Page 19

Emily and Juliana step out of another transportation circle into a long hallway.

“These are the B-grade dorms,” Juliana explains as they walk. “The dorms and a few other important facilities in The Dome are divided into three grades, A, B and C. A is for direct-line nobles, B is for indirect line, and C is for vassals. You’re the only exception I’ve met.”

As Juliana talks, Emily inspects the doors they are passing. Every door is a smooth silver panel with no handle and a small number etched into the centre. The numbers started at one and two on either side next to the transportation circle and have slowly been increasing since, with a sizable distance between each.

“You’ve been calling this place The Dome this whole time, but is that really what it’s called? It seems a bit informal for a place called The Covenant of the Blessed.”

“Haha, no. It’s actually called The Isle of the Blessed, but most of us just call it The Dome.”

They soon pass room fifty-one and arrive at fifty-three.

“Place your hand against the door and inject some mana into it. It’s just like the door to The Dome.”

Emily nods and places her hand against the door. As her mana flows into it, a familiar runic pattern appears and pulses twice before the door vanishes. Stepping into the room, she looks around and smiles at what she sees.

The room is large, with a double bed against the wall to the left of the door with two small tables on either side. In the far-left corner, there is a large desk with several drawers, and in the right corner a large wardrobe. On the right wall, about a metre from the entrance door, there is another door. This one is a simple dark wood with a silver metal handle.

“It’s not much, but they’re usable at least,” Juliana comments after watching Emily look around for a few seconds.

“Not much? It’s at least three times the size of my old room at home!” Emily objects while walking over to the wooden door and opening it.

“Ah, yeah sorry,” Juliana apologises with a guilty look on her face.

The room behind the door is a small bathroom with a sink, full body mirror, toilet, shower, and an alcove with a strange runic engraving. She notices that both rooms are lit by small white mana crystals embedded into the ceiling. Closing the door and turning around, she sees Juliana sulking by the now-closed hallway door. Rolling her eyes, Emily dumps her suitcase next to the bed and walks back over to the hallway door. She grabs Juliana’s hand on the way past and activates the door again.

“Come on, are you gonna show me around or what?”

Juliana’s embarrassment vanishes, and she excitedly pulls Emily back towards the transportation circle with a silly grin on her face.

If she’s a Mandrago spy, she’s an amazing actor: she’s like a cute excitable puppy.

Emily chuckles to herself at the thought, her face forming a small grin of her own.

***

Juliana takes Emily through a few teleports to different hallways of lecture halls and labs, but they are unable to enter any unless they are there for a class. It’s only when they reach the magic training halls that Emily’s interest is sparked.

“That door’s to the hall for practical classes, but if we keep going a little bit further, we’ll reach the individual rooms,” Juliana explains while pulling Emily quickly away from their transport point.

“The individual training rooms are another facility split by grade. There aren’t many rooms for the C-grade members, and they don’t even get a gathering array.”

“What’s a gathering array?”

“Basically, it’s some big magic circle that gathers a large amount of mana to increase the efficiency of meditation. You have to pay contribution points to have it activated when you go in because it’s powered by The Dome’s mana reserves, but it’s totally worth it.”

As Juliana finishes her explanation, they walk through a phasing door labelled ‘B-Grade Training’ and into another corridor, lined with doors. Next to each door is a glowing set of words on small silver panels.

“Each training room has a command spell controlled by the panel beside the door. It will say when the room is occupied and can be used to set up the room to the user's preferences,” Juliana says while pulling Emily through the corridor, looking at every panel as they pass.

Each panel has the glowing red word ‘Occupied’ etched across the centre until they reach the last five doors at the end of the corridor. All five have completely empty panels next to them.

“It’s first come first served for the training rooms unfortunately, but since it costs points to have anything other than a blank room, there’s normally a few free.” Juliana reaches up and taps the panel of the closest door as she speaks, sending a spark of mana into it.

Instantly, the panel lights up with words.

Welcome Juliana Madonna

Would you like to use the presets from your last session?

Yes / No

Juliana selects no and waits for the panel to update.

Please configure your session settings:

[Environment]

[Targets]

[Gathering Array]

“The settings are pretty simple, you can choose any environment you want, from forests to the ocean. However, anything other than an empty room will cost twenty contribution points as a one-time purchase. You can also choose targets to fight against. Plain target dummies are free, but any beasts or people will cost from ten points for weak beasts to fifty points for humans. The amount depends on how difficult each one is for the illusion spells to recreate, and you can choose whether you want them to fight back or just dodge. Their fighting patterns and spells can be customised but it will cost extra the more complicated you make them. And finally, you can choose whether you want the gathering array on or not. It will charge more depending on the density of mana you want, from two points an hour for double the density of the rest of The Dome, to ten points an hour at five times. This place is a scam really, it drains points like crazy and only the gathering array is useful.” Juliana navigates the selections on the panel as she explains.

Emily watches on with interest and frowns when Juliana dismisses the functions of the training room.

“Wait, why do you think the environment and target settings are useless? They sound just as useful for increasing combat experience as the gathering array is for increasing your improvement speed.”

“Yeah, but why would I ever need combat experience? I don’t want to fight anyone.” Juliana cocks her head in confusion at Emily.

“Don’t you ever have beast hoards in your family’s territories?”

“No, we’re just a small barony on the north coast. Other than the occasional spillover from the desert we have very few beasts, and even those are easily dealt with by our knights.”

“Ah, I see.”

I guess she doesn’t really have a reason to fight anyone if her family’s territory is safe.

“Anyway, that’s the basics of the training rooms. Once you’ve selected all the settings you want, it will ask you how long you want, then just tap your crest on the panel to pay and head in. The door will only let you in, and you can use the room for however long you paid for. If you don’t select any paid options, you will be restricted to four hours a day though. Now, let’s go take a look at the library!”

Emily follows Juliana out of the training room hallway while considering their use.

I can use the target settings to get used to fighting mages. I need combat experience if I’m going to fight against the whole Mandrago Family. Wait, do I even need to fight the whole family? I guess I only really want to kill the Patriarch, that bastard Diego, and his goons. They’re the ones that actually killed Da-

Emily is pulled out of her thoughts by a light squeeze on her hand, which had begun shaking without her realising.

“Hey, are you okay? You look like you want to murder someone,” Juliana asks nervously, with clear concern written on her face.

Emily takes a deep breath to calm herself, forcing the thoughts of Herber’s death back down, then responds with a light smile.

“Sorry, just lost in thought, don’t worry.”

“Okay, just let me know if you want me to leave you alone. I did kind of drag you along without asking.” Juliana’s shoulders sag slightly as she guiltily looks away.

“Oh really? I seem to remember being the one to drag you out of my room.” Emily grins and leans into her as they reach the transportation circle. “If I didn’t want to be here, I would have told you. So, relax and take me to the library. I’m excited to see what marvels of magic are there.”

Emily catches a slight blush on Juliana’s face as she looks back over and smiles with relief.

“Sure, you’re gonna love it!”

***

Juliana was right. The moment they step out of the transportation circle, Emily’s eyes open wide as she looks around in awe. The library is massive, spanning a few hundred metres with stacks of books stretching from the floor to the ceiling tens of metres above. The neat rows of books have a large channel down the centre, with dozens of tables varying in size. Half of the tables have mages sitting at them, poring over piles of open books. The room is completely silent other than the faint rustle of paper as books float through the air, between the stacks and the occupied tables.

“Woah!” Emily lets out a quiet exclamation.

“See, I told you so!” Juliana declares at full volume, causing Emily to flinch and worriedly glance at the nearby mages. “You don’t have to worry about being too loud, all these tables have a sound-isolating barrier around them.”

“Really?” Emily questions while focusing on a nearby single-person table.

After a few seconds, she begins to see an almost imperceivable dome around it. It shimmers slightly as a book passes through, then settles quickly after.

“Do they charge for those as well?”

“No, I guess they considered studying in silence as one of the few privileges everyone gets. Oh, but the books you’re allowed access to are limited by your grade. The books on the very top shelves are limited to A-grade mages or anyone who can reach them.”

“Wait, anyone who can reach them?” Emily asks, finally looking back to Juliana after inspecting the room.

“Yeah, the flying book system is for ease of use, but there is also the option to search through the stacks for the book you want yourself. They say that if you’re able to reach the top shelves on your own, you’re allowed to read the books there, irrespective of your grade. Though, flight magic is very hard. You have to be at least a third circle wind mage to use it, so it’s not really known whether that’s just a rumour or not,” Juliana explains while pulling Emily deeper into the room to find an empty table.

“You sound like you’ve been here forever!” Emily chuckles.

“Hey! I’ve only been here for a year; you can learn a lot in a year!” Juliana pouts as she comes to a halt next to an empty table with two seats.

She sits down in one of them and gestures for Emily to do the same, then takes off her crest and taps it to the centre of the table. Instantly, a thin film expands from the table, passing over Emily and causing a slight fluctuation in her magic circle. As the film passes her, she notices all the sounds from the room cutting off, leaving them in an uncanny silence.

“You have to use your crest to activate the table, it registers your access level when you do. If you’re ever studying with someone of a higher grade let them do it instead so you have access to better books. Then all you have to do is inject a little mana into the table and ask for a few books like this.”

Juliana places her palm flat on the table and passes mana into it while saying:

“One on basic mana manipulation.”

“Wait, didn’t you say books are limited by your grade? Why can you read higher-level books if someone else activates the table? Is that even allowed?” Emily asks as Juliana moves her hand off the table.

“Surprisingly it is. You can’t take books out of the library anyway, only make notes. Some A and B-grade mages even sell the right to study with them to make extra contribution points. Not that it matters that much though, the higher-grade books are all even harder to understand. I’m pretty sure all the books I’ve used so far are only C-grade. Then again, I’m only first-circle, so maybe it makes more of a difference at higher circles,” she says with a shrug.

Just as Juliana finishes speaking, Emily sees a book fly through the barrier above their heads, coming to a halt and then slowly lowering down onto the desk in front of Juliana.

“You can also directly ask for them by title instead of topic, so remember to note down the title if you want the same one again at some point,” Juliana says while lifting the book and showing Emily the title, ‘Studies of the Arcane’. “And getting rid of them is my favourite part. Just throw them outside the barrier!”

She throws the book over her shoulder, causing Emily to wince and follow the book's flight with a worried gaze, but it doesn’t hit the floor. The second the book leaves the barrier it shoots upwards to five metres in the air, then moves away from them back into the stacks.

“Haha, you looked terrified for that book’s safety,” Juliana laughs at Emily’s reaction, whilst Emily glares back.

After a few seconds, she rolls her eyes as Juliana continues to grin. She stands up, offering Juliana a hand which she happily accepts.

“Maybe we should move on before you endanger any more innocent books. Where to next?”

Juliana pulls herself up, before proudly declaring:

“Lunch!”