Book 4: The Only Worthy Mentor

Sitting on the ground outside a remote hut-one she had spent almost half her time outside of-on planet Eramith, Adaline continued to work on the new enchantment for an amulet. Most enchanters required a stable surface in an environmentally controlled chamber to create multi-layered, interconnecting or living enchantments. Adaline didn’t. She had purposefully worked towards a very high proficiency in Traveling Enchanter’s Tools (Epic - Expert XVII) and she had carefully tuned the skill through its upgrades.

Not only did the skill compensate for the lack of an environmentally controlled room, ambient mana isolation equipment and anima interference blockers, but it also compensated for her movements. Were she walking or even running, the skill would make it so that it felt to her like she was sitting with the item clamped in place. It also increased her dexterity, thanks to having merged in Quill Precision (Rare) early on. Every time she upgraded the skill since, the increase in dexterity had marginally increased. Getting the skill all the way to Expert XVII had compounded all those marginal increases to the point where a proper enchanting lab didn’t actually help her at all.

There was no point in looking up from her enchantment when she felt Professor Sidayen’s eyes on her. It was about time he took a break anyway and unfortunately, he never had anything to say to her, he simply noted her presence and went back to work.

It didn’t matter to Adaline though, she was capable of enchanting anywhere. At least here, once she finished her enchantment, she would already be in position to use it.

She had come to Eramith specifically for the Professor Sidayen. Everything else at the Academy was awesome too, even more beneficial for her so far at least. They just weren’t the reasonshe had come here specifically. Which made the fact that the Professor was completely ignoring her, rather frustrating.

After their initial interaction, which had lasted all of 20 seconds, Adaline had been filled with rage. She had long since learned to control those emotions though and now, they simply motivated her. In all honesty, they made her work better and faster which she knew wasn’t a good thing but she didn’t have time for a spiritual journey where she learned to control herself any time soon.

It’s not like she had stolen his research, he had given it away. Although, he probably hadn’t expect it to end up in a student’s hands. The first time they spoke, It was completely unbelievable to him that she had not only completely understood the research, implemented and ingrained the techniques but actually expanded on it. Despite the proof she had offered to provide. Instead, he simply kicked her out and locked himself in seclusion.

Luckily her proof had not gone to waste as showing off even a fraction of what she had already done was more than enough for her to be upgraded out of Mana Structures and Spell Formations.

Otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to sit outside their hut so often. She had already exceeded everything Director Amelia had to offer. She was supposed to be getting direct mentorship but given her enchanting ability, no other professor could have mentored her for very long. She was well past the point where her progress was slowed by learning from almost anyone and she was better off researching on her own or working on personal projects.

The research she would pursue though, was already happening in the little hut in front of her. It made no sense to go off on her own when it was still possible to learn from Sidayen at least. Considering the overlap on their knowledge too, they would likely accomplish more together and faster.

Being ignored for dekads on end didn’t particularly bother Adaline either, at least not after her initial burst of anger, this was where she needed to be to get stronger. There was no other choice for her. No faction would recruit her at this point lest they start a massive war. At least, they couldn’t offer a high enough level sponsorship for her to bother.

There was no one to blame for that other than herself though and even looking back, some part of her still thought it was worth it, despite how everything had turned out. She wouldn’t be where she was today if she hadn’t.

All that mattered now, was that she got stronger. She didn’t hold high hopes that it was possible to save herself at this point, no one had ever done it before but, she had to try.

She spent every first, fifth, sixth and tenth there, outside of the hut. She was almost done her latest enchantment though and by the time the sky darkened on the first, she was ready. She had reviewed the enchantment thrice and hadn’t even expected to be ready until the fifth but, the design and the concepts behind it were essentially engraved into her mind at this point. If she had had to wait half a dekad more to make sure it was ready, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Either way she was getting in there and Professor Sidayen was going to mentor her, she had no other choice.

Waiting another half dekad just meant she waited. In the meantime she was progressing as much as possible and she would get in there eventually. There was a deadline of course but, there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

With the enchantment she had designed, inscribed and personally verified thrice over, Adaline used her Arcane Enchantment Analysis (Arcane - Adept IV) to make sure the enchantment stability was within the acceptable bounds.

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[B - Arcane] Amulet of Warped Space Traversal

Enchantment Layer 1 Mana Stability: 182%

Enchantment Layer 2 Mana Stability: 168%

Enchantment Layer 3 Mana Stability: 129%

Average Mana Stability Layers 4-12: 104%

Maximum Channel Flow Rate: 6.2E5 m/s

Diffused Anima Stability: 43%

Average Mana Turbulence: 9.2E-41%

External Fluctuation Sensitivity: 4.2E-7%

Dimensional Attunement Angle Deviation: 1E-4%

Living Enchantment Degradation: 1E-18%

Show hidden parameters?

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She had had to spend over half of her available credits to purchase a B grade amulet but it was well worth it. Anything less than B grade and the acceptable enchantment stability across all layers would have been 1.5E+3% at minimum to make up for the material’s inconsistencies. Even she wasn’t capable of that much stability for an enchantment this complex.

Finally ready, Adaline equipped the amulet and filled it with mana. Nothing seemed to happen but she was confident it would work and so, she walked towards the hut in front of her. She didn’t target the door, not that it would have been dangerous, but walking right at a wall was much more effective for making her point.

A foot to the right of the door, Adaline walked right up to the wall of the log cabin but didn’t stop. Instead, she walked right through the wall as if it wasn’t there, only a slight shimmer outlined her body to indicate anything was happening at all.

On the other side of the wall, despite the footprint of the cabin being just a few meters by a few meters, there was a large open workshop dozens of meters to a side. Upon each wall there were desks along with multiple tables scattered throughout the middle of the room. All available surfaces other than small corridors that were absolutely necessary to move around were completely covered in either parchment, metal plates or half finished contraptions.

Sidayen looked at her, his eyes wide and outlined by his lack of sleep, “Are you an idiot? What the hell were you thinking phasing through that wall?”

Adaline just stared at the Professor.

Sidayen spayed spittle across the room as he struggled to find the words to express his shock, “Did you even thinkto check if the cabin was spatially expanded?”

Adaline sighed and used her Traveling Enchanter’s Design (Epic - Skilled XII) to project a simulated design of the enchantment she had inscribed into the amulet around her neck. A three dimensional hologram of a moving enchantment appeared in the air between them, each layer denoted by a different colored light. The entire enchantment spun slightly so it could be examined from every angle.

“I already told you, I don’t really care who or what yo…” The professor trailed off while his brow furrowed as he began examining the enchantment in earnest. After nearly 15 minutes of walking around and through the projected enchantment, Sidayen mumbled something Adaline didn’t really catch. He hadn’t immediately kicked her out though so she considered that a win.

Afterwards he walked over to a stack of parchment he had previously been working on and simply went back to staring at it.

That was more than enough permission for her and so, Adaline got to work. Walking around, she began examining all the pieces of enchanted items, half finished designs and various schematics around the room. Some of them were enchantments the professor was designing and inscribing himself but many of them were enchanted items he had carefully dissected and examined.

Every single one of the items he had taken apart to examine, were Kryptos items that he had bought up. That was what Professor Sidayen was researching after all and therefore, where most of Adaline’s enchanting foundation came from.

She knew more than enough to not only replicate but vastly improve upon almost every normal enchantment she had seen but they weren’t her area of comfort. Kryptos enchantments were focused almost exclusively on spatial enchantments, at least statistically.

It’s not like she was a specialist or anything, she was more than capable of crafting other enchantments and applying the concepts to even her spells. It was just that spatial enchantments seemed to be the peak of enchanting, she herself had never seen more complex enchantments than the spatial enchantments Kryptos produced.

Either way, this was where she had to be to get stronger the fastest, at the bleeding edge of enchantment research. Luckily she had over half of her dekad freed up from classes she had already surpassed, all of which would be completely dedicated to the topic.

If she could have gotten out of Solo Combat or even Group Combat, she would have. She had registered for the classes under the assumption that she would be challenged but as it was, she felt everyone else at the academy was lacking. Many of them had absurd amounts of potential and talent but clearly they had decided to waste their time.

She fought other students that she knew, had unlimited resources and access, even some with incredible talent, luck and unique abilities on their side as well. Not a single one of them was using their talents efficiently though. They socialized, networked and gallivanted about instead of trained, an obvious indication of what they had likely done all their lives.

Being at the academy at all meant they put in some work, she knew that. It was just knowing how much more they could have been by now was frustrating, especially considering her own situation. If she had had the talents and resources some of the other student’s had, she would have easily soared into the A grades at this point. Maybe then, her deadline wouldn’t seem so close.

Unfortunately, her examination of the various enchantment designs in the lab was cut short as she was due in Group Combat. Though she was gaining little from the class, it was still significantly better than Solo Combat.