The Lone Wanderer

Percy arrived at the designated lounge an hour early, unwilling to waste even a second of his time in the Wiseman’s Chamber.

“Good morning, sir.” an attendant greeted him with a deep bow.

He was an older Orange-born. Not quite at Blue yet, though a few silver streaks ran through his mane. His luxurious clothes looked twenty times more expensive than Percy’s robes.

It took Percy a few moments to recover from his surprise at the man’s overly polite greeting. What “sir”? The academy’s staff generally spoke to the students more informally than that. Evidently, the Felmarans took this place very seriously. But he shook those thoughts away, focusing on what was important.

“Morning. Any chance I can get in early, since I’m already here?” Percy asked, testing his luck.

The clerk merely chuckled, taking it as a joke.

“My apologies, sir. We are required to strictly adhere to the schedule. The chamber consumes vast resources while active. Even a single extra minute inside would be costly for the academy, not to mention unfair to the other students.”

“Alright.” Percy sighed, swallowing his disappointment.

The attendant gestured to a nearby sofa, embroidered with intricate patterns. Percy sat, immediately noting how unnaturally soft the fabric was – likely enchanted to be so. The man then offered him a drink, a juice served in a tall, conical glass with ice cubes floating at the surface. Taking a sip, Percy savoured the refreshing coolness and mild sourness. It was one of the best things he’d tasted on Felmara, second only to Lyn’s pastries.

The attendant smiled brightly.

“I’m glad to hear you’re satisfied with our service, sir. I hope you had a restful night. It will help you make the most of your time in the chamber.”

Percy nodded. He would have done that even if Dugris hadn’t already suggested it. The potions would work wonders for maintaining his mental clarity and keeping him awake longer, but they couldn’t replace sleep entirely. That was part of the reason why each session in the chamber only lasted a few days. Getting tired halfway through his stay would be a colossal waste.

The two waited in silence for the next few minutes. Percy absentmindedly sipped his drink, admiring the grand chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, as well as the intricate carvings on the wooden walls. Most depicted the same man whose statue decorated the garden – Rhaziel Proudheart.

The god was shown in all sorts of settings – healing the sick, patronizing the poor, defending the weak… Clearly, the Felmarans worshipped their leader dearly. From what Percy had seen so far, it seemed warranted.

“Sir, it’s time.” the attendant said after a while, breaking him from his thoughts.

Getting up, Percy followed him through a long corridor, passing a couple of armed guards standing at attention on either side. Eventually, they arrived before a sealed door, covered in so many enchantments it made him dizzy. Whether it was through his eyes or through Mana Sense, it resembled the sun more than a slab of wood.

“Please, sir.” the clerk said, stepping aside. “Just a reminder – you will spend over four days inside, though only three will have passed outside. Ah, but there is no need to track the time yourself. The enchantments will deactivate automatically as soon as your session ends. May your training be fruitful.”

Percy nodded in thanks before entering. As the door shut behind him, several more enchantments flared to life, illuminating every surface of the cube-shaped room. There was another door on the other side, which he knew led to a small bathroom he’d have to use sooner or later.

A soft hissing filled the air as colourful vapours seeped through vents along the walls, merging into a dense, pale mist that made it difficult to see past his nose.

Taking a deep breath, Percy allowed the potions to settle in his lungs, as a soothing sensation spread out of his chest, reaching every corner of his body. His muscles loosened, the lingering fatigue melting away like a snowflake under the summer sun.

Sadly, this sense of euphoria barely lasted a couple of seconds before the seed in his abdomen woke from its slumber, sucking the life mana like a gluttonous vortex. Exhaling, Percy noticed the wisps coming out of his mouth had a faint purple hue.

Soon, the vents activated again, pumping more mist into the chamber. It was predominantly green, replacing the life mana faster than the other types, to match his consumption.

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‘Eh… if this continues, Leo’s core might be repaired by the time this is over…’

This wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Percy hoped he wouldn’t have to explain why he’d used up so much life mana. Plus, he was unlikely to be around long enough to benefit from the new core. Not to mention he’d have to weave a bandage for Leo and instruct him on how to make more of them…

In any case, this was a problem for later. For now, Percy shifted his attention to the potions again. At least the other types had already taken effect. The tension in his forehead disappeared, as the mind mana gently caressed his brain. His worries dissolved, leaving only clarity behind. At the same time, he felt the pure mana rushing into his sternum, trying to refill his core. Not very helpful at the moment, since it was already full, but this would change as soon as he started training.

‘Wow, this feels nice, even outside the practical benefits.’

More importantly, something stirred in his mind. It was difficult to fully grasp, as he had little experience with mind mana, but he could tell that more of it was flowing to his brain than the last time he used a similar potion. Leo’s fragmented memories grew clearer, details that had once been hazy suddenly sharpening into focus.

‘It actually works!’ his heart skipped a beat, though he quickly tempered his enthusiasm.

Just because the potions had a positive effect on the lingering memories, it didn’t mean they could restore Leo’s sense of self. If the past few seconds were any indication, the effect was incredibly subtle. At this rate, he’d need months here to make any real progress, if it was even possible.

‘Ok. I’ll have to find a way to speed up the process.’

Next, he set his satchel down in the corner. It was standard practice to bring some food with him, and he’d also brought a few notebooks. Primarily, Leo’s diary and the notes from the Pre-casting courses. It was the only subject the two of them shared, so he figured they might help him accelerate his training and catalyse his host’s recovery at the same time.

But first, there was something else he wanted to do.

Placing a hand on the wall, he traced the contours of the runes. He couldn’t understand them – having never learned the locals’ runecrafting language – but he was still curious about their complexity.

‘There are at least a dozen nested enchantments in here…’

Percy wasn’t blind to the skill required to pull something like this off. The people who’d drawn these probably had centuries of experience under their belts. If they had access to the Vault’s language, they could have done even better.

Though he had to move his face really close to make the details through the mist enveloping the room. A few runes he recognized as self-repair enchantments. He couldn’t read them, but he’d seen similar ones on other objects.

Of course, that was not to say the room didn’t require regular maintenance. The self-repair runes could restore everything in its original condition only if provided with the appropriate materials, and there was no substitute for the time mana coursing through some of the runes. Naturally, the academy had to bring in people with the correct affinity every now and then.

Other than that, the time acceleration enchantments seemed to be fuelled by ambient mana, even though they’d certainly needed a time mage to draw them the first time. In that, they were actually similar to Nesha’s pocket runes – drawn using her space mana but operated remotely without it.

‘I should try to learn some time enchantments at some point. They might come in handy. Plus, I’m sure I can find an even better version in the Vault.’

Time dilation was a useful – if somewhat flawed – training tool to have in his arsenal. Even without an enchantment, time affinity users could use their spells to accelerate the flow of time around their body, to increase their advancement speed. At least in theory.

In practice, even Blues would struggle to keep a 50% boost active for more than a couple minutes before emptying their cores. Constantly maintaining it throughout their lives was naturally out of the question. This was why most of them just used their mana as a weapon, to accelerate or decelerate somebody else’s attack, much like that guy from House Tantalus had done a few years ago.

Then again, even if one used advanced runecrafting to apply a more permanent enchantment – as the Felmarans had done here – time dilation didn’t do anything to solve the biggest problem with core purification. After all, it consumed one’s lifespan at the same rate as it pushed their advancement speed, netting them no benefit whatsoever.

‘No wonder rooms like this aren’t too common.’

Generally, its only value was to speed one’s time in relation to others. This was why Percy was currently travelling to the Thirsty Valley. Reaching Yellow sooner would allow him to protect himself and his friends. The Divine Order regularly used it to outpace their enemies, so that they’d have an easier time defending Remior. Meanwhile, the Felmarans probably wanted their brightest students to contribute to their world’s technology sooner rather than later.

Even so, only a god could accelerate time by severalfold, and it wouldn’t be worth it just to help a few mortals. Not unless they could set up a Decree to automatically do it for them.

‘That’s all nice and dandy, but there’s another problem in my case which others don’t have to worry about.’ Percy smiled bitterly.

His progress was largely tied to his ability to send out clones. Sadly, if he sped up the time around his main body, his clones wouldn’t be affected. From his perspective, each clone would stay away for longer, so he’d send fewer of them out in the same span of time.

And, as a mortal, he could produce a finite number of clones over his lifetime. Every second he spent in the Thirsty Valley would cost him some of those limited opportunities. It was something he was keenly aware of, and a sacrifice he was willing to make to obtain the power he needed to protect himself.

‘Well, it’s not so bad. I’ll live for over a thousand years if nothing goes wrong, so the time to Yellow is just a drop in the bucket.’

More importantly, he could potentially flip this drawback into an advantage if he placed his clones in accelerated time instead of his main body. That way, they’d accumulate more knowledge before returning. Though he’d need his clones to have a time affinity for that to work, and possibly some pretty specialized materials to build a chamber like this.

‘Anyway, that’s a project for later. Better focus on the task at hand.’