CosmicQuill
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Chapter 201: Getting Ahead
🕑 Added 2025-01-30 09:05:43 +0000 UTCI was led through a long, dimly lit hallway, with only the occasional flameless lantern breaking the everpresent darkness. ‘If I didn’t know that this was still a part of the ground floor, I’d have thought I was back in the basement.’ I chuckled.
"We're here." Said the indentured clerk, who acted as my guide. We arrived at what looked like a vast hall, which was most likely the archive he mentioned before.
“So what I'm to do here?" I asked while curiously scanning my surroundings.
The hall was enormous, stretching as far as the eye could see, with rows upon rows of shelves filled to the brim with dusty scrolls. The air smelled musty and ancient, and it seemed like centuries of history were stored within.
It strongly reminded me of the Great Library, only a much more dusty and darker version of it.
"Well, it's easy. See those contracts over there?" The clerk promptly responded.
I strained my eyes, making out a table with a stack of scrolls shaped into a small pyramid.
'Hmm, that doesn't look too bad…' was my first thought, but as my eyes adjusted to the dim light, to my horror, I discovered that there were dozens upon dozens of such pyramids lined up throughout the archive as far as the eye could see.
'Am I supposed to maintain them all?' I thought, widening my eyes. ‘Well, whatever the “maintaining” means anyway.’
The clerk chuckled at my lost expression before beckoning me to come closer. "It takes a bit of practice, but when you learn the ropes, it's not actually that difficult."
He then took one of the contracts out, carefully unwrapping it to demonstrate.
"See here? You must check each scroll against the ledger to see if the markings are intact. Then you carefully open it and ensure there isn't any damage to the text before applying the protective concoction from both sides with a brush."
“And what if there is a damage?”
“Well, then you set it aside to be inspected by the Overseer.” He said, pointing toward a small shelf.
“Then comes the most important part. With this wand, you have to check each seal to see whether or not it needs recharging.” The clerk then picked up a thin, polished piece of wood with an essence gem embedded on top of it.
‘An artifact!’ I immediately realized. He then took the wand and gently touched the round seal at the bottom. It glowed in a pale blue light, illuminating our surroundings.
“...If it does, you must refill the seal with essence until it glows bright blue, like this.” The clerk then closed his eyes, focusing intently. After about a minute or so, he finished whatever he was doing and looked up, although he now looked even paler than before. “See?”
I focused on the seal, and indeed, now it emanated a strong, almost blinding glow when touched by the wand. ‘Alright! This didn’t seem so hard.’ I thought happily.
When Aileen warned me against taking on this task, I was initially worried for a bit, but now that I had a look at it, I realized it was pretty simple.
'I know Aileen thought well, but I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. After all, if there is anything I have an abundance of, it’s essence.' I thought smugly.
It was the one thing I was the most proud of: working tirelessly over the years to expand my capacity.
I still didn't know how I fared compared to the typical novice, and I was a bit reluctant to find out as I didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention by asking around.
Nevertheless, I was pretty sure it was much better than the average, judging by the admiring looks Gil had been giving me ever since the entrance Trial.
The clerk coughed, bringing my attention back to what he was doing. “Then, as a last step, you wrap it all back together and mark it as completed before you move to the next one. Is everything clear?”
I simply nodded. "How many do I need to check?"
"To complete the Task, you must check at least thirty contracts. However, we are severely understaffed here, so the Overseer offered a bonus of an extra soul coin for every five contracts above the base amount."
Hearing this, I couldn't help but blink a few times. ‘This is even better than that hauling job Gil came up with!’ I grinned, eager to get started.
This was my way of getting ahead. While everyone else was busy fussing over the upcoming test, I was going to use this extra time to replenish my dwindling funds.
‘Then, when the dust settles, I can dedicate everything to studying instead of wasting my precious time running errands for the haughty Masters.’ I thought with a smile.
After all, I quickly understood that this was not like any other magic school. It turned out to be a cutthroat place where those who fell behind were unceremoniously discarded and made into glorified slaves forever bound to toil for the few that made it through the Master’s fine sieve.
And the longer the others fail to notice this, the worse their situation becomes. There were over a thousand first-year novices, yet so far, I’ve seen only a few dozen apprentices hanging around the lobby.
This made it more than clear to me that the spots were limited and that there would be a great culling ahead. But that was okay; the more my fellow novices failed, the better the odds were for the rest of us.
Nodding to myself, I picked the next scroll in line while carefully repeating the steps I was told. The clerk watched me intently, making sure I didn’t commit any mistakes. ‘These contracts must be quite valuable. I wonder what’s in them…’
I didn’t dare start skimming through the ancient text while being watched, so I rather focused on performing the task flawlessly. It looked like this one also needed recharging, so I slowly placed the wand atop the seal and then moved my essence with the intent of letting it flow into the wand.
Yet, as soon as I made my instant clear, it was as if the dam broke, and the wand started sucking out my essence at an alarming rate. I widened my eyes, struggling to keep a calm face.
It was not particularly straining per se. It only lasted a dozen seconds at best, and I had plenty of essence to go around. I had no precise way of measuring it, but by feeling alone, this took only a sliver of my total capacity, five percent or less.
Which was similar to a single large-sized fireball. Pretty impressive but not that worrisome. ‘I wonder what those seals are made of to be able to contain so much essence.’ I mused as I promptly moved toward the next scroll.
However, although it wasn’t overly draining, the sensation of moving such large quantities of essence all at once still made my whole body tingle.
'Now I finally understand what Aileen meant by saying it is one of the most difficult tasks out there. Still, I picked this Task, so I have to see it through.’ I resolved myself.
When the clerk saw I had done everything correctly, he nodded in evident satisfaction and then briskly walked away, leaving me in this dark, silent cathedral all by myself.
Grimacing, I then picked another contract, repeating the motions. However, this time, I didn’t forget to steal a peek at the ancient-looking text.
I have always loved learning about history, so having a chance to learn something about this world’s past immediately piqued my interest. The fact that said history may hold some arcane secrets made the urge to read it almost irresistible. Besides, the clerk didn’t say anything about not being allowed to read them.
Thus, I eagerly scanned the contract’s contents, struggling to read the archaic script. "...the marriage pact between Duke Vorsham and House Durr.”
‘Hmm? So these are something akin to noble’s magic oaths?’ I furrowed my brows. ‘But why keep them for so long? It looks like this marriage took place a few centuries ago…’
Filled with more questions than answers, I recharged the seal and moved to the next. Soon, I settled into a sort of routine. Surprisingly, this felt strangely similar to potion brewing, as I did it back when I first started, one vial at a time.
So when I finally stopped after realizing I was running out of essence, it was almost dinner time. In the end, I managed to complete 16 contracts in total. 'Let's add four more, so it's a nice round number,' I thought.
Totally spent, I then staggered out of the archive only to see the wide-eyed clerk staring at me. “You’re still here?”
“Hmm? You said I need to check thirty of them to complete the Task. I tried to do as many as I could, but I ran out of essence halfway through, so I’ll have to finish the rest tomorrow.”
“What do you mean by tomorrow? It usually takes at least ten days for most novices to finish it. How many did you manage?”
“Ehm, twenty,” I said, unsure what he was on about.
After this, the clerk didn’t say anything else, only continued to stare at me blankly, so I simply shrugged my shoulders, said my goodbyes, and was already on my way back to the dormitory and the promise of a warm bed.
‘I really worked hard today. Let’s enjoy some well-earned rest.’ I thought happily, but as soon as I entered our tiny, cramped room, I froze.
‘Oh, I totally forgot I promised to help him with mastering the earth element!’ I realized when I saw Gil’s expectant eyes.
With a sigh, I closed the door behind me, resigned to my fate. This was going to be a very long day indeed.
Comments
CosmicQuill
Hi, yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Sorry for not responding earlier. The past week I spent in bed with a fever and had no energy to write. Also, I didn't want to appear like I was just lazing about, so I resolved not to log in to Patreon until I had a chapter ready to go.
John Doe
Royal Road shows that you accessed the site on 2/11/2025, 11:32 AM, so I guess you are alive and well, author. :-)
John Doe
It is now Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025 @ 0929hrs Pacific Time. Author, are you Ok? Any new respiratory infections in your life?
