Aefia woke up after seven hours feeling fully rested. She sat up and looked down to notice that she was still wearing her cloak, but the cloak wasn't creased or soiled. It was perfectly intact as if it were newly made.
Aefia checked the time, it was nine in the morning. At first, she wondered why the sun was still down, but then remembered Ms.Avry told her daytime lasts only five hours while nighttime lasts seventeen hours.
She stood up only to sit at her table and put her head on her hands. She recalled the dream she had. She wondered whether it was due to her being a mage, since in novels and games, having dreams with psychic abilities would often symbolize something in real life that needs action to be taken.
In her dream, she was standing in a dark stone castle in a ruined world. The stone castle was crumbling bit by bit but the throne was standing still. Suddenly, a voice came from a place very far away, it spoke an unknown language, and the ground shook. The next second, Aefia was free-falling into darkness.
She thought about opening her door and walking to the meeting room to check if the others were awake. She also needed to go to the mage market with Ms.Avry to buy the three items she couldn't buy the previous day: an elemental magic book, the emblem of faith, and the forbidden necklace of Crition.
Before she bought the emblem of faith and the forbidden necklace of Crition, Aefia wanted to do some research and learn about its effects, disadvantages, and advantages. She didn't want to carry danger with her.
She grabbed her pen and notebook and opened her dictionary. She first searched for the forbidden necklace of Crition.
"The forbidden necklace of Crition was made for the mother of the queen of a partially destroyed world. The necklace is made of a metal only found when a piece of a destroyed world was crushed with high pressure and heat. The single gemstone was crafted by fifty demons and holds the power to grant its wearer the power to control a person's mind. Due to its magical property, it's called the forbidden necklace.
"Although the necklace was never really worn by her lady (a formal way to address the queen's mother), the necklace was used by her to stop their own planet from being destroyed. For this case, the world is now partially destroyed. A whole population of humans were whipped out, leaving only her lady to survive. Her existence is still unknown, but it is said that her lady still roams the universe, conquering and saving other planets.
"Ever since then, replicas of the necklace were made and worn by the kings and queens of the other worlds. If a necklace was found unclaimed, it was sold to the mage market of another world since it represented the destruction of the world from where the necklace was found."
Aefia tried her best to search for information about her lady and the partially destroyed world but found neither. She tried using her skill, but no information was generated.
She opened her system and searched for the skill she needed this necklace for, to be precise, a replica.
[Ability: Mind Control (locked, unlockable with cleared conditions)
View Clear Conditions?]
Aefia reviewed the clear conditions required. She needed a replica, the soul of a beast, and adequate information about her element.
She had already acquired the soul of a beast, and she would learn more about her element from the book of elemental magic, so the two things were ticked off on her screen.
She switched her skill to 'Clever Persuader' which gave its owner the ability to get to a person's last nerve and get them to do something for the owner of the skill.
Aefia needed this skill to be able to squeeze out the informations she wanted. She came up with this idea after her fight with the beast. Since beasts were once owners of a certain type of magic, the beast could give information about what he or she had discovered during their lifetime before becoming a beast.
This skill also allowed her to cause high levels of mental damage to the enemy. In video games she had played, characters would have higher attack rates if he or she had a skill with mental damage compared to a character with high levels of physical damage.
The way to identify the difference between these two damages was simple. The character with physical damage will cause wounds that lead to the death of an enemy. The character with mental damage, on the other hand, focuses on making the enemy weak mentally, then physically, before delivering brutal blows, which leads to the enemy's death.
Another factor that mattered was the enemy's damage type. If the enemy was physical, then a mental damage was required, while if the enemy was mental, a physical damage was required. The reason behind this was the same as the north pole and south pole of a magnet.
Mental damages result in the person's mental weakness first. If the enemy figures out a loophole in the use of a mental damage skill, the enemy will learn to prevent it and gather physical strength to wound its enemy. While the physical damage would result in the enemy's physical weakness first, like strength and agility. If the enemy learns to demotivate its enemy, it can cause it to weaken its strength and deliver the final blows.
Aefia chose to be both, physical and mental. At the right time, she would use the right type of damage. During the fight with the beasts yesterday, Aefia tracked down its damage type as physical, which caused her to think of its weaknesses, as it would cause the beast to focus on saving itself first. Then Aefia absorbed the power before the beast could land another attack.
That's the real power of a video game.
Aefia quickly reviewed her skill requirements for 'Clever Persuader'.
The only requirement left was the emblem of faith. Aefia researched it and decided to only jot down a few points, unlike the previous one.
The emblem of faith is taken from a destroyed outer world. It represented the symbol of an unbreakable kingdom from an ancient folklore. The people of that planet would carry this symbol along with them to war or to form an alliance with another world. Though it is said that it was used in almost every object on that planet.
The emblem of faith was a sign of victory and hope. It was an emblem used to identify the kingdom of that world. The original metal carved version of the emblem was used in flags, armours, and sewn onto the clothing of the royal family. While the hand-drawn version was used on everyday objects.
The emblem was also carved into weapons, buildings, and furniture. Schools would often teach student how to craft it with their bare hands. The emblem was also worn as jewelry and hair clips by women.
The myth from which this emblem was made was a rather harsh and intriguing history for Aefia to discover.
The emblem was given its name because of the hope and victory it brought. The kingdom was suffering from poverty and starvation which was identified as bad luck for the kingdom. One day, news came to the king about a mage who could solve their problem and had saved other worlds from the same suffering.
The king sent a group of men to that mage's house on that planet and asked him to craft an item with magical properties that could grant them good luck and whatever they desired from it.
Unknown to the king and his people, the mage randomly designed a symbol with no value and handed it to the king the next day, and said it granted whatever the king wanted if only the king took the opportunity whenever he saw it.
The mage's reason for doing so was to trick the king into thinking the emblem offered good luck despite knowing that a person's doings could change the person's luck. Surprisingly, the next year's harvest was successful, and the mage was granted a huge reward, which the mage rejected.
This made the king mad and ask the mage for the reason. The mage explained about how he had deceived the king into thinking the emblem offered good luck, while the king and the people of the kingdom simply had to seize every opportunity they had to turn their lives around.
Hearing this, the king sentenced the mage to death. But the mage had kept a huge secret from the king.
The mage had secretly used magic to easily carve the emblem and once the mage was dead, the magic would grow tremendously until it attracted enemies as big as the 'Torture Cell', leading to the destruction of that world.
The mage had it all planned from the beginning. The king had hated being fooled or played around with and would often get mad if he realized someone was doing so. The mage wanted to punish the king and his people for their arrogance by summoning the 'Torture Cell'.
All these stories are making my brain cells go 'boom!'. I don't know how many other destroyed worlds are out there and how many other stories I will come across.
Aefia wrote down the three crucial points in her notebook and the rest was written in it her systems notepad before putting away her books and pen and getting up and pacing the room to recall everything she had discovered about the two objects she needed to unlock her skills.
Alright, I think I should just head out to check on the others.
Aefia strapped her pistol and knife before taking the key to her room's door and heading out.
***
She walked to the reception to collect her bullets first. Ms. Panther gave her two small boxes full of bullets.
"The red box carries the thirty demon-grade bullets while the black box carries twenty spirit-grade bullets. Do you know when to use them?" Ms. Panther asked.
"Not sure that I exactly know how. If you don't mind, could you explain it?" Aefia asked.
"A demon-grade bullet is designed by the demons to kill beasts, which in other words, is a deformed version of a spirit. Spirit-grade bullets are crafted by mages to kill demons. It is very rare to encounter a demon, but if you do, it is almost impossible to defeat it and escape with no injuries. The spirit-grade bullets contain magic, so if you ever run low in magic power, consume the contents inside the bullet. It will feel nasty at first, but it will get better over time. The contents inside the spirit-grade bullets also have healing properties, so in short, think of it as a potion."
"Alright, I will remember that." Aefia put away the two cases. "By chance, do you know if my teammates or mentor are awake? I am unsure if I overslept or too early to be awake."
"No, you woke up at the write time. Right now, it's ten in the morning, and you should be able to go out with Ms. Tortoise to buy the elemental magic book you couldn't buy yesterday. You have also got clearance to go alone if you want."
"No, no, no, I don't want to go alone. In fact, I am not sure I know where the mage market is." What if I get lost? I can only see a near future by only a mere seconds.
"Well you will have to get used to it, you are a mage after all. I believe you have a skill which let's you see your destination in advance."
"Not sure, I don't seem to have it. Anyway, I will just wait for Ms.Tortoise." Aefia said while smiling at Ms. Panther. "So where do I wait for Ms. Tortoise?"
"Wait in your team's meeting room, I believe she will be there."
"Alright thanks," Aefia said while trying to recall the way to her meeting room. One huge problem about being an introvert, is that without our socializer, situation feels awkward.
When she arrived at her meeting room, she knocked on the door to make sure someone was inside. "Come in," Ms. Avry replied from inside.
Aefia entered the room to see only Anasiy sitting at her table while Ms. Avry was explaining some things to her. It looked to Aefia that Ms. Avry was probably teaching Anasiy about her element.
"Aefia, mind if I take five more minutes to finish this lesson for Anasiy?" Ms. Avry asked.
"Sure no problem," Aefia replied while taking a seat at her table. She realized that the tables had names written on them for respective teammates.
"For both of you, make sure you know that there will be exams about elemental magic soon after you finish a certain number of missions." Ms. Avry spoke after finishing the lesson.
"Sure, it was a common thing on Earth anyway. Right, Aefia?" Anasiy replied while looking in Aefia's direction.
"Yes, one of the most stressful times of our lives," Aefia answered, recalling that she would have to take it if she were still on Earth. Exams were in two months, and they were finals.
"Alright, your lesson ends here, you may return to your room and don't leave without further notice." Ms. Avry dismissed Anasiy.
After Anasiy left the meeting room, Ms. Avry got up and walked out the door followed by Aefia. "So we need to go to the mage market. Am I right?"
"Yes," Aefia replied.
"So how was the book about the outer world? Isn't it about the world of the fallen king?" Ms. Avry asked.
Is Demae the world of the fallen king? I only read the first page last night. But who is the fallen king?