Races: Online

The world in Timothy's eyes shifted and changed—his immediate surroundings blurring and swirling, caught up in a flurry of scenes until it finally cleared. 

His vision recovered.

The questions were at last over and he escaped unscathed. The dark-haired young man looked left and right. Unease chilled his veins. He once thought that those Mages who performed explosive feats of fireballs and lightning blasts were at the pinnacle of power.

And yet there was a gnawing sensation that prickled the back of his neck.

He didn't see Kai anymore when he came back to his senses. Perhaps the others have made him left, but it didn't feel like he was alone. How many eyes did they have on him? On Han? His pale hand clutched the bag tighter as he moved out of the hallway and into another one. He needed to get away. He ran and followed where his legs would take him.

But he knew what he wanted.

A place where he wouldn't have eyes on him, a place where he could rest and stay separated from the world—he stopped in his tracks. Finally realizing where exactly he had arrived, he was in front of a familiar place. It didn't look like he was anywhere, nothing but stone bricks all around him, and even the lighting in this place was sparse, as if intentionally kept unkempt.

The entrance to the Hidden Library.

Surely even Kai and whoever was in charge wouldn't have that much free rein over a place like that? Timothy wasn't so sure, but he stepped forward and placed his palm over the stone. A light of mana infused against stone and opened a passage underground. The man would go down and shut the entrance behind him.

Only a small flame lit his path through the stairs.

He arrived back into the first level of the Hidden Library. Timothy glanced back once, and though his stomach twisted, the prickling sensation in his neck was gone. Whether that was him reading mana and magic in the air or something like intuition, he had a feeling that this place was more secure.

Secure from prying eyes.

Timothy could finally breathe. This was a library—a place containing multiple sources of knowledge from books, scrolls, and other parchments. Timothy approached and took a seat with his legs collapsing the moment he sat down. He dropped his bag on the table.

He was fine.

Nothing terrible happened.

He had come back in one piece—Timothy unfurled all the books in his bag. Pouring them to the wooden table. Evocation Spells, Magical Theory, Healing Spells and others that he thought might assist him and Han while they were learning. "Although he's more interested in hanging around with other people, that idiot." His gaze finally settled on the thing that he had brought to ensure that Iola was safe.

The tome from the Spectre's library was here.

Timothy would have imagined that the creature, man or whatever that thing was, would return and try to take it back with its cold dead hands, but nothing out of that sort happened. He would have run up to the Kraelonia Academy's hallways if that were to occur—a known enemy was better than an unknown one.

Well, both were still a mystery.

At least he thought that those in Kai's group were interested in the Academy's welfare, so that was one thing. His thumb brushed lightly through the tome that resembled more of a stone tablet than a book, and compared to the books that were in still somewhat pristine conditions, this one looked old. Written in language that at a brief glance made him understand that this was more difficult to comprehend.

But the older a thing was… the more powerful it was, right?

If an old thing like this could survive time and dust, then whatever inscribed in the tome contained a magical power in of itself. Or a preservation rune. He still hadn't exactly known why out of all the floating magical sources it was this thing that he grabbed—something that had brought trouble to Iola and essentially his life.

Dangerous, ancient… similar to the creature lurking in the floors below the Academy. But something like this would be enough to impress a Battle Mage, didn't it? No. Iola already got in trouble once and it was as if the stench of blood filled his nose accompanied by black liquids purged out of her.

His head had already hurt before.

Compared to those of modern books written in a language that was more simplistic, even watered down for young Mages in training, this was the real thing. Used by Mages of old, arcane power transcribed down fully and without a lack of confidence. Spells etched in stone. And somehow it was as if he could hear its voice beckoning him.

Read me!

A tempting promise in its text, hidden firmly in it, that made him gulp. His mind was playing tricks on him again, didn't it? This wasn't the time. But all the effort that he, Ellynn and even Han and the other one would be in vain if they were only to treat this as nothing. Could he let it go to waste by not even trying?

Iola had trouble, even side effects, but it wasn't her who had plucked this out from the archives. It didn't even feel as if he was the one who took it; it came to his hands instead. A Healing Spell wouldn't impress the Battle Mage, but maybe if he could decipher this thing then it would show something great?

… Just a minute of reading would do.

.

.

.

Whether it was luck or mere chance, Han finished Professor Liddell's class with nothing bad happening to him. It was a little pathetic that he assumed things would turn out into a mess, but it seemed like that exactly was what was happening for the previous classes.

"Before I let all of you go free, I must remind all of you that Professor Orleans is back. Do head to her class and try not to make yourself a headache." he smiled at them. It was a wolfish smile that might have made a certain percentage of the class swoon, but it also elicited questions.

Curiosity spiking in the listeners.

Teresa raised a hand, a small frown on her lips. "What exactly had happened, Professor Owen?"

"You can say that Professor Orleans and I went out during the incident of the Colossal Wyvern. We had done it to check if there were any people who had been outside of the city and unable to get into the barrier in time, we would have made a shelter if that had been the case. Unfortunately, we got injured instead."

"The two of you went out of the barrier? But the Colossal Wyvern is a dangerous threat! Like… a legendary one? The lightning blast was deadly, they say!" Russel's eyes widened, "During the last part, the barrier even broke. Professor Lavelda mentioned getting tired pumping mana all night during that time to secure the city, and the same thing happened for Professor Pierce—?"

Owen Liddell nodded, "The city-wide barrier is a tier six Spell prearranged for precarious events, we've used it during the Last Siege around fifty years ago when the Hero Lucem and his party made their last stand against the Demons. Knowing that the barrier broke against a Colossal Wyvern is a little troubling, but somehow, the city escaped the incident with not a lot of harm. They put the barriers up on time."

"Were you able to see anyone outside, Professor?" someone asked.

"How big was the Colossal Wyvern? Like enormous?"

"I think I saw it while looking out the window. It's called colossal for a reason—it covered the entire city!"

The man's topic incited conversation among the Students. A chatter taking over the room as their class reached the end. Most of the Students seemed unaware and discussed it as if it was an event that they should have seen.

Still, Han felt guiltily relieved that the Professor mentioned checking for other groups of people during the attack of the Colossal Wyvern. It meant that when the Mermaid had sung to make people fall asleep, it also affected their memories, it wiped recent events out to a certain extent. That worked out in his favor. And speaking about the Mermaid made him remember he needed to—

"I'm deeply relieved that you and Timothy got back during that time," Sir Leon de Harrington suddenly said, glancing at him with a look. "Quite a dangerous time back then."

A grunt sounded from Donovan, "They were in the barrier—it's doubtful that they'd get injured."

"Except for the mob." Han said with a shrug. It was the time where he left Timothy to find the other Players… and actually stayed outside of the barrier. The Colossal Wyvern resulted from all the Players gathered in one place like some kind of special event. It was an idiotic thing to imagine, even more that it was really the reason it happened.

Should the Players keep a distance from one another then? Each one to their own lands? It seemed to contradict the Creators' desire for peace between Races… unless the idea of working together to form bonds was what they had intended.

It hadn't exactly gone that well.

But then again, he was now trying to establish friendly relations with a Mermaid and trade with her. So maybe it was working? He clenched his hands together and finally checked the contents of her reply.

And what she wanted was…