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Gazing at the four items before her, Emily wills her system into activation.

ˉˉˉˉˉ

[Contribution Market Token]

[Rank:] E

[Description:] A mobile terminal for accessing the contribution market within The Isle of the Blessed.

[Effect:] When mana is channelled, opens a limited link for the user’s consciousness to the contribution database. Only works within The Isle of the Blessed.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Course List Token]

[Rank:] E

[Description:] A mobile terminal for accessing the class list within The Isle of the Blessed.

[Effect:] When mana is channelled, opens a limited link for the user’s consciousness to the course database. Only works within The Isle of the Blessed.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Mandrago Family Crest]

[Rank:] E

[Description:] A crest of the Mandrago family, engraved to allow for the tracking and transfer of ‘contribution points’.

[Effect:] Tracks the user’s contribution point total. When mana is channelled, allows for the transfer of contribution points.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Communication Crystal]

[Rank:] D

[Description:] A space attribute mana crystal engraved with a communication spell.

[Effect:] When mana is channelled, creates a link with a partner crystal irrespective of the distance between them.

_____

The descriptions of the tokens match Emily’s expectations, confirming her theory of the clerk in the information hub using crystals to connect to a large data hub. However, the description of the communication crystal catches her off guard, with the rank being higher than she expected after the first three items.

Are communication spells high level? I would have thought the tokens should be higher rank if that’s the case. Maybe space attribute crystals are higher level and that affects it?

She quickly adds an extra note to her notebook.

Work out what affects the grade of items.

-Level of knowledge used?

-Level of materials used?

I should remember to use the system for information gathering.

With no other reason to keep them out, Emily puts her crest and communication crystal back within her robes, then picks up the market token. Closing her eyes, she injects a small amount of mana into the crystal coin and flinches as she feels a connection being formed with it.

A simple interface, similar to the one she uses for the system, appears in her mind. However, this one seems far weaker. She can tell that the connection will be broken the moment she opens her eyes, and the interface will scatter.

The interface has three selectable categories, similar to the tabs on her system, ‘Resource Exchange’, ‘Product Exchange’, and ‘Service Exchange’. Looking at the options before her, Emily first focuses on the resource exchange. The words in her mind dissolve and are replaced by another short selection: ‘Mana Crystals’, ‘Beast Materials’, ‘Magical Metals and Minerals’, and ‘Magical Plants’.

She’s immediately drawn to the mana crystal list, eager to understand the market. This time, as the short selection fades, a long scrollable list appears. Along the top of the list are four column titles: ‘Element’, ‘Grade’, ‘Stock’, and ‘Price per item’. As Emily focuses on each of them, a small arrow pointing up or down appears next to the title.

After a few moments of testing, she realises that the arrow facing up sorts by highest value, and down sorts by lowest. Sorting by the highest value element, which sorts the elements alphabetically, Emily scrolls through the list, noting the pricing and stock counts for the crystals being split into groups.

Fire, wind, water and earth each cost five contribution points for lesser crystals, ten points for normal crystals and fifty points for greater crystals. Light, darkness and lightning crystals cost ten points for lesser crystals and twenty points for normal crystals, with greater crystals not being sold. While space, metal and mental crystals only have lesser crystals available for twenty points.

Hmm, it looks like they’ve divided the six common elements, and even included lightning with light and dark, strange. They don’t cover a lot of exotic elements, there aren’t even plant or sound crystals available. Well, the stock for the exotic elements is dismal compared to the common, so maybe they don’t display an element if there isn’t stock. I wonder if rare exotic crystals are among the items Juliana was talking about people putting up after missions? I’ll have to remember to keep checking in on this consistently.

Another thought occurs to her.

Do they even know other elements exist? Maybe the system has given me more information on exotic elements than this world has. I’ll have to be careful with which elements I use till I’m certain.

Emily mentally discards a few machine ideas she’d been toying with since she received mana formation knowledge due to the lack of crystal availability. Sighing with resignation, she navigates back to the last selection with ease due to her practice with the system and focuses on magical metals and minerals.

This time there are only three columns, ‘Item’, ‘Stock’, and ‘Price per kg’, and the list is short, only containing four items. Seeing the short list assures Emily of her assumption that other items are only put up when there is stock.

There’s no way they don’t know more than three magical metals and one mineral.

Moving on quickly to the beast materials and magical plants, Emily finds these two sections also only include ‘Item’, ‘Stock, and ‘Price per item’. Both lists are much longer than the last one, however, she only spares them a cursory glance, her lack of knowledge in either area making them far less useful right now.

Moving back to the initial category selection, she focuses on the product exchange next, finding a long list with four columns, ‘Item’, ‘Stock’, ‘Description’, and ‘Price per item’. She scrolls the list, finding a plethora of magical oddities available, from the endless ink quills for twenty contribution points to one-time use teleportation crystals for two hundred. However, her attention is drawn towards the mana and healing potions for fifteen points each.

Finally, Emily looks through the service exchange. This time instead of a list split apart into multiple columns, each item simply has a title and description. Reading through a couple of the services, she finds a few library study sessions like Juliana spoke about earlier, and even a few direct tutoring offers. But the ones that interest Emily more are the offers of specific magical skills, such as engraving magical tattoos to enhance your body or preparing arrays to protect your room. The offers for these include several materials the customer is required to provide along with the contribution point cost.

After browsing the exchange for a while and growing more excited to start learning, she opens her eyes, breaking the connection with the token. She adds two new notes to the bottom of the page before her while crossing off two finished ones.

Check communication crystal, market token, class token and my crest with the system.

Look through the contribution market.

Learn Alchemy.

Learn tattoo engraving.

Checking the time quickly and finding it to be 7:30, Emily places the market token into the drawer, next to the communication crystal, and reaches for her class token. Once again injecting a small amount of mana and closing her eyes, a new menu appears in her mind.

Only three categories are displayed: ‘Available Courses’, ‘Registered Courses’, and ‘Completed Courses’. ‘Completed courses’ is a dull grey, catching Emily’s eye. However, when she tries to focus on it, the menu remains the same.

Ah, I guess grey means unavailable then; probably because I haven’t finished any courses yet.

She moves her focus to ‘Available Courses’, bringing up a long list with three columns: ‘Course’, ‘Grade’ and ‘Prerequisites’. Scrolling through the long list, she sees a large variety of lessons, from history to hand-to-hand combat and spell creation.

Every course is designated a grade from basic to advanced. Emily quickly skims over the general subjects such as etiquette, history, and geography, all graded as basic. This is in stark contrast to the magic-related subjects, the majority of which span all three grades, with a few only available at intermediate or higher and requiring basic courses to register.

Emily’s attention is drawn to the hand-to-hand combat and alchemy courses. Alchemy is only available at intermediate and advanced levels and requires the basic courses: ‘Beast Studies’ and ‘Magic Theory’ to register. Whereas hand-to-hand combat starts at basic with no requirements, and goes up to intermediate, which requires basic magic combat, catching Emily off guard.

Do they have a way of using magic for close-quarters combat? I thought most of these nobles would be too stuck up to do that. Maybe I can punch a few snobs while staying fit.

With a smirk, Emily registers for the hand-to-hand combat course by focusing on it till the menu changes to a prompt asking her to confirm her registration. The moment hand-to-hand combat disappears from the list, she opens her eyes and picks up the quill again.

Learn Alchemy.

-Beast studies first.

I can look at more courses later, first I should get through the ones I’m already signed up for.

She quickly pulls up the token’s menu again, this time going into the ‘Registered Courses’. The six expected courses appear in a short list with four columns, ‘Course’, ‘Current Grade’, ‘Highest Grade’, and ‘Modules’.

All six courses are at the current grade of basic. Etiquette, geopolitics and English all have the highest grade of basic, with maths and hand-to-hand combat going up to intermediate. Magic theory alone is the only course Emily is currently registered for that goes up to the advanced level.

This is also reflected in the module count for each course. The three basic limited courses all only have one or two modules each, but Maths has three and hand-to-hand combat has six. However, far outstripping all the others, magic theory has twelve. Curious, Emily focuses on magic theory and watches the list before her shift to a detailed screen on the course.

The twelve modules of the course are split into two groups. The first group is a group of four, all of which must be completed before she can advance: elemental selection, chants, natural mana formation and mana manipulation. The second is a group of eight: the six common elements, plus ice and lightning. Here, she only needs to complete one to advance.

These modules are displayed before Emily in a scattered chart with the two groups bundled together. As she focuses on each module, it expands to give the time and location of the next class. Emily checks all of her courses and finds that her next lesson is elemental selection in two days. Opening her eyes, she places the course list token down in the open drawer.

Two days until magic lessons start… I guess I can use this time to draw up some ideas for an E rank machine. I’ll probably need to leave the dome to buy materials though, maybe I should ask Juliana to show me around the city later.

As she begins pulling the map out of her pocket to look it over, she hears a knocking at her door.

“Speak of the devil.”

She tosses the map onto the desk and stands up to leave.

Guess I can ask her now.

***

At dinner, Juliana eagerly agrees to show Emily around the city in ten days' time when neither of them have any classes. The next two days pass by quickly, with Emily and Juliana meeting up daily to eat meals. Emily spends the rest of her time meditating, spellweaving, and drawing up blueprints in preparation for her trip out into the city.

On the morning of her third day in The Dome, Emily eats breakfast with Juliana before her first lesson.

“Why don’t you ever seem to meet up with other friends?” Emily asks a question that has been on her mind over the past few days while taking a bite of her toast.

“Ah, most of my friends are away from The Dome on missions at the moment, and the ones that aren’t are all too busy studying,” Juliana answers with a grumpy pout that makes Emily chuckle.

“Speaking of, your first class is today, isn’t it? You’re not gonna start ignoring me too, are you?”

“Nah,” Emily snorts and rolls her eyes at the huge puppy dog eyes Juliana uses to emphasise her question, “as long as I still need to eat, I’m happy to match schedules with you to have company.”

“Good,” Juliana responds, smiling with smug satisfaction. “But you should probably get going now if you want to reach class on time.”

Emily pulls out The Clock to check and finds it’s already 8:50, ten minutes left till her class starts.

“Yeah, I should,” she agrees while standing up and collecting her notebook and quill from the table in front of her. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“See you later!”

She turns with a last wave to Juliana and walks towards the transportation circles to leave the cafeteria. A short dimensional jump later Emily finds herself walking through a hallway with significantly more foot traffic than she is used to seeing in The Dome.

Passing by her on either side are dozens of robed mages with varying colours accenting their robes and differing crests on their chests. A large majority of the crests bear silver or bronze accents, with only a few people wearing gold. Of the people she sees with golden crests, all of them have two or three silver and bronze crests following them closely like protective guards.

Emily quietly makes her way through the hallway and soon comes to a stop in front of a large dark wooden door with the glowing words ‘Elemental Selection’ emblazoned on the silver plate in the centre of it. She raises her hand and grasps the smooth silver doorknob. Twisting it, she pushes the door open as a grin spreads across her face.

Time to play with magic.