my garden is more abundant, so I have more supplies for you,” I said.

“Not much of a consolation prize, but we will take it,” Baru said.

I had been a little worried that my new status might change things here, but it didn’t.

Alchemy has changed the way I look at the world. It is amazing how almost an alchemical reaction can change any substance. Some of those changes are good. Things become stronger and more resistant to certain types of magic. Just the ordinary process of tanning leather can be changed by using different alchemical ingredients. You have to use alchemy on iron-ranked hides and above, but you can add or strengthen properties to them.

This meant I needed to totally rebuild my armour. I was working on a mix of Solid plates joined by Chainmail, with scale-type layering on the shoulders. The idea is that Ardisia won’t need to extend her spikes everywhere, only at key points. If she needs to go all out, then my armour is probably history anyway. My armourer tutor approved the design, although it had so many different parts that it was not easy to make.

I was in progress when I realised I needed to start again. With alchemy, I can reduce the weakness to heat. If you heat Resin, it turns back to liquid, but I am thinking of creating an alchemy solution concentrating on ice magic and mixing the resin together with it and that will resist the heat. This is currently beyond my alchemy skills. I was going to do Medicinal Alchemy next semester alongside the Poisoners Art, but this will be switched to Introduction to Industrial Alchemy.

Industrial alchemy is a huge field, and this will give me an overview of all the main parts. It should show me where to research for my armour, plus it introduces Alchemical Explosives, which is something else that interests me. I need somewhere safe to experiment with the explosives as I am not destroying my Garden or my room. That is next semester. I will finish my armour in ordinary Resin for now and can replace pieces as I develop them.

This academy is amazing in what it teaches. Most of the students are missing out, just concentrating on their fighting skills. Sure, Val has learned some pretty fantastic sword and movement techniques, and I can see that when we go adventuring. But there is so much more to the world. Akemi gets it. She is excited about her magic studies and the formations she is learning. There is so much more around us than fighting and monsters.

The trouble is there are monsters around, and fighting is required. I really need to do the Melee fighting course, as my fighting skills are lagging behind. There is so much I want to do. I was going to drop the second course of adventuring next semester and pick it up in my final year, but Val has convinced me to continue. This will free up spaces in my fifth and sixth semesters. Adventuring is also levelling my skills, although the Melee Fighting course also takes us into the astral space to practice what we have learned against real monsters. The Mirage chambers are used to spar against others. At least I should have completed the first version of my armour by then.

If I take Melee Fighting next Semester, something has to bump to Semester 5, and I think it will have to be the second Astral Spaces course.

I wrote out what Semester four looked like at the moment.

Adventuring

Adventuring

Melee Fighting

Weapon Construction and Maintenance 1

Intro to Industrial Alchemy

The Poisoners Art

Introduction to the Gods

I managed to finish Semester Three quite well. The hardest part ended up being the astral magic, and I scraped through that. The Intro to Alchemy was fine, and I made the healing unguent for scrapes and cuts. A couple of the star students made the minor healing potion. They had skills more orientated toward alchemy. One of them had telekinesis and was the envy of the rest of the class. I was doing everything by hand, as was most of the class.

The Hiding, Hunting, and Trapping courses levelled my Aura and Perception. The adventuring and Astral spaces levelled my fighting skills, and the crafting and trap making levelled my other skills. I was pleased with my progress. At this rate, I will have skills close to bronze by the end of semester four, maybe a couple over the line. Melee fighting will raise my Rend skill because I will focus on it.

I update my list.

Sharpen [Speed attribute] Level 6

Razor Sharp. Level 8

Iron rank: Sharpens any cutting or piercing object to a razor edge. Bonus penetration and cutting through material up to Iron Rank. Cost mana, Varies.

Resistant Fur {Hair Stone} Level 7

Iron Rank: Fur becomes resistant to cutting and piercing.

Pierce {Hand stone} Special Attack Level 6

Iron Rank: Use melee weapons in a piercing strike to penetrate, especially through armour.

Quick Sharp {Flick Stone} Level 6

Iron Rank: Boost movement speed for high mana/sec cost.

Cutting Web {Web stone} Level 6

Iron Rank: Produce strands of thin, sharp web. This is hard to see, but it has iron-rank strength. Designed for cutting. Low Mana

Hunt [Spirit attribute] Level 6

Senses of the Hunter [Perception]. Level 8

Iron Rank: Improves Sight, xxxxxx senses.

Hunter’s Step {Foot stone} Level 7

Iron Rank: Move swiftly, lightly and quietly through the terrain. Muffles movement noise. Cost low mana/sec.

Hunters Feast {Feast Stone} Level 6

Iron Rank: Consume what you kill or harvest to replenish health, mana and Stamina.

Blend {Chameleon Stone} Level 7

Iron Rank: Changes skin and fur to blend in with surroundings. Changes are slow, restricting movement. Low mana/sec

Hunters Tether {Trap Stone} Level 6

Iron Rank: Create a rod that sends out tethers, restricting movement and stopping stealth. The tether rod binds enemies, dragging them to the centre, and explodes if destroyed.

Plant [Recovery] Level 6

Blood Root Vine Summons - Ardisia Level 6

Iron Rank: Summon a Blood Root vine. Resides in the skin may produce thorns from the skin. When it manifests, it entraps with piercing and bleeding effects. Feeds on blood to heal. Can move through the ground as roots emerge and entrap. Can’t move through non-earth or non-plant material.

Tranquil Garden {Divine Stone of Peace} Level 8

Iron Rank: A small garden in a dimensional pocket. Increased growth rate. Summons can enter and heal.

Shield {wood stone} Level 6

Iron Rank: Create solid wooden shields of various sizes at the current Rank.

Resin {Pine Sap Stone} Level 7

Iron Rank: Create and manipulate a sticky resin that hardens over time. Hardening can be sped up or slowed to a small degree. Hardening control improves with level, as does volume and manipulation. Manipulation is more difficult the harder it is. Resistant to impact, water and corrosion, weak to heat and light.

Mighty Oak {Mighty Stone} Level 6

Iron Rank: The power of the oak increases Strength - High Mana/sec

Reaper [Power] Level 5

Reapers Aura Level 8

Iron Rank: Increases allies' Spirit attribute in aura range, Increasing perception and judgment. Helps keep a calm mind.

Devourer Rat Summons (Kai) {feast stone} Level 8

Iron Rank: Summon four devourer rats. Chew and claw through any material of the same rank or less given time. Absorbed in summoners' claws and teeth, strengthening them. And enabling them to boost them up a level. Can breed to replenish numbers over a week.

Rend {Claw Stone} Special Attack Level 5

Iron Rank: Use claws to rip open things. Claws reach beyond the physical to rend the incorporeal.

Reaping Magic {Reaping Stone} Level 7

Iron Rank: Collect the magic from recently killed monsters to form relevant natural objects. Magic will dissipate quickly. The amount collected depends on the Level and Spirit Attribute.

Reaping Power {Preparation Stone} Level 7

Iron Rank: Damage caused by using weapons created or enhanced by a Skill creates the Blessing of the Reaper - Boon, Stacking up to a limit defined by Spirit attribute.

Blessing of the Reaper -

Iron Rank: Syphons a small amount of health from the one damaged to create instances of the blessing. Bestow the blessings on a skill to increase its power, proportional to the instances used.