Chapter 14: It’s Only Time Now

[Search: Bus full of people found]

[144,232,122,433,323 results]

[Search: Alien bus found]

[212,311,354,345 results]

[Search: Alien people found inside a bus]

[3,122,423 results]

[1. Listen to the song: High Five - Aliens inside a Bus]

This is never going to work.

[Search: People from another world found in a bus and speak an alien language and are sentient.]

[403,120 results]

[Want to get away? Travel with our certified long-distance spatial mages CHEAP.]

I don’t know what I expected.

I hit the close button on the search engine page. Not once since I’ve begun using it has it produced any relevant results. I’ve gone as far as the 100th page and nothing is even close to what I’m looking for.

Where the hell are my classmates? I am beginning to question if they are even here in the same world but since I can’t be sure I think it is best to just assume they are.

[Who are you looking for Lucid? I doubt your classmates have managed to go all their lives without ever using the internet.]

That’s exactly the problem its internet here.

Can you set up an alert about articles relevant to people from another world that came from a place named Earth, not that Ealuth place that exists here, but...

“E-A-R-T-H.”

[Sure… but don’t expect anything.]

I nodded my head at Eurval. My own searches thus far have resulted in nothing. I was more surprised I’ve started to trust Eurval this much now. I just pray my searches don’t alert whatever the NSA equivalent is to this world and get me arrested.

I finished my dinner and my searches then turned my attention away towards the new book I purchased, “Mischief Rainer’s Vol. 1-3.”

I opened the green leather cover page on the book and flipped to the first page.

To the aspiring bowman, I want to offer my thanks and my gratitude for purchasing my bow-art. I hope through it you obtain the knowledge and the tools to succeed as a bowmaster in a team, military, and especially in solo combat. While this is the first in the series I hope you enjoy the 3rd volume as it contains a little bit of my true bow-art found in the later books.

- Rainer

Volume 1: Creating the bowstring and arrows along with some simple mana-augmented movements

Volume 2: Creating and using the spread shot and combining it with mana-augmented movements

Volume 3: Learning the Arrow Mine and combining it with the spread shot

The first page of the book is filled with videos of someone performing the skills taught in each volume with the use of the overlay.

It showed me a masked bowmaster dash around a target dummy showering it in arrows and explosions while cutting in and out of close combat range quickly. It made me excited. This is exactly what I needed.

“Professor Mary you were absolutely right.”

I should give her my thanks next class. Experience really is the most important thing and she has that in abundance.

I turned to the next page.

To start things off your going to have to learn five spells for the first novel. I know we ain’t mages but I do swear to you these aren’t as complicated as they look. If you’ve had at least a 5th grade level of magic studies you can skip the following four pages and start memorizing them until you know them like the back of your hand.

-Rainer

I shouldn't be pround of being at the 6th grade level in mysticism as a cadet at this Academy, but I won’t complain that its enough to begin training in an essence trainer art.

I flipped to the spell formulas and looked over them.

Rainer was telling the truth, these aren’t too complicated. His bowstring and arrow formulations are even simpler than mine. However, I was sure they are weaker since its synchronization with my manabody isn’t perfect like the ones I created myself, for myself.

I will say the two are much more refined and are giving me ideas on how to improve my own.

The movement spell is pretty simple too. However, the spread-shot and the Arrow-mine spells look significantly harder.

At least now I understand what those cadets meant when they were wondering why I had such powerful arrows.

Still, I would say maybe three or four hours was all I needed to remember the other three spells. I stretched my arms and began to study the movement spell first.

Time passed quickly as the light coming from the windows changed from the bright sunny daylight to a creamy dusk orange, the pale moon began to show too.

“Done with time to spare too. Am I a genius or what? Quiz me Eurval.”

[Hmm did you really finish? Okay, build up the movement spell from the 17th sigil.]

17th sigil… 17th leyline… oh fuck. Okay, quiz me again after I review for a bit.

I sat back down and opened up the book to refresh my mind. The Arrow-Mine magic needed a lot of my concentration it must have made me forget the earlier spells I memorized.

I gave a quick glace over the other spells.

“Okay, now quiz me.”

[Where does the fifth oxalis lie in the Arrow-Mine spell?]

No mercy, huh. Let’s see the fifth oxalis lies at the intersection between the 3rd and 23rd leylines. I’m pretty sure.

Eurval didn’t say anything which I took as I was correct.

The questions continued. I was about 70% sure I was 100% right. Once over I checked my answers.

I was right 100% correct on all of it.

Outwardly I was happy, but I knew the reality. Any uncertainty in battle spelled death. One second-guess and the spell is built incorrectly fizzling out meaning a movement spell doesn’t cast and I get killed. Simple as that.

Not comfortable with not feeling completely confident I went back and studied until I did.

The clock marched on. The sky was completely dark now. The once pale moon now bright in the sky illuminating a bluish-white. The much smaller second slightly pink moon could be seen too now along with the many stars. It was a pretty sight to take and one I was getting fond of looking at.

Huh…I don’t remember when I got used to this sky above me, it felt familiar now. I guess it just sort of happened. I wonder if I’ll feel a foreign strangeness if I ever see the night sky over Earth again. At the same time I felt a little indifferent to ever wanting seeing it again, this one was much prettier.

Was my urge to return waning that much? I couldn’t say yes, but I couldn’t say no either.

However, the strong feeling to find my friends and classmates still filled me with the motivation to push forward.

I hope you are safe out here Kevin, Noe, Ester.

Wishing my friends well I left the window overlooking the city and head out to the gym. Now that I memorized them I had to practice them.

I walked down the halls and past the once-booming cafeteria. It was pretty empty still, but it seemed like everyone who wanted to evacuate had left and the ones left were here to stay.

[I’ve reserved the private room so you can practice combat movement it’s the 43rd one from the entrance.]

Nice one, reserving a booth was no easy feat, but I felt it had more to do with the lack of cadets these days.

Has the Tole Forest Dungeon appeared yet, Eurval? I asked as I made my way past the many rooms, they were spaced together like a public storage area except with much larger blocks.

[Not yet, and it seems there have been reports of various parties fighting each other, but a lot of them are between guilds or clans that already had a bad relationship before.]

I chuckled. They must be getting restless waiting. Everyone out there is competing with one another throw in bad blood into the mix and that’ll happen.

While the oath stopped them from hurting those not involved, I don’t remember it saying anything about not fighting each other.

[Lucid: You guys should come visit its empty as hell we could explore the entire Academy and no one would bat an eye.]

I sent a message to the group chat seeing the barren halls.

[Ronald: pfft yeah right I saw some of the fights going on right outside the city. Heck no I ain’t going back until they are all inside the dungeon]

I smiled reading the rest replying with something similar as I head for the room Eurval reserved.

I stopped at the door labeled “Room 43” it must have sensed me as the sign at the top changed from red lettering to green the moment I touched the door sliding open for me.

“Woah, this place is huge.” I couldn’t help but let out. Probably the size of a basketball court.

Even my voice echoed. The normal sized door that led into this was misleading.

Various messages popped up asking if I wanted to use the movable parts to create mock areas, but I let the parts stay where they were. I wanted as much space as possible to practice the movement spell.

I performed a couple of light stretches at the center of the giant room.

Okay lets begin.

I envisioned the spell in my head applying a little mana to it. Immediately I could feel an energy envelope my body as if bottled up ready to be released. I marked a space 20 feet away from me in the overlay.

I pushed off with my feet releasing a little of the mana contained inside the spell.

Swiiiip.

“STOOOPPP!” My body propelled itself towards the wall at the far end.

Thud.

After a solid smack, I fell to the ground letting out a few groans as I clutched my shoulde. How the hell does Elizabeth control this so easily.

She makes it look so easy with the red glow dancing from place to place, but in reality it seemed I needed extremely fine control manage the extra power behind the speed.

I got up and tried again this time aiming to stop in time instead of trying to stop at a target.

Thud.Thud.Thud.Thud. Thud.

I’m going to take the whole building down at this rate.

I picked myself up and brushing off the dust from the ground. I want to say I was getting better, but was sure my results are all random.

[Lucid you are not getting any better… maybe you should go look for a bowmaster mentor to help you out?]

A master? I chuckled. It would be amazing to have someone like Rainer personally teach me and guide me on a path he understands, but would anyone even take me on to teach?

[Lucid: Elizabeth, Jordan do you guys have mentors was it hard to find one?]

[Jordan: Yes I have a master. He approached me during my preparatory school days after a small tournament. I hear its rare for a disciple to go out and choose a mentor though.]

[Elizabeth: Same~ At my preparatory back in my home city master Sola recruited me to his pool of disciples when I was still in elementary school!]

[Ronald: If your looking for a mentor DO NOT pay for anything…]

[Elizabeth: why did you get scammed ronnie~]

[Ronald: Bucha’ jerks out there willing to smile at you while taking advantage of a pure wide-eyed country boy…]

[Elizabeth: hahahaha ]

[Berts: Be careful Lucid I hear fake schools and mentor scams are pretty common to pray on young hopefuls.]

After a couple more exchanges I closed the group chat and reopened the green book. Maybe I missed something.

To perform the mana-augmented body moment first cast the spell, obviously. The biggest thing here is to try and stuff as much mana as you can fit into the spell. Contrary to what you might think the way I’ve designed the spell is to hold mana for multiple uses without having to recast instead of using extra mana for more power. (I will teach you how to adjust the mana usage and speed in later chapters)

Once cast you will feel your body energized with the extra mana supporting your body you must learn to slowly control the flow out as if you were performing a very thorough version of mana infusion.

-Rainer

I think it's my control over the mana inside. I’ve always had trouble with it.

But those are just excuses!

I cast the spell once more.

Thud.

Oh! I think I fixed something.

For a split second, I thought I felt a little more control. I swear this time I didn’t slam into the wall as fast.

[Hmm, it is still within the variance of the other attempts though Lucid...]

You have to belive in me Eurval...

[I just don't want to give you false hope, so you do improve.]

One more time. I bent forward ready to perform it again.

Ding dong.

Did someone just ring the door? Or am I hearing things?

[Someone really is at the door Lucid.]

I stood up from my crouching position and went to the door.

“Uhh hello?” The door slid open to reveal a familiar sleepy face.

In front of me was the man who has killed me far too many times, Eugene.

“Hey, Eugene?” I phrased my greeting as a question unsure what he wanted.

“Lucid… you forgot to turn off the viewing monitor connected outside.”

The what? I took a half step out the door and looked to where Eugene was pointing to. My eyes went wide seeing the entire wall as giant screen showing the inside. Could everyone just watch me slam into the wall non-stop?

My face winced realizing everyone could see me.

[At least it isn’t as packed as it usually is Lucid.]

Eugene took notice of my realization.

“Yeah…people forget to turn them off before leaving so you always should check.”

“Ahem, thank you. I’ll make sure to remember in the future.”

At least he told me instead of keeping quiet. I wonder if he would have told me had he never saw the video of my fighting the rock tortoise.

“By the way, do you need help? I’m really good at movement magics I can give you some pointers if you want.”

My face lit up remembering his insane speed when he would close in to stab me. Please forgive me for doubting your character.

“Sorry and please!”

I stepped to the side and let Eugene in he looked at me funny hearing me apologize, but said nothing of it. He walked in to the center of the training room. He took a couple of looks around and then looked at me.

“Perform your dash first I need to see it in person.”

I looked at him suspiciously, but I had nothing to lose it's not like he hasn’t already watched me throw myself at the wall.

I pushed off the ground once more using what was left of the charge.

Thud.

I did it as I usually did ending up thrown against the far wall.

“Hmm, I think I know what's wrong. You just need a small alignment. It usually happens when essence trainers forget to align themselves after large growth. I can do it for you come.”

I picked myself up and walked back to him. Alignment? Like I need to visit a chiropractor? Do they even exist here?

“This won’t hurt okay.” Eugene looked at me.

I was a little apprehensive, but if it helps whatever. Is he going to help me crack me back or hip something? Hope I get a loud one it's so satisfying.

However, I was confronted with something different .

“W-what are you doing!?” Eugene got on his knees and put his hands on my calves and thigh.

“What? Its an alignment I’m checking your astral body. Don’t fight it. It's usually the legs that need it.”

It was a bit awkward, but I agreed and felt a surge of foreign mana flow from his hand on my thigh through my leg into his other hand on my calf.

“Wow.”

That’s not good to hear. I saw his face turn from calm to a bit perplexed.

“I’ve never seen it this bad before. How can you even walk? Your astral body and your real body are completely out of sync. It’s 100% the reason your control is so horrible.”

Immediately I could think of why that was so. It explained a lot honestly.

“It seems only your head is correctly attuned.” Eugene closed his eyes as his blue mana continued to glow around his palms on me.

“If you focus on syncing your bodies together. I think that should fix the major issue of control the rest will be down to practice. I can’t fix this I can only do alignments your gonna have to do it within yourself.”

A quizzical face appeared on him as he continued to look.

“It's so strange to look at. How does it even get this bad.” Eugene kept squeezing on my leg moving his hands up and around my thigh.

Umm, can I report this?

“I had thought it would just need a little alignment, but its so different they’re not even the same height! Your astral body is dangling from your head. I need to take notes! Can I report this to my family’s research group? I’ll keep you anonymous, I think this may be a world’s first!”

Eugene opened his eyes and looked up at me.

Our gazes met as his hand was extremely close to my crotch.

Realizing the situation he shot back and stood straight as an arrow.

The face that had been on me as if looking at new lab rat turned back to his usual deadpan with sleepy eyed self.

It felt a bit forced though. His ears were a bit red too.

“Ahem, yes. Just fix your astral body with meditation as if you where essence training and you should be good!”

I wanted to laugh at his voice crack.

“I-I have to go now. See you next class Lucid!”

Eugene ran off while still talking towards the exit mashing the door button to slide open faster, leaving me standing there alone.

“At least buy me dinner…”

I let out a breath. What a guy, but at least I know what to fix now. He didn’t give me a chance to thank him for saving me a giant headache.

I sat down crossed legged and began to meditate.

As if I was essence training? I vaguely knew what he meant, but still, I wish he stayed so I could ask more questions.

I pictured the mana flowing within me and began to slowly piece together the calf of my astral body to my physical calf. Slowly part by part I could feel myself coming together. Entranced with the satisfying “snapping” I felt when my body parts fully attached together with their astral form I did a thorough job. Going as far as doing my toes and ears.

I opened my eyes leaving the meditative trance. I felt my vision, my sense of smell, and even my heart-rate feel stronger. I wish I would have known this sooner. My body too felt more agile. So I was only using a portion of my strength before…

Let us try it one more time.

I cast Rainer’s movement spell.

Swoosh.

I felt the familiar rush of wind, but there was not sudden stop this time!

No wall! I had stopped when I wanted to.

I did it once more aiming for a spot 20 or so feet from me.

Swoosh.

I had missed the mark, but only by a couple of feet!

My movements where jerky and a little awkward overall, nothing near to the fluid waltz Elizabeth performs, but at least in a pinch I could dodge out of the way.

[Congratulations Lucid, it is only time now before you master it.]

I nodded at Eurval. Then began putting in good practice time no longer afraid of getting hurt. I zipped around the giant room aiming for random x-marks Eurval overlaid in my vision to aim for.

Time ticked on as the the sound of my feet filled the vast place. It has been at least two hours of me running around. My hair was wet with sweat making it stick to my forehead and my mana was really low now too.

I think this is a good time to stop.

[Your getting really close Lucid only a couple steps off the marks now.]

I smiled happily and left the training room. Although I was getting more accurate I was obviously very far from Elizabeth.

Before I left I made sure to turn the outside monitor on before. Hopefully, someone else can become a victim too.

As I exited the gym I did see a few others still in the open areas most notably was Runter and Mei both fighting each other with sparring swords. Off the bat, the difference in their expressions was great. Mei’s face looked rather sour and tensed while Runter’s looked calm and concentrated.

I won’t lie it made me a little happy seeing her get beat up. Though I had to respect her for willingly fighting someone stronger than her, I’ve never seen Chibin or the other two spar anyone ranked above them.

With the halls being so empty getting back to my apartment was quick. I would finally use the mana orbs I obtained to perform Holy Hunter’s Heart then try out Ulus’ Tea Time to complete my complete lustrating regimen. Add in my studies in magic and Mischief Rainer’s bow-art and things were beginning look like they’re coming together.

I thought back to Eurval’s words earlier. Soon it was going to be only a matter of time.