While Christopher was now dreading his daily quarterstaff training with the introduction of the Soul Suckers, he very much looked forward to his magical studies at the Academy every day. The first days at the Academy had no doubt been exhilarating.

Christopher was starting to feel more familiar with the mage district. Today he was exploring the shopping center of the mage district while the sun basked him in its warm rays. The Mage District was really a city within a city towards which the more magically gifted citizens gravitated.

The completely different Architecture only reinforced that feeling of being in a different place than Lumen. Most buildings were made out of Metal, causing the light to refract and the metal to glint in mesmerizing patterns across the streets. The metal also turned out to be a serious heatsink. Christopher had made the mistake of leaning his hand on one of the metal walls at some point, causing him to pull it back in shock from the heat, only just preventing a burn. The only bystander to notice his stupidity had looked at him as if he were a county bumpkin. He had not made the mistake of touching the walls again, the scare making him a quick student. Christopher soon realized that they used Soul Frost devices all over the district to keep the temperature at a comfortable level.

Christopher was currently sitting at a small eatery somewhere near the shopping center of the district, giving himself a break from the hot sunrays. He was sipping a nice fruity orange beverage while watching the people pass by.

He liked looking at the interesting people residing here. He assumed that most were Soul Art practitioners from their metal clothing adornments and extravagant outfits. It was interesting to observe these people going about their daily lives, sometimes with magical creatures in tow. There was something truly fascinating about seeing a man with countless metal clasps in his hair lead around an oversized dragonfly, hovering behind him. It was moments like these that made him feel like a proper tourist, taking in the sights.

The shops offered all kinds of incredible devices that needed the infusion of specific Soul Arts to function. Quite a few were powered by the Soul Arts that he had learned already. These things were kind of expensive though. Christopher was very tempted by many of the products on offer. His Arena betting had left him with some funds, but he kept his discipline. He wanted to keep multiplying his wealth on subsequent turns.

He had seen numerous devices on sale working on Soul Frost, clearly popular in the metal city. There were also many devices that functioned as household applications. Some devices were as simple as filling and heating a bathtub with Soul Current and Soul Heat. There were devices resembling an electric stove working of Soul Heat, cleaning devices working on Soul Current and Soul Wind. All kinds of lighting devices offering pleasant illumination effects. Gardening and construction tools were also represented aplenty. Most he could not quite figure out though, not far enough in his understanding of the Soul Arts. Still, it was impressive and surprising how much these devices were able to imitate technology on Earth. None of these appliance devices were all that interesting to him though.

Christopher had instead been looking for some kind of weaponry, in whatever form he could find. He for example hoped to find some kind of device that could give him an edge, just like his Flash Bang on the previous loop. He was kind of annoyed that he found nothing like it around after looking through all of the shops. He could only assume it was some kind of government. regulation that stopped those from being sold here. It kind of made sense that such dangerous devices were not that readily available to the general populace. He was also sure that they would have been in short supply with the current danger to the city. It was probably possible to weaponize some of the many utility devices, but he did not have the money or time to dive into such an undertaking right now.

More interesting was one of the shops that sold actual weaponry, of which there were admittedly many in Lumen. The mage district had a few shops like that, but they were on the more expensive side compared to the shops outside of the district. There was a good variety though, especially when looking at the types of metal out of which they were made.

Christopher was certainly interested in buying a quarterstaff, but ultimately decided against it. They were rather expensive, the cheaper ones still costing a few silver coins, and they would become completely useless to him after the current loop. No, it made much more sense to instead buy a quarterstaff from the Interface store that was Soul Bound. Such a weapon would stay with him over loops without taking up one of the three slots of his Soul Mark.

Christopher was not planning to buy such a weapon until he actually was going to need it though. And if he was going to buy such a quarterstaff with his Soul Points, then he also wanted to make sure that it was going to be the best one available. That way he would not waste Soul Points on continuously buying ones that were slightly better.

——————<>——————

Christopher had found a shop with some fascinating devices after looking further from the center. He had found a somewhat hidden shop that was a located in a tight alleyway, a few streets removed from the main shopping center. This shop was a bit different in that it had devices that needed the infusion of multiple Soul Arts at once, something he had not seen before. He was currently studying a strange oval egg shape devices with grooves crossing the middle. It had both the marking that represented Soul Pull and a marking for an art that he did not recognize. There were many such devices over the store, which was clearly specialized in such devices.

He did not see how a person could channel the focus necessary for two separate Soul Arts at the same time. The focus required for a single Art was already all encompassing, and he did not think that the human mind could split focus like that. He knew that unique Soul Arts could be created from combining the principal of two or more effects, but the outcome was still only one effect in the end.

He decided to ask the older woman that was the shopkeeper.

“Can these devices be powered up by one person or do they require two people to infuse at the same time.”

“Sorry young man, this is a shop for Master’s. I am afraid that these devices are of little use for anyone else. These devices can only be charged by a single person.”

“How are you supposed to charge the two Arts simultaneously?”

My explanation would make little sense to you without a much more more advanced understanding of your Soul Force. I suggest you visit another shop with devices that requires less of a mental strain.”

She said it kindly, but Christopher was still irked with the dismissal. He thanked her and left the shop for now. Maybe he could experiment with casting two effects at the same time later, although his success seemed unlikely judging by the woman’s words. He nevertheless imagined himself simultaneously infusing daggers with two different effects. Christopher could always ask Atyat or another teacher at the Academy.

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Just as he was becoming more familiar with the layout above, he also slowly learned more about the secrets that could be found in the vast network of the Underground of the Academy as well. The Soul Force was even denser in the underground than in the rest of the Mage District. This was where Christopher spent most of his time at the Academy, a lot of it in the Lumen Library. He needed to study a lot of different subjects in order to realize some of the plans that were forming for the next loop. Christopher discovered that the library had an adjacent Soul Hall where people could expend their accumulated Soul Force. Christopher was glad for this, since it kept him from maxing out his Soul Force and wasting potential growth. The presence of the Soul Hall made clear that others were of the same mindset.

Christopher liked roaming the tunnels as well, which were easy to navigate due to clear directions and comprehensive lighting. Or at least the more well traversed parts were. He did not dare to wander too far from the center since it grew darker there and became more of a maze.

The Underground sometimes gave the illusion of being an advanced technological facility. He had encountered escalators that worked of Soul Pull and Soul Crush. Some of the well traversed sections of the Underground even contained a moving walkway like you would find in an airport. The treadmills were surprisingly smooth to use, and he had not yet found an answer as to how those functioned. More Soul Push and Soul Pull he could only guess. It was clear that it all ran on a lot of Soul Force, but there were a lot of people here to provide it. Learning more about the Underground made sense since it was one of the few defensive Strongholds during the attack.

He had tried to research the defenses of this place in the library, but the missing information made it clear that this was another classified subject. Christopher also had come to the realization that his research here would look highly suspicious to anyone paying attention, with him researching things like the Turned, Blights Essence, and Lumens defensive systems. He could only hope that nobody was secretly monitoring the books that he was perusing or they would probably have some questions for him.

The Underground offered him one strange sight after another. One moment he might walk up to a room that leeched out any light completely, basking it in pure darkness. while the next hall would be filled with a load of magical contraptions, flickering orange light. He kept himself from exploring such places to laxly, merely observing for now.

The Underground also housed numerous training halls for different types of Soul Arts. One of them was for a rather interesting Soul Art called Soul Crush. He had not really understood the principle behind Soul Crush after reading the Manual at the Butterbash Inn, but after observing the training of the people there, he discovered that it was most likely an Art that manipulated the force of gravity to objects.

The practitioners could both increase and decrease the effect that gravity had on certain objects. Christopher immediately put this Soul Art at top of his to learn list, figuring that his scientific understanding might give him another edge to other people here. Christopher would love to learn this Art since he believed it to have many useful applications, which could be as simple as making the swings of his quarterstaff more deadly by making his blows heavier. The fact that Soul Crush was a primary Soul Art only sealed the deal.

Soul Crush also turned out to be essential for much of the industry in Lumen. Christopher had attributed some of the impressive heavy lifting he had seen to other Soul Force techniques, but Soul Crush was the likely culprit. It’s invisible nature just made it less flashy than Soul Arts like Light, Current, and Heat. Many other Soul Arts were apparently not seen much in the day-to-day of Lumen at all, but he did not doubt that each Soul Art would have its uses.

The training facilities for Soul Crush were quite remarkable. The floor, ceiling, and walls of the facilities thrummed with energy and were able to dissipate any force from objects slammed into them. The training facilities also had many intricate enclosed chambers, made up out of many different kinds of metals. He was not allowed in there, but it seemed that some kind of intense training was done there by Soul Crush users. The practitioners usually left there drenched in sweat. It was a place that he hoped to get access to in the future, whenever he trained up the Soul Crush Art himself.

Christopher was told that underground was mostly contained underneath the mage district. Going further than that apparently brought complication due to the lower Soul Force levels. He wondered how the underground stronghold had held up against the Blight during the invasion on the previous loop. He could see them faring better than the Church considering their weakness to the creation energy. The whole Mage District was drenched in it. He considered going to the tunnels instead of the defensive zone of the Adenium Church during the invasion. The problem was that he was unsure whether he could make it there after somehow raising the Soul Alarms early.

Christopher had put a lot of thought into his plans for the end of this loop. He also increasingly considered the possibility of leaving Lumen and extending the loop. Time was the most precious resource at the moment. There was a lot of uncertainty with that plan. He was not sure whether he could reach a safer haven with the heavy presence of the Blight, and a failure would lose him one loop. It would be a perilous two-week journey to get to a different place. Eugenius Swift probably also had measures to keep people from abandoning the city in droves since that would weaken the defensive capacity. But those measures might not be in place at the start of the next loop.

He also didn’t know whether [Bookmark] would let him get away with a large extension of his time. His first activation had made it all too clear that there were limits to the skill, and who was to say whether it would allow him to go back months or even years. How much energy did it take to turn back the clock for a whole world? It all made him hesitate to make a run for extra time.

He had been studying potential travel options at the library to discover how feasible the plan really was. In one passage he had found hints about the existence of teleportation, which required extensive resources to function. Books about history also suggested the existence of such methods, since in the famous figures appeared at historical battles from great distances in short time spans. The timelines made no sense if there was not a method to travel these great distances instantaneously. Christopher was really starting to resent running into these information walls, but he could not think of a method to get into the parts of the library that had higher clearance levels.

——————<>——————

Christopher looked up at the gaudy golden paint of the Lucky Goddess. ‘Time for round two of this money-making experiment, let’s hope this works once again’ Christopher thought. There should be at least two more opportunities for his betting on the loop. The Lucky Goddess was rather quiet at this time which allowed him to look at the odds without distractions.

His current wealth came to a total of thirty-one silver, and seven bronze Venarian coins. Ideally, he would be able to double his money like last time, but he knew that his bets this time were more uncertain. Only just over half of the match-ups were still the same at this point. There were already a few matches that had deviated on the first event, and he feared that the changes would snowball even further. Christopher tried to remain hopeful by reminding himself that many of these contestants were still very much the same fighters with mostly the same experiences.

Christopher took a careful and somewhat long look at all of the odds on the boards above him, looking for what he considered low-risk bets that would pay out the most. He eventually made his decision, actually somewhat happy with his chances of making a profit. The odds were better for some fights after some of them had been close in the previous round. One match up was completely different in this round than before, but he had seen them fight in the third round on the previous loop and it had been a rout.

He decided to spread his money over four bets this time. ‘I will surely win at least one.’ He thought with a grimace. One bet would pay him double, another paid out 2.5 times, another 3.2, and the final had a 3.7 payout. He put an equal 7 silver and 10 bronze Venarian coins on all four bets this time, betting a total of thirty silver coins. That left him with only one silver and seven bronze coins on his person.

Winning one would see him make a small loss. Winning two would give him some decent winnings, and anything above that would pretty much double his earnings. Losing all of his bets would certainly throw a wrench in all of his future plans, but he could always throw a gambit and resort to thievery at the end of the loop. Christopher hoped it would not have to come to that. Both because he would probably be blasted by some magical defense system in his attempt, and because he did not want to resort to crime. His time would be better spent on making himself stronger and gathering knowledge, instead of planning a heist.

He left the lucky goddess with his four betting slips safely tucked away. He decided to delay his worries for now, surely he would not lose all of his bets.