During Orientation Week, the campus bloomed with hanging streamers, pop-up stands, student restaurants, duelling arenas, and even dubious student-sponsored "idol" shows carried over from Japan and South Korea.

The rationale was the all-consuming desire for Clubs to absorb new first-year students, for whom new blood and fresh meat meant the life and death of a club's funding.

She had made it no more than a dozen meters into the campus' main boulevard when catcalls of "Hey! Beauty! Over here! Join the [Insert name here] club!" resounded from all sides. Perhaps even more frighteningly, over-enthusiastic students daringly approached her with no concept of personal space, grabbing her arm and tugging on her dress.

"I'll be fine, thank you very much."

"No, thank you!"

"Please, no!"

"I am fine."

"No!"

Her patience lasted all but three dozen stalls before she had to pull her arm forcibly away from zealous students eager to score a beauty. Whatever Gwen's background may be, whatever her skills, having a face like hers to post on the club poster was undoubtedly enough to drive up recruitment.

Once outside the crowd, Gwen took note of the Clubs, ranging from legitimate to frivolous. Even if she currently had no time for them, Gwen couldn't help her eyes becoming drawn to the more impressive displays.

Of curiosity was the Dungeoneering Committee, a Club organising monthly outings to Dungeons in the outer regions surrounding Shanghai and offering a yearly Advanced Dungeoneering Expedition to hitherto 'unexplored' areas suitable for junior Mages.

Besides the Dungeoneer's grand display of magical loot was the Fudan Competitive Duelling Club, renowned for its presence on the regional stage. The Duelling Club had a fine podium where two Mages, Fire against Earth, put on a spectacular exchange of offensive and defensive spells.

Further down from the main avenue and toward the Fudan Towers, she passed by a petting zoo of Magical Creatures set up by the Wildland Creature Appreciation Club. Looking at the variety of exotic and cuddly creatures, Gwen entertained the rapturous indulgence of molesting an assortment of fleecy, furry, fluffy things, all of which made her miss Elvia terribly.

Further along, mundane clubs lined the distance between the towering statue of Chairman Mao, many of which would not be out of place in Gwen's old world. The Discovery Club, the Media Club, Independent Research Club, the Management Club, Literature Club, Politics Club, and finally clubs for dance, music, theatre, chess, and art.

There were more semi-professional extra-curricular clubs also, such as the International Student's Activity Association, the Fudan Charity Consortium, the Student Helper's Committee, and something curiously called the Expansion Club, whatever that meant.

Gwen felt depleted by the end of the recruitment gauntlet, grumbling at the hour she would never get back. Nonetheless, she attended the Fudan Towers on the first day of Orientation Week for two specific reasons. One—today was the day she could formally apply to become a member of the Fudan Tower, which meant she could trade in her CCs for the LRC Crystal Projector in her apartment, and two: she had an appointment with the Dean, Jiang Luo, to oversee her academic prospects.

Once past the barricade of human bodies, she made her way up the levitation platform and entered the Student's Guidance Office, where an appointment for her to speak with her course coordinator awaited her. Gwen straightened her dress and sat, waiting patiently for her turn.

"Nihao." A breath of cold airbrushed her cheeks.

Gwen turned her head, startled at the sudden appearance of a ghostly visage beside her.

"Oh God- You startled me." She stilled her hammering heart.

The face that greeted Gwen was an exquisite doll. She recognised it as Ellen, an Air Spirit that Magister Luo was trying to temper into a more humanised existence.

"Master will see you now." Ellen bowed, then levitated through the lobby. Then, as if recalling her Master's command, she allowed her legs to properly manifest, landing on the floor with an audible clack.

"Dean Luo." Gwen bowed as she entered, instantly picking out his familiar face. There was another friend present as well, Magus Kumiko. The only stranger was a westerner whom she had never seen before. "Magus Kumiko. Sir. Greetings."

"Gwen! How wonderful to see you again." Magister Luo clapped his hands expansively. He pointed to a visitor's chair set up in front of them. "Come, sit. There's much to discuss."

Gwen demurely sat and positioned her legs at an angle to her audience. She placed both her hands on her lap, turned her torso slightly sideways, then flashed her audience a winning smile. Magister Luo looked the same as always, frank and friendly. Magus Kumiko sat beside and behind the remaining Mage, indicating that the Caucasian Mage was her superior.

"This is Magister Louis Birch, the head of our School of Conjuration. He's a specialist in manipulating Spatial Magic who had studied extensively in Europe and the Americas. He also held a short tenure working with the Iron Citadel, the Eastern European Dwarven Consortium."

Gwen paid her respects again while seated, tilting her head respectfully.

"So, you are our Void Mage," Magister Birch returned her greeting. "I have heard much about your progress from Magister Wen."

"She is too kind," Gwen humbly acknowledged the Magister's praise.

Unlike the academically inclined Magister Wen, Magister Birch was a Mage fastidious with his appearance. The man clothed himself in a suit tailored to fit his lanky frame, punctuated with a vest patterned and threaded with dusky gold runes and paired with a pair of scaly Oxfords that likewise hinted at expensive Enchantments. Above a tightly buttoned collar, the Master Conjurer's circle beard framed his grim lips. Beside the man, the casual and intimate seeming Dean Luo looked like a countryside uncle.

"I have your recommended courses for the upcoming Semester. As your major lies in Conjuration, I shall be your Course Coordinator," Magister Birch said with a voice that Gwen felt was unnecessarily stern. "Magister Wen assured me that you are ready to undertake the path to higher learning, despite your… Frontier public education."

Gwen ignored that little jab at her rural origins and received the document Ellen levitated through the air.

Conjuration **CJR1001**

Supplementary Conjuration **CJS1001**

Bestiary and Care of Familiars **FAM1021**

Evocation **EVK1001**

Advanced Spell-shaping **ASP1201**

Utility Transmutation **UTT2003**

Management **GEN100M**

Economics **GEN100E**

"Thirty-Six units of Spellcraft, Six Units of General Studies. Have you consulted with Magister Wen regarding your suitability for these courses, or would you like me to explain?"

"I am well informed, sir."

"Good. Your confidence becomes you, and I hope you will keep it as our lessons advance. In any case, well met, Miss Song." Magister Birch's lips tapered shut post sermon.

The man was overtly polite and just a little hostile, Gwen felt. Perhaps he was adverse to a student possessing the Void talent, she wondered, or had she offended him somehow?

Before Gwen could excuse herself, the Dean began to speak.

"Gwen, a moment if you will."

"Yes, Sir?"

"You wish to apply for the International University Competition, correct? And would like to represent the Fudan team?"

"I do, Sir." Gwen nodded affirmatively.

Magister Birch raised a brow critically but remained silent.

"The current tryouts are in September, which is far too close for them to be feasible for you." Dean Luo informed her helpfully. "However, as you are a mid-year applicant, you should be well-positioned to apply for the 2004 competition. There is also the possibility of the 2005 September placement, or at worst, a 2006 placement should you delay your graduation until December."

"I understand, sir." Gwen brushed a strand of loose hair behind her ear before responding. "I shall endeavour to achieve my goal by next year."

"Ha!" Magister Luo applauded her. "Such confidence! I should warn you, though. Many of the top teams almost exclusively consist of multi-entry veterans."

"Hmmph!" Magister Birch snorted.

Dean Luo shot his tenured Magister an amused look before turning again to Gwen.

"But I have the utmost confidence in you, Miss Song. I am sure your grandmother is looking forward to you bearing Fudan's name."

"I won't let you down, Sir." Gwen ignored her future instructor's abrasive attitude. "I won't let Director Klavdiya down either."

The mention of her babulya's name seemed to touch a nerve in Magister Birch, and Gwen caught the Conjurer furrowing his brows dangerously, knitting them together with a passion that exceeded mere annoyance.

"The Songs are ever so confident," Magister Birch chided her coldly. "Overconfidence seems to be a family trait."

"Louis!" Dean Luo intoned in a low voice weighted with authority.

Magister Birch tensed, then resisted the Dean's displeasure with a projection of his own.

"I'll not show any favouritism," the Conjurer said suddenly. "You know that, right? Jiang? Certainly not to Miss Song here."

"I don't expect you to." Luo reached across and removed a piece of lint from Birch's shoulder. "She will surprise you."

"I will push her hard."

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"And I expect nothing less."

Gwen sat quietly, still recovering from the stunning expulsion of mana that the duo had unleashed a moment prior.

"Your Grandmother," Magister Birch said to Gwen, his face softening. "How is she?"

"She's hale and happy," Gwen replied uncertainly, unsure what the Magister's relationship to her babulya might be. "Do you know my grandmother?"

Magister Birch nodded stiffly, his eyes suggesting that somehow, her question displeased him.

Dean Lou coughed loudly to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Gwen, you're a busy lass. You may go and do your other errands now. Remember, my office is always open!"

With Luo's blessing, Gwen hastily took her to leave, closing the double doors behind her.

What was all that? She pondered the abundance of expression that had passed over Magister Birch's face. Should it give her cause for concern? Perhaps she should contact her babulya.

With a ping! The doors to the levitation platform opened. Gwen stepped through the threshold and pressed the Glyph for level 3—Registration and Administration.

"Gwen!" Ellen's voice resounded an inch from her ear.

"Jesus Christ, Ellen!" Gwen almost jumped from the Levitation platform when Ellen materialised.

"Do you have it?"

"Do I have what?"

"Essence!" Ellen poked a finger timidly at Gwen's heart, pressing into her bosom. "Lea said you possess a tasty druidic essence."

Feeling like a dealer in the night, Gwen double-checked that they were, in fact, alone; then quickly congealed a droplet of her Druidic Essence.

"Alright, let's make this quick."

She had wanted to dribble a drop into Ellen's mouth, but Ellen instead guided Gwen's hand into her chest, where she felt a frigid swirl of Elemental Air so dense as to induce hypothermia in her fingers.

"Ah—" Ellen's morphic form momentarily lost its shape before reforming itself. "Thank you! I enjoyed that very much."

"Anytime." Gwen checked to ensure that she was still in possession of her extremities. Thankfully, her fingers remained responsive.

"Okay! Bye! Love you!"

Ellen dissipated in a burst of quicksilver Conjuration.

A Familiar who can teleport at will! Gwen couldn't help but be impressed. She wondered if Caliban or Ariel would ever get to the stage where they could function independently and if Ellen could help. At any rate, Gwen was not opposed to luring a few wayward Familiars with her Essence candy van.

"It's all done! Welcome to Fudan, Miss Song." The woman at the counter smiled amiably, and Gwen returned the gesture with a smile of her own.

Gingerly, she took her cards, then retreated to a well-lit window to inspect her loot.

**Gwen Song**

**Public Practice of Magic ID::** 9840598 001

Evocation (3), Conjuration (4), Divination (1), Transmutation (1), Abjuration (1)

**Quasi-Elemental ::** Lightning :: Void

**Class Permit (A)**

Her Public Practice Licence received an upgrade from B to A, implying she could incant Spells up to tier 6 when outside the city's magic exclusion zones. Without a higher-tier licence, destructive magic within the metropolis remained contentiously glued to internal policing.

She checked her Student Card.

**Fudan University Student Card**

**Gwen Song**

**LOI::** China, Shanghai

**SID** : 12598 S0203

**POB:** Sydney, Australia

**YOA:** S2 2003

**LCSS::** 2003-2006 (M) (Full)

Her card was a crystalline rectangle with the emerald watermark of Fudan's Qin-Dynasty logo embossed behind her name. There was also an unflattering picture of her face which projected an Illusion when injected with mana.

The Administration lobby was like any other in the university, large and spacious, open planned with large waiting areas prefacing a dozen counters, behind which were data and file stores. Lacking networking technologies, the need for file storage space was immense. Even with the advent of imported American Magitech, the lack of data-servers in this world severely limited the volume and detail of stored information.

Watching the row after row of storage, Gwen recalled the infamous East Berlin warehouses with files on nearly every German Democratic Republic citizen. Without Divination, Gwen concluded, the entire system would be untenable. Maybe, she pondered, there was a Spell for that.

With her IDs done, it was time to visit the Tower proper. Gwen proceeded to the lobby of the Guanhua Building, then took one of the six levitation platforms ascending into the Fudan Towers.

Though seen by outsiders as a single Tower, the faux-Factions of Fudan played a significant role in shaping the allegiances of their students. Guanhua Tower 1, commonly known as T1, was the busier of the two, whose students came from backgrounds that inevitably drove them to select the PLA Tower. T2, meanwhile, was a gathering place for self-proclaimed adherents to the Pudong Tower, as well as a faction of freebooters who dreamt, often naively so, that Spellcraft was above politics.

It was T2 that Gwen ventured into, exiting on the 25th level into a lobby that overlooked the surrounding landscape. From the south side of its thickly paned windows, Gwen could see her apartment block stretching down the length of Guoding Avenue.

She took a ticket and waited, examining the busy lobby and the bubble-be milling of its busy staff. The place resembled a bank. There were counters for simple transactions, rooms for private consultations, and a few conference chambers with large oval tables.

Her's was a simple transaction, meaning her ticket was up very quickly.

"Hi, here's my card." Gwen waited while the young woman ran her newly minted identification for forgeries.

"Your balance is 151 CCs." the young woman announced. "What would you like, Miss Song?"

"I would like an LRC Projector installed in my place of residence. One that will enable private conference with a friend in England," Gwen informed the girl.

"Would you like to loan or own?"

"What's the difference?"

"To own is 50 CCs, including a Tower technician installing the device. To loan is 15CCs plus 1CC per month, with a minimum hire of six months for fixed installations."

Gwen quickly did the math. If she remained in Fudan for three years, it might be worthwhile to buy, but there was merit in loaning as well. Overheads, sunk costs, depreciation and potential lost investments from spending too many CCs at once; she quickly ran the numbers through her head.

"Can I return a purchased device for CCs?"

"No, ma'am, you may not."

"Alright, I'll loan then, thanks."

"No problems. Let me get the slates. Please fill in forms 1B and 23C." The girl returned a moment later, and Gwen completed the documentation.

"Is Friday okay for the technician to install? Your serviceman will be a certified Pudong Tower affiliate."

"That's fine," Gwen thanked the counter-clerk.

"Very good. The minimum hire period is six months. I will deduct 21 CCs, leaving you with 130 CCs. I've booked for installation within two days; please be home between 9 AM and noon. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

"No, thank you."

"Thank you, Ma'am. Please feel free to browse the T2 CC Community Request Board. Have a nice day."

Gwen left the peppy administrator and sauntered over to a panoramic display that ran the length of the back wall with thirty-odd meters of projections from floor to ceiling.

Silent, she read the requests to herself.

"Looking for Abjurer of at least tier 6 and good reputation to join a party for Taishan's Emerald Forest Dungeon, minimum 100 CCs and HDMs for the right applicaant. Compatibility interview and training session essential. Original party members will vote on accepting or rejecting the applicant."

"35 CCs reward for information on Dragonkin in the Huashan region HS32B. Seeking type, size, age, gender, and colour. Half payment now, half on confirmation."

"Looking to collect specimens of Wood Elementals, Nymphs, Dryads, Sprites. Exchanging between 10 CCs to 200 CCs. Offer lasts until CCs spent."

She also saw a few in red.

" **URGENT** :: Seeking Diviners who can aid with discerning whereabouts of Li Mingyue, a charlatan who has defrauded my brother, the Magus Fu Weiwei. 10 CCs for proof of Li's location. 50 CCs for information leading to capture. 150 CCs for Li brought in alive."

A projection crystal attached to the manhunt notice displayed the Mage known as Li Mingyue.

Gwen read another:

" **URGENT** :: Tier 5 to 7 Adventuring Party needed to reclaim Zhongming Island Mining Facility 11B-43QM. An amphibian infestation has halted operations. Bounty dispensed by Provincial governor offering 2 CCs per head and 50 CCs for total restoration of the mine. The deadline is July 10th, after which the PLA will assume control of operations. A cleric capable of Dispel Disease and Poison is essential."

By invoking the Glyph attached to each notice, the viewer may trigger the contact details of each quest.

Gwen tried to activate one of the glyphs to no avail, forcing her to step back and watch the others.

One Mage approached the board, read a notice, then tapped a card against the quest glyph. A small Mandala became visible, then the Mage passed the card through the glowing array and went his merry way.

My Adventure Permit! Gwen realised. She quickly materialised her card.

**Multi-Pass Adventuring Permit**

**Gwen Song**

**LOI::** China, Shanghai

**PPM:** 9840598 001

**Ethnicity** : Eurasian

**Eyes** : Hazel - Green

**Hair** : Black (Warm)

**Height** : 180CM

**Access** **Rank** : E

**Quest** **Attainment** : N/A

Gwen took another ticket and returned to the counter.

"Can I get my card updated here?"

"Of course, we can validate it for you via S-C Adventure Central Office. Do you have a few moments?"

Gwen nodded.

Gwen retrieved her card a quarter of an hour later. She noticed that there were now subtle changes.

**Multi-Pass Adventuring Permit**

**Gwen Song**

**LOI::** China, Shanghai

**PPM:** 9840598 001

**Ethnicity** : Eurasian

**Eyes** : Hazel - Green

**Hair** : Black (Warm)

**Height** : 181CM

**Access** **Rank** : E+

**Quest** **Attainment** : Hengsha Gila Rift (S)

Well, well, she was 1 CM taller, Gwen mused.

The attendant explained that the plus behind the E meant that though Gwen is not eligible for D-rank quests alone, she was considered proficient enough to join a party for D-rank quests. When she further inquired about what the Ranks implied, the clerk informed her that the Tower system ranked Mage's capabilities by reviewing their Quest completion and then assigning a hidden score that allowed one to rank up. Rank is tied to Spellcraft proficiency, naturally, but it is also a measure of one's problem solving, negotiation, charisma, and other abilities that aided in resolving a quest.

"Say, out of curiosity. Do you know a Mage called Marong? From the House of M?" Gwen enquired inconspicuously.

"Magus Marong?" the clerk mused. "The Poof and Puff? We know of him, yes."

"What rank is he?"

"A publically available data sheet is available for 1 CC, Ma'am."

"I just need an idea of what rank he is."

"The Puff Duo is renowned for Magus Marong's versatility," the clerk explained. "In Peking, the Magus had undertaken many quests successfully; his rank is B. I have a list of his feats and spell-list if you like, it's..."

"1 CC, I know," Gwen gave her thanks. "Thank you for your time."

"Happy to be of service!"

With all her errand done, she now had time to explore the campus a bit before returning to the lab.

Glancing at her fellow students' bright and happy faces, Gwen couldn't help but feel her heart soar for what was to come.

University! Tertiary Education! Mastery of Spellcraft!

Just four more days and her academic odyssey would begin!


Gwen laid out her timetable with Petra's help then took a deep breath. She had colour coded her classes and labelled her lab work in fluorescent green, blue, yellow and red. The periods she had left were her own, and the total number of hours of "me time" was a meagre three.

Gwen grimaced.

Her reprieve was that she had half a Saturday and most of her Sunday. The condition was, of course, that Magister Wen didn't suddenly feel compelled to perform additional tests or came into possession of a sudden breakthrough.

Thankfully, Magister Wen's interest had shifted toward longitudinal studies. Gwen was now required to report biometric measurements every odd week and provide the Magister with a supply of Void and Druidic mana every even week.

As for her classes themselves, Gwen was surprised to find herself alone. She had not expected to attend class with Petra, which would be wishful thinking; what surprised Gwen was that she did not share courses with Richard nor Mayuree either.

When her cousin returned from his Advisory board meeting, he informed Gwen that he would be starting second-year courses for Conjuration, which meant he no longer shared the same level of coursework as Gwen. It was a great boon, meaning Richard could begin specialising in six months. Likewise, Richard's second School was Abjuration, implying that four of his six Spellcraft courses were uninvolved with Gwen's Conjuration. As for the remaining two classes, Richard opted for Quest Credits, striking two birds with one stone by receiving instruction while earning money.

Unfortunately for Gwen, her cousin's acceleration meant that Richard only shared her General Courses, Management and Politics, which did not have mandatory attendance and only required students to pass written exams and a series of viva-voce.

Mayuree, likewise, had no choice but to follow the advice of her Professor, a scholarly Magister associated with the House of M. Though she had supposedly changed from Peking to Fudan, there was no way that her family would allow her to waste away her university hours. Unlike Gwen, her primary focus was Astral Theory, Divination, Divination Utility, and Supplementary Divination. Their only shared course was Transmutation Utility and the General Education courses.

Her first classes were Conjuration and Evocation, each taking up a three-hour block on the upper campus.

The instructor for Conjuration CJR1001 was unsurprising, Magister Louis Birch, the resident Master Conjurer. There were about sixty or so students in the first year lecture, and it was only then that Gwen realised the rarity of Conjurers.

When she attended Accounting 1001A in old-world Sydney, there were twelve hundred students in the first year. Gwen had at first thought she had wandered into some orientation class for the entire student cohort!

Conversely, there were only sixty-odd students in her Fudan first-year class. Assuming Conjuration went from 1001 to 3001, it meant that the whole Conjuration student body had at best 180 students and at worst 100.

Was 180 a significant number? Gwen had no idea. What was the attrition rate? That was the question on everyone's mind when they were on the Frontier.

According to her Master, what the Frontier lacked wasn't Mages, but Mages with the potential to be Maguses and Magisters. In this way, the Frontier was a dystopian magical Hunger Games. Those who survived won the resources and investment necessary to take them into the next tier from those who died.

Was she a survivor then? Gwen mused. She had survived a lot. She wasn't sure how her personal experience measured up against the others, but not many could boast of surviving an encounter with Sobel.

When she withdrew from her mind to reorientate herself, she felt distinctly the sensation of being watched.

There were a group of young men to her, stealing glances at her. A few girls up front also kept glancing back at her.

Was it the dress? Gwen wondered. Did she dress too frivolously?

Or did word get out that she was a Void Mage?

"Gwen Song!" The voice of Magister Birch called out across the auditorium.

"Sir!" Gwen stood, all six feet and then some in a loose-fitting spaghetti string dress from Singapore.

"Gwen Song, come to the front. You're distracting the other students," Magister Birch commanded.

"Yes, Sir." Gwen did her best to ignore the eyes burning holes in her back and descended until she reached the last aisle before the podium. It wasn't so much that she hadn't been gawked at before but that she had never been invited to be gawked at by a lecturer.

Satisfied, Magister Birch continued the lesson.

"Now that you're all focused—let's continue. Conjuration is considered the least diverse School of Magic, but don't let that fool you, for it is also one of the most versatile. Your tertiary study is nothing like your high school Spellcraft. You will be undergoing the general course under me, and then you will have to choose Specialisations in the second and third year. Whether you want to be a Creature Mage, a Summoner, a Translocation Specialist, Logistics Support, or remain generalised, that's up to you."

Birch's voice pleasant, his gestures broad and illustrative. Even with Gwen now seated at the front, it took him only a few minutes to persuade her audience that Gwen hardly existed.

Gwen relaxed. She had no desire to deal with a lecturer who wanted beef with her and would introduce her to the class as "Well, well, well, if it isn't Mr Harry Potter... the chosen one." Which was lucky, for the man did have an Alan Rickman air, especially if Birch could only make the hair darker and greasier.

Magister Birch continued while Gwen daydreamed.

"... or one could be a Translocation Mage. Observe." There was a flash of silvery Conjuration mana. Magister Birch rapped the inattentive Gwen on the head.

Another flash of Conjuration silver followed.

Her lecturer disappeared and reappeared at the furthest row of the enormous auditorium, slapped a sleeping student on the head.

The auditorium laughed.

"You too will be able to walk this Path if you are keen, diligent and hard-working."

Another near-instantaneous Dimension Door and Magister Birch was again at the dais.

"You are already the best, are you not?" Birch reminded his audience. "Study hard! Then study HARDER! Do not sully your entry scores. Welcome to Fudan, ladies and gentlemen. We expect only the best from you."

The auditorium applauded.

Louis Birch motioned for silence.

"Now, let's comb over the basics. I will randomly ask some of you to supply some basic information on the semantics of Conjuration—"

Fearful of further embarrassment, Gwen listened attentively to the responses provided by each of the selected students as Birch jotted down each point on a horizontal slat that projected what Birch transcribed onto the back wall.

"You there, answer this question on board."

"… the creatures are then transported through the Astral Plane into the material."

A student two rows above Gwen struggled to meet Birch's expectations.

The lecturer shook his head and told the student to sit down. His finger then lowered from the middle of the theatre until it rested on the lower row. Of course, there was only one person seated there.

"Gwen."

Was she the only person Birch knew by name? Gwen reflected annoyedly. Nonetheless, she stood, recalling the theory Petra had taught her, and Magister Wen explained in detail.

She took a deep breath.

Public speaking? That was like breathing to her.

"Familiars are essentially elementals, Sir. They do not exist except as a part of the Mage's anima, or subconscious psyche, spell-locked into a persistent phenomenon and nourished by the Mage's practice of magic. When conjuring such a creature, the spell directly interfaces with the Mage's most compatible Sigil—in this case, Conjuration, and then materialises in the Material World. For higher-order Familiars who possess their own Spirit, and by that nature, sapience, the morphic form locks onto the creature's anima. These are the only creatures that can exist independently from the Conjurer. Furthermore, when the Conjurer dies, these creatures continue to exist on the Material Plane, so long as they can sustain their Astral Presence."

"Enough. Very good." The Magister gave her a round of golf claps. "Continuing, onto the matter of the summoning of objects…"

Gwen sat down, once more the object of more eyes than she would have liked.

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"Hey, that's Gwen Song! Over here!"

When Gwen walked into the Evocation lecture two hours later, two young men and a woman waved their arms to get her attention. She recognised them from the Conjuration lecture and approached the trio with amiable congeniality.

"Olá." Gwen hailed with one hand. "You guys are from the Conjuration lecture."

The trio introduced themselves.

"Lily Li," the girl announced. She was the shortest of the bunch, measuring just over five feet and hailed from South-East China.

"Jon Wong"

"Pu Un"

The Conjurers exchanged handshakes.

"I love your dress." Lily sat next to Gwen, her eyes scanning Gwen like a biometric instrument. "Mao, you're a tall one!"

"Thanks, I am not that tall," Gwen replied modestly.

"So, Gwen, you're an Evoker too? What tier?" The man unfortunate enough to have a homonym of 'Poo' for a name enquired politely. Thankfully, in Mandarin, the plosive Pu was an entirely generic syllable.

"Three, barely," Gwen replied, woefully aware that she could have said zero and the boys would have still flattered her.

"Conjuration is technically my minor School; Evocation is my main," Pu pointed out smugly. "I am just past t-4 at the moment; tier 5 is probably going to take a while.

"I am tier 3 in both," Lily stated boastfully, then added a little zest to her brag. "My father is the Chief Arbitrator of the Jiading District."

"Wow." Gwen made herself sound awed, having no idea where Jiading was. For all she knew, it could be a rural village of ten thousand NoMs.

Thankfully, Lily seemed pleased with her response.

"How about yourself?" Gwen asked the remaining young Mage.

"I am not a Conjurer," Jon replied softly, blushing slightly and looking the bookish type. "I am tier 4 in Evocation, though. I am studying to be a Materials Engineer. My other School is Transmutation. I... I wasn't in the earlier class with you."

"Material Engineer sounds amazing." Gwen's smile was enough to turn the young man beetroot. "There's a great future in it for sure."

"We went to the same high school together," Lily informed her. "We're No 9."

When Gwen appeared confused, one of the boys helpfully informed her that Lily meant "No 9 Hong Qiao International School".

"Ah, of course." Gwen politely smiled as if she understood the gravity of the announcement. "From the same school, and all of you have gained proficiency in two Sigils? That's amazing."

"Heh, it's Hong Qiao's speciality." Pu scratched his head. "What element are you?"

Before Gwen could answer, the sound of a set of massive doors opening suddenly and loudly interrupted their conversation.

.

Abruptly, the student's conversations were at an end; their lecturer had presented herself.

The instructor for Evocation was a British woman in her late-thirties whose appearance hinted at a military background. From the poise of her walking gait and how her presence dominated the auditorium, she gave the air and bearing of a ranked officer. Gwen had seen many high-ranking Military Mages on the Frontier, and this woman had a similar presence.

Her hypothesis was proven when the instructor spoke.

“Acolytes, Mages, future Magus and Magisters. I am your instructor, Captain Carol Young. You may call me Captain Young or Magus Young."

The sorceress's formal attire, a starched blue blouse, gave Young the feeling of an unsheathed blade.

Magus Young's voice boomed across the auditorium.

"Welcome to Evocation—the foremost School of Spellcraft. From the most primitive days of humanity, it had served to protect us from the wilderness, the Wildlands, the Demi-humans and the Magical Beasts. Evocation is the Magic Missile that defeats the darkness. It is the basis by which our cities survive, the beginning and end of our defensive lines. It is the School of Spellcraft that rests at the throat of the enemy, ready to blow their brains outwards."

The students waited for a magical display, but none seemed forthcoming.

"My fellow Evokers - welcome to Evocation 1001."

Polite applause greeted the Magus' greeting.

"My Element is Earth. I am a Transmuter-Evoker, a senior Battle Mage."

Then gently, as if emphasising the gravity of her following words, Magus Young rose into the air a few inches.

"If you are studying Evocation to supplement your other schools, good for you. If you are studying Evocation as your major School of Magic or as a Specialist, I implore you to undertake Transmutation, at least Utility Transmutation UTT2003 taught by Magus Luo. A Battle Mage without mobility is a liability. Remember that."

Magus Young patrolled the lecture stage.

"For our program. We will begin by rehashing the basics, followed by an extensive program on AOE and the merits of Danger Close, how to avoid Friendly Fire, then short and long-range assault Doctrines. There will also be Spirit demonstrations from your Seniors in the latter half of the term, and finally, we will have practical exams every four weeks for the twelve-week term. You are expected to put between 5 to 10 hours of practice into the range during this time. Remember, you cannot enrol in Evocation Two subjects and further specialisations if you fail the program. Any questions?"

There were questions, of course. There were far more Evokers than Conjurers. The class was almost two hundred strong with an even spread of women to men and even two dozen foreigners.

A particularly cheeky young man asked if the instructor was married. The ageing woman had a sophisticated charm which Gwen suspected brought out the immaturity in the youngsters.

"Was. My husband was eaten alive by a Twin-Headed Senai Wyvern during the Defence of the Suez Canal in 93'. My son perished in the same year in the Sinai in a different incident. Any other questions?"

There was none.

Only respectful silence.

The reality of the world outside the T1 cities awaited all of them. Fudan was merely a temporary layer of protection against the unknowns of the Wildlands.

After that, the lecture proceeded without interruption.

With the first class of Evocation over, her new acquaintances invited Gwen to dinner. She declined, however, as her late afternoon schedule split between Petra's tuition and practice, not to mention Caliban's feeding time.

"Before we go, what element are you? We were interrupted earlier," Lily asked, then volunteered herself. "I am Fire."

"Void and Lightning," Gwen answered briskly, keeping her tone as calmly as possible.

"How nice!" Lily gushed.

"Oh." Pu's face paled.

Jon had no words.

Perhaps realising what Gwen had just said, Lily joined Jon's stunned silence.

"See you guys next week in Conjuration!"

Gwen quickly made her escape, materialising a shawl and wrapping it around her shoulders. Spring persisted, but the chilling wind as the sun fell hinted at wetter days to come.

"Tired?"

Petra tapped on her slate as Gwen's attention wandered for the second time. Her pupil was usually far more focused, but all things considered, Gwen did sustain six hours of lecture with only an hour of break in between.

"Dog-tired," Gwen replied, borrowing a phrase from Yue. "I think I dozed off when you started on the Astral compression algorithms."

"Take a break." Petra pointed at Gwen's mug of tea. "Heat!"

A simple cantrip was enough to reheat the liquid until it steamed.

Gwen took a sip and pulled her legs in under her.

"Our lecturer, Magus Young, said that her husband died defending the Suez Canal," Gwen noted from memory. She'd been daydreaming about the Magus' words since the lesson had ended.

The Suez Canal was such a famous piece of old world history that even Gwen knew it off by heart. It was built by the Suez Canal Company in 1869, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. Widely perceived as a miraculous feat of engineering, the canal offered vessels a reduction of over 7000 kilometres in connecting the North Atlantic and northern Indian Oceans. It had been and continues to be a critical piece of infrastructure joining the Middle East to Africa. Therefore, Gwen did not need a stretch of the imagination to acknowledge how vital the canal must be in a world lacking mass air transit.

"Magus Young? The Evocation Professor?"

"Yeah, do you know anything about that?"

"The Canal or the professor?"

"Both?"

Petra gathered her thoughts, took a few sips, then shared her knowledge with her inquisitive cousin.

"The Canal has always been a great point of contention between two ancient nations. You got Israel on one side and the Egyptians on the other. Both have lineage and Spellcraft far more ancient than ours, and they've been at war since the epoch of God-Kings."

"Right, and Magus Young?"

"Magister Young, your instructor's husband, was a part of the British Mageocracy Peace Keeping force sent by the U.N Council to ensure that the two sides could tear each other apart without tearing the canal apart. The Israelites are Golem specialists, while the Egyptians relied on, I suppose, their sanctioned form of Necromancy. During 93', the Israelites accused the Egyptians of crossing into the Sinai; then, they crossed over into Egypt themselves in response. As a result, all hell broke loose for a year or two down there. Then the Demi-humans, involving a Sect of the Cult of Ammit, a coven of Medusas, as well as local Legions of Jackal-men, all somehow got involved. Battle lines collapsed, and the Sinai became a free for all for about six months. After scouring the desert, the Israeli forces returned to Magus Young what was left of Magister Young's body to prevent certain parties from taking advantage. The body parts of a Magister was good material, and The Cult of Set has a reputation."

"Christ." Gwen genuinely felt for her instructor.

"As for the rest, her son died a few months later against an Undead incursion in the incident called the Siege of Ismailia in 94'. I think Young gave up on the Mageocracy after that. She travelled around for a while, ultimately ending up here as an instructor. I remember Master saying that she knew Dean Luo. Maybe they were colleagues in the past?"

Gwen nursed her tongue against the hot tea. "The poor woman."

"It's a common enough story." Petra rested her cup. "Maybe one day, you or I..."

"Knock on wood." Gwen rapped the oaken table, interrupting the morbid Petra. "Say no more."

The two shared a knowing smile as their eyes met.

"Had enough of a break? Let's continue," Petra urged her distracted pupil. "We've still got to cover 17.2 - 3 from Goulding's Core Primer. Three more chapters, and it's all over."

"Okay." Gwen slapped her cheeks with both hands, forcing herself to drop Magus Young's nonchalance from her mind. "Let's do this."


Tuesday.

Gwen was up again at 8 AM, ready to meet the world ahead. Richard was already gone, having left at daybreak for his Questing credits. Outside, a cloudy horizon hung over the vista, with looming clouds hinting at thunder.

Gwen took precautions by switching to her thrifted boots and jeans, then daringly chose an old tee that left a smidgeon of flesh exposed about her navel.

An exposed midriff.

A part of her felt ashamed, yet at the same time, she also felt thrilled and delighted by her second chance at youth.

Whatever her choice of attire, Bestiary and Care of Familiars took place down on the lower campus, south of Guoding Rd. According to Petra, Daishan Stadium tapped into a leyline that bisected the Guanhua Towers and the five-path epicentre of Wujiaochang. That was the reason for its tiered construction, a visual spectacle that reminded Gwen of latticed rice paddies as she descended the stairs into its daunting concavity.

Nearer the bottom, the arena's markings indicated that here was the home ground for the Fudan University teams, where various competitors vied for magical dominion across a dozen Spellcraft sports. Here was also where the final selection of the Fudan Inter-University team would take place. First, they would be shortlisted based on accomplishments and accolades. Then, the top twenty would undergo contests to ultimately produce five core and five reserve members to participate in the illustrious International Inter-University Competition.

Gwen's lesson took place in the arena's interior, within the containment array. Here, the facilities double-dutied in the off-season as holding pens for Summoned beasts and Familiars, allowing Creature Mages to perfect their skills and practice fending off various Magical Monsters.

Inside the spacious chamber, she saw a few familiar faces from Conjuration and new students who should be her seniors. As she entered the underground, an instructor arrived from the bay door where two vice-like steel panels unfurled, resembling a giant maw. The barrier was a bulkhead freight section—Gwen recognised the contraption from her journey to Singapore. Should the Force Shields fail, the steel bulkheads could significantly impede all but the most powerful of Elemental Familiars.

The instructor was a grizzled Asian man with a square face and small beady eyes glinting with intelligence. His distinguishing feature was a nose that was deformed and askew as if someone had struck its bridge repeatedly. Compared to a prideful Senior Mage, the shabby, dishevelled attire of Hufei reminded Gwen of an NoM machinist.

"My name is Instructor Chen Hufei," Chen introduced himself. "I am a simple Conjurer, not a Magus and certainly not a Magister, so no need for formalities. My highest rank in the PLA was as an NCO, so don't worry about that either."

A slight murmur echoed around the underground chamber.

"I have, nonetheless, served with the 42nd Battalion and 83rd PLA Canton Division across four tours and two Purges. Since retiring from the PLA, I held the position of Warden for the Canton Wildland Reserve for over two decades. Rest assured that the training you will receive is sound and tailored to your specific needs. Any questions?"

The room had no complaints.

"Good. For those in possession of Spirits, proceed to Sectors 5 - 12. I will be overseeing your training. For those of you with mundane Familiars, proceed to Sectors 22 - 27. Sergeant Pei will be overseeing your training."

The groups began to split. As Gwen expected, those with Spirits acted with justified arrogance.

"Is there a Gwen Song?" Chen called out suddenly.

"I am here, Sir," Gwen answered.

A dozen pairs of eyes from both sides centred upon her. Unconsciously, her hands moved across to cover her midriff. When gazed upon, her body was prideful, but her mind remained very self-conscious indeed.

"You're with this side."

"Yessir."

She peeled from the first group to expressions of confusion, disappointment and envy, then joined the second group, whose faces remained dismissive. No one would claim to be No. 1 in Spellcraft, but extreme competitiveness typified the academic field. In a nation of old rites and fathomless history like China with its Clans and Sects, the same truth was more explicitly than in the west.

There were five members within Gwen's new group, making her the youngest by far. They were four men and one girl. The girl Gwen recognised from her Conjuration class, which made the men Second or Third Years.

Gwen followed without complaint as the team made for Section 5.

Within the arena's underground, the sectors were simple micro-arenas closed off by bulkhead doors a dozen meters wide and four meters high, which ran parallel and perpendicular to the massive concrete pillars that held up the superstructure above.

"Alright, everyone, let's introduce yourselves." Hufei stopped, then stood like a drill sergeant.

Gwen's companions arranged themselves in chronological order by seniority. Once they were done, Gwen stood awkwardly at the back row, looming almost half a head taller than the tallest man present.

In reality, she was the same height as her instructor, but her ankle boots added another inch-and-a-half atop her gangly frame, giving her the likeness of a crane among bobbing chooks.

"Nihao! I am Ji Lu, I am a tier 5 Conjurer, and this is my Spirit partner, Ahu."

A burst of flames escaped the Mage's chest and formed a cat with intelligent eyes. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that the orange tabby was a tiger Spirit with great potential.

A round of golf claps echoed through the chamber.

"Hello, my name is Chan Baoguo. I am a tier 4 Conjurer and Tier 3 Transmuter; this is Feifei."

Following Lu's fire was water. Baoguo's animal was a water bird of some sort, mayhap a crane or a shallow-water stalker. The summoned crane obediently followed its Master and stood to the side, fully understanding its partner's orders.

The following student had an unassuming water Sprite as well. It would appear to Gwen that Water Spirits were the more common kind, but that came as no surprise; Earth was, after all, a blue planet.

Candidate No.4 announced himself with a burst of vibrant Blue-Green energy that leapt from his chest and frizzled the ceiling above them.

"Wanli!"

"Scree—!" The hawk's screech pierced their ears.

A Lightning Elemental! Gwen's bosom rose and fell with awe as the young man announced himself to be Lu Fung from the Nantong Fungs. Gwen recognised the Clan name, as it belonged to Dai, the inheriting son of the Police Commissioner of Shanghai's Metropolitan Security Bureau. Though she and Dai had since amicably resolved their differences, Gwen wondered if this particular Fung would recognise her.

Lu's Spirit Hawk soared through the air majestically before returning to him. Gwen wanted to whistle. Now there was a proper Spirit of Thunder and Lightning! Once the crackling lightning faded, they could see that the creature was a sparrowhawk.

Wanli, whose name meant 'ten thousand li', alighted on its Master's shoulder, making Gwen coo with desire.

"Eunae, your turn," the instructor implored the girl in front of Gwen.

The quiet girl nodded palely, likewise intimidated by the display put on by Lu's hawk.

"My name is Eunae Lee, and this is Luyi!"

A mote of pale emerald energy manifested in front of the girl as something akin to a fig tree materialised, first forming four legs, a lumbar, then a slender neck, a tail, liquid eyes, then a black, pointed nose.

It was a deer! Gwen gasped—one that was beyond adorable! The forest Spirit then looked upon its surroundings with eyes sparkling with intelligence, radiating a warm radiance Gwen long missed.

A nature Familiar! The girl, this Eunae, possessed a Sprite just like Elvia!

"Luyi…" the girl cuddled the deer's neck.

"Eeee!"

Her familiar struggled from its Master's embrace and bolted right toward Gwen.

"Luyi!" Eunae's eyes filled with fear as the flesh of her flesh, the quintessence of her Conjuration, the child of her imagination and her contracted soul mate, abandoned her and ran head-first into Gwen's legs. Upon reaching Gwen, it began to nuzzle her, seeking the source of Gwen's mana.

Gwen looked up with a horrified expression at the poor girl, who was now on the verge of tears.

'Luyi' gazed up at Gwen with its soulful brown eyes, too human to belong to a mere beast, and made a puckering motion with its lips.

"I know you got it. Give it up! Hoss!" it seemed to say to her.

No! Your Master is watching! Gwen grimaced at the forest-friendly critter tried to bedevil her into yielding a trickle of her Druidic essence.

"Go back to your owner," Gwen urged the creature.

The faux wood-doe bleated adorably at her. It then rudely nudged her thigh gap.

The men snickered.

Gwen swore under her teeth, and bodily picked up the doe, much to the dismay of Eunae, then dragged it across the concrete to deposit it in its owner's lap.

"Keep a leash on your Familiar," Gwen reprimanded the Conjurer sternly.

"Y-yes!" The girl nodded furiously, stroking her precious Spirit-doe.

Now that Gwen had taken a better look at Eunae, she could see that her classmate was actually Korean in her appearance and not just name.

"It would appear your lack of authority over your Spirit is as serious as your instructors say," Instructor Chen observed dryly. He then turned to Gwen. "Miss Song, if you would finish the introductions?"

Gwen left Eunae and found a safe spot far away from the others.

She then moved another ten paces or so away.

"She must have a big Familiar," someone commented.

"How big can it be?" Another one of her peers scoffed.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"She's not a Spirit Conjurer, right?"

"Heh, I bet she's got connections higher up. That's why the instructor is personally taking care of her," Lu Fung said sardonically.

No one had humanoid Spirits, Gwen observed as she primed her body. Richard's Undine must be a dream.

"You may proceed." Instructor Chen glanced at the other students with an expression of expectant schadenfreude. If so, Chen must have gone over her records already.

"Ariel!"

Gwen called out her Lightning beast. The marten materialised, rolled, then struck a pose. It then sniffed the air and ran toward her, making infinity tracks around her legs as it joyously celebrated rapturous freedom.

"Haha! What the hell?!" Lu could be heard chuckling from across the threshold.

"It's a mundane marten!"

"A common beast!"

"Wait, it is not a Spirit?"

"It looks altered, though. It's got horns."

"Doesn't change the fact that it's a dumb animal. Haha, what a waste of talent!" Lu snickered.

Gwen blushed annoyedly at the insults and called Ariel to her. She scooped up the marten in her arms and kissed it on its forehead.

Eunae, meanwhile, became even more confused. Why did her Familiar run to Gwen? Was likely the thought haunting the girl as she held onto Luyi tightly, her eyes full of incomprehension.

Instructor Chen made a motion that said, get on with it.

Gwen stepped back.

"Caliban!" she called out.

A slit opened in-between time and space.

"What the f-"

"She has two?"

"Impossible!"

A long, spindly leg cut through the air before stabbing into the concrete floor. Another soon joined the first, then another and another, forming a cluster of disjointed, anorexic fingers searching for nourishment. As a walking nightmare, Caliban emerged in its wholly uncensored Lovecraftian glory. Her Familiar's back-carapace pulsed like a beating organ as it walked, its semi-translucent plates of obsidian bleeding ambiguous grey goo as it flexed. When the final length of its tail emerged into the Material Plane, it extended a pair of blue-red tentacles from its slurping underside and caressed Gwen's cheeks.

"Wocao, that's fucking magnificent," Instructor Chen applauded her beast. "What a Buddha-cursed monster! It's like something that crawled out of the nine-fold underworld."

Following the instructor's comment, a moment of complete silence hung in the air, humming with the tension of a taut violin string.

Then all hell broke loose.

“MAO’S BALLS!”

“RED STARS!"

“CAONINAINAI!”

The junior Mages took a defensive stance and even manifested their Shielding spells; their Familiars stood at their sides, ready to defend their Masters.

"Luyi!" Eunae's doe bolted right into its mistress and bowled her over, then fled the scene, sprinting across the hall in full gallop.

Lu Fung's Sparrowhawk rose to the air and bellowed a challenge, sending out a shower of sparks. The Mage himself had turned as pale as a ghost but kept up his guard even though his knees grew noodly.

"Shaa—SHAA?" Caliban sensed, as Gwen had, the delicious mana radiating off Eunae.

Click—Click-Click—Click—

It began to skitter toward the Korean healer for a closer inspection. Caliban might not possess a brain, but Gwen felt that Cali might have mistaken Eunae for someone like Sufina, who had fed it sumptuous feasts of mana.

Instructor Chen muttered an incantation under his breath but did not move to stop her Familiar.

"Caliban, stop!" Gwen commanded her creature. "Hey! Cali! I said stop!"

She felt no malice nor hunger from Caliban and pulled at her creature half-heartedly as it dragged her along toward the shaking Eunae. Downwind, the poor girl fell onto her buttocks and desperately called for her Familiar.

"Luyi!" Luyi appeared before Eunae in a flash of silver Conjuration. "Luyi! Protect me!"

Luyi took one look at Caliban, then fled the scene like a bandit on a fast horse, or deer, as the case may be. To the discerning viewer of Gwen's world, the setting reminded her of the infamous video in which a mother doe abandons its fawn to a cheetah with the decisiveness of a meth dealer fleeing the cops.

"Luyi…" Eunae's face was a mess of snot and tears as Caliban approached, likely praying to a higher power she would not soil herself.

Gwen understood the girl's troubles well, thereby feeling the greatest sorrow and sympathy for herself and her victim.

"No! No!" The girl was shouting in Korean.

"SHAA—SHAA—!" Caliban did not know Korean.

Gwen slapped Caliban on its cephalothorax, bidding it to back away before the girl became permanently deaf, dumb and insensible.

"Caliban!" Gwen enforced her will.

"Feather Shard!" Lu Fung commanded his Familiar.

The attack came out of nowhere. Even as the other three junior Conjurers relaxed, realising that the monstrous vision was no danger, Fung had entirely lost his cool.

Perhaps the Master of Wanli had not thought Caliban's skittering approach was benign; maybe the induced hysteria had overwhelmed his shuddering will, but the reality remained that Lu Fung opened up a barrage from his Spirit hawk.

A deadly, long-range AOE Lighting assault that Caliban could withstand, Gwen could dodge, but not Eunae.

"Caliban, help her!" Gwen commanded. Unlike other elemental Familiars, Caliban's physical form regenerated so long as she provided the vitality. Therefore, unlike her fellow Creature Mages, she needn't worry about Caliban's health.

Her creature needed no coaxing to protect the healer. The Void-spider lumbered over Eunae with supernatural haste and flared out its carapace. Below, Eunae came vis-a-vis with an unmitigated view of Caliban's second mouth, where a slit opened to reveal a lamprey's mouth with multiple tentacles, each with independent mouths, all waving at her.

As the shards of bladed lightning rained down around the beast and the beauty, Caliban reported that the Korean girl had fallen unconscious.

"Idiot!" Instructor Chen finally took action invoked his Familiar even as he swore at the Fung's scion. "Huonu!"

A stench of rotten eggs and brimstone filled the air as a massive three-pronged claw reached out from thin air and seized the hovering lightning-hawk, sending it crashing into the ground. A pulsating mass of scaly flesh followed, crimson with flowing magma and smoking with ash and sulphur.

The gathered students opened their mouths in awe. Their fear of the Caliban thing became momentarily forgotten as they witnessed the full fury of an upper-middle tier Spirit Familiar—a Magma Salamander.

Gwen saw that Chen's partner was no common Spirit. A true Salamander possessed not the amphibious likeness of a creature in-between frog and newt, but a half-humanoid giant with a female upper body and the lower body of a snake, akin to that of the Greco-Lamia. From her Master's vague lessons, Gwen knew that these Salamanders were citizens of the Elemental Plane of Fire, living in colonies in a place called the Brass City.

Before Gwen's feelings of awe extinguished, Chen's Familiar completely overpowered the Lightning-Hawk. Then, as quickly as it had manifested, Huonu faded from the scene, leaving behind globs of magma and an unbearable stench of sulphur.

"Wanli!" Lu Fung glared at the instructor in shame and fury. Gwen winced, for the Familiar would likely take weeks to restore.

"Intemperate fool!" Instructor Chen howled at the cadet. "All of you! Attention!"

The lucid students quickly stood to attention. The three who stood ramrod straight had seen military duty and presented themselves for inspection. Gwen helped Eunae to her feet but couldn't stop her sobbing. Meanwhile, Lu stared defiantly with barely contained rage at his instructor.

Instructor Chen nodded approvingly at the three seniors but then turned upon the girls and the inconsolably furious Lu.

"You three are the worst Creature-Conjurers I have never seen!"

"How dar— _Oof!"_

Instructor Chen punched the air before him, and two meters away, Lu Fung fell to the floor and discharged the contents of his breakfast.

"Shut UP, shit stain!" The militant instructor's voice was like a thunderclap. "This is your last warning. Another strike, and you are out of my class. I will personally see to it that Fudan removes you from its roster. Do you understand?"

"I- I understand-" Lu spat between gritted teeth.

"What was that?!"

"I UNDERSTAND! Sir!" Lu shouted back at the instructor.

"Now stand back up and act like a man, you boot scum! Do you think you're top dog because you have a mid-tier Spirit? Think again, worm! Your Clan bought you that Thunder Hawk. You did not tame it! You did not fight for it! You did not scale the twenty-thousand steps of Kunlun's Evergreen Peak to steal the egg from the Heaven-Splitting Crag! You're nothing without your Clan!"

Lu remained standing, inflated by nought but the sheer force of his indignation.

"You don't even know how to control your hawk's ability! You can't aim the AoE! It cannot even identify friend or foe! What a waste of a beautiful Spirit on a piece of amphibian shit."

Eunae stood shaking and shivering no more than a dozen meters beside the screaming instructor, while Gwen had commanded Caliban to skitter away quietly and hide behind her. Ariel, meanwhile, dug into her T-shirt and quaked with terror.

As expected, the Spirit healer was the instructor's next victim.

"Where is your Familiar, Miss Lee?"

Eunae looked at the instructor as though he had demanded she strip down and give birth; her face was equal parts incomprehension and stunned terror.

"WHERE IS YOUR FAMILIAR?! CONJURER?"

"Luyi!!" Eunae wailed helplessly, summoning her Familiar once again. The girl was in tears again, crying out for her Familiar to appear while trying to retract her bubbling snot. When finally her doe materialised, it took one look at the instructor and turned to flee.

"Luyi," the instructor said in a voice filled with command. "Luyi, stay."

To their surprise, the skittish doe dropped to one knee.

"Do you want to protect Eunae, Luyi?" Instructor Chen spoke calmly and softly.

Luyi bobbed its head vigorously.

"Then you can't let her fear affect you, okay? I know that's how Empathic Link works, but you have to know that you're stronger than your mistress. You're her protector. Do you understand?"

Luyi nodded again. That was the thing with Spirits. They understood human speech, and they understood human empathy.

"Okay, you're a good girl, aren't you?"

Luyi licked the old Conjurer's hand.

Instructor Chen rapped Eunae's forehead.

"You have much to learn."

"Y-yes, Sir!" Eunae's head bobbed like a drinking bird.

Gwen was just about to smile when her half-formed grin froze on her face.

Instructor Chen turned toward her.

_Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!_ Her inner dialogue crapped itself.

"They told me to take special care of you." Chen approached Gwen until he was no more than two inches from her. She could still smell the sulphur on his skin, feel the heat radiating from the Magma Mage like a glowing furnace. She had to circulate a thimble of Lightning mana to resist the pressure he was exerting upon her. "Your link with your creatures are untempered, and that makes them a danger to yourself and your allies."

"I am sorry, Sir! I will take greater care with my Familiars in the future!"

Chen looked past Gwen at the massive spider-thing behind her.

"Caliban, come here!" he commanded.

Surprisingly, Caliban came.

"Caliban. Sit!"

The scorpion-spider thing roosted itself until its belly touched the floor.

Gwen's lips formed an 'O'.

Instructor Chen produced two raw, uncut fragments of mana crystals and offered them to Caliban. The creature extended two tendrils and retrieved both pieces, then fed them into its maw, crunching them luxuriously as it enjoyed the burst of raw mana infusing its body.

"Gwen, tell it to return to its lesser form," the instructor told her.

"Caliban, Serpent!"

Caliban focused on its meal instead.

"You also have much to learn." Instructor Chen shook his head. "How did you manage to tame this creature? I find it difficult to believe that it would have come to you naturally. It is too powerful, too wilful and far too volatile."

"It's a long story, Sir."

"Next time then." Instructor Chen patted Caliban on the forehead of its faceless carapace and retreated from them. Gwen produced a piece of LDM and fed Ariel sneakily under her shirt, for Ariel had seen the instructor provide for its half-brother and was wondering if it too should take on the role of the troublemaker. After all, it appeared that Caliban got rewarded for harassing the Mage with the familiar scent.

Instructor Chen returned to the bulkhead entrance of the section.

"Your task!" Instructor Chen announced. "Is to temper the connection to your Familiars. Get them to remain in the Material Plane! You will eat with them. Sleep with them. Go to class with them. They will become a part of you, and you a part of them! They will not be unsummoned until you are OOM!"

There were groans all around, but Gwen had to regard the nightmarish bulk of Caliban with alarm.

Eat with Cali? Sleep with Cali? GO TO CLASS WITH CALI?


Thankfully, Instructor Chen meant that they would "soon" have to bear the burden of living with their Familiars. Of course, the students could choose to refuse, but that would imply taking a significant hit to their Academic Record.

Once the roller coaster of emotions wounded to a halt, the student came to see the rationality of such a seemingly unreasonable request. For the vast majority of Frontier Conjurers, a Familiar was a tool, a thing, a resource. Chen's suggestion was akin to taking one's favourite mallet to class, lunch, and bed.

Instead, Chen wanted them to see that their faithful companions were extensions of their bodies. Unfortunately for many young Mages present, when Lady Fortuna dribbled her lucky olive oil and gave them a Familiar, she did not concurrently bestow wisdom or experience.

As such, A Familiar that was too intelligent, willful, or dominant may be less valuable than a dumb one. All Familiars were ultimately constructs of mana given animus and will by the Conjurer. They were tirelessly loyal but highly subject to the repressed emotions of the caster. Exhibit A was Luyi, a Spirit that was intelligent and fully sapient. Unfortunately, its owner was a nursery flower that couldn't control her emotions, which made Luyi a danger to herself and others.

While Gwen observed the others and considered her lack of merits, the instructor continued.

"To wield your Familiar with absolute trust, all you need is a decade of common experiences, eat together, sleep together under the stars, bath together in the blood of your enemies..."

A few of the braver students laughed.

"But, as we're no longer in the 70s and you're all scions of your precious Houses and Clans, we can't throw you into the trenches just yet. The academic board doesn't want to risk your precious lives. Your mummies and daddies would have our skins if you were to have a limb gnawed off by a Ghast. You're the special spark that keeps your Clan's inbred bloodline boiling. Thereby, you'll be given a milk run—to keep your Familiars out in public."

Ouch, Gwen winced at Chen's depreciative insults. She also liked the man's candidness. It wasn't every day one met a man who gave no two shits about the Young Masters and Mistresses of the city.

"THIS—is what you will need. For the duration of the course, it will be on LOAN to you."

Instructor Chen introduced the students to what he called a Sustenance Bangle, a magical device that allowed one to keep Familiars out and about in docile form when worn. The moment a Familiar becomes aggressive or hostile, the bangle's circuit-break triggers and the Familiar is banished. To pass the course, the students must keep their Familiars out and about for at least seven days.

"Why seven days?" Lu Fung asked carefully, nursing his abdomen. Gwen couldn't help but be impressed by the man's ability to pack away his ingrown arrogance so quickly. Like Dai, the young man knew when to kneel. Perhaps that was the secret to the Fung Clan's success.

"Because you're all tit-sucking man-children," Instructor Chen informed them, making Lu's jaws clench. "During the Siege of Tianjin in '91, we Conjurers had to keep fighting for three weeks. If you can't keep a leash on your Familiars for even seven days, you can forget about sending them into the battle line alongside other Mages. What would happen if your precious Spirit berserks or causes friendly fire during an encirclement? Forget about being a Creature Conjurer. Go and work on your Spatial Magic or learn to Summon spell-fodder. Be a freight-Conjurer and work on your Teleportation. Either you learn, or you'll be wasting the lives of your Spirit Familiars."

It took another ten minutes for the rant to conclude.

Raising her hand, Gwen asked if it was necessary for her, who did not possess a Spirit, to undergo the same training.

"Your control of your Familiars is abysmal." Chen shook his head critically at her. "For you to pass my course, there are two requirements. One, control your damn Familiars. They don't move a muscle without your express consent. Two, get your Familiars to work together; otherwise, you're just wasting your talent. You possess two elements! Do you even understand that? Dean Luo has especially asked me to take care of you, understand?"

"Yessir!" Gwen half bowed, half curtsied to affirm the instructor's intentions. She promised to do whatever was needed to gain total control over her Familiars.

"I'll be honest with you." Chen shrugged. "Never seen a Void beast before, don't even know if it's intelligent. Caliban acts like it is, but you never know. Just be careful, alright? Keep a tight leash on the thing even when you have your bangles."

Gwen solemnly promised Ariel and Caliban would act in good faith.

Instructor Chen turned to the rest of the group.

"No more complaints? Very well then. Your extra-curriculums begins next week. In the meanwhile, we're going to go through some Master-Familiar bonding routines. Each of you, take a room."

When they'd finally escaped from the Daishan Stadium, it felt as though a day and night had passed.

Gwen felt physically and existentially exhausted, though reality informed her she still had Advanced Spell Shaping in the afternoon.

Feeling in need of a pick-me-up, Gwen called Mayuree to see if she was available for a Luncheon. Her eager friend informed her that she could be and met her half an hour later, huff and puffing, at University Boulevard.

Unexpectedly, they had a third wheel.

"Hi, Kitty." Gwen waved at the dual-elemental Mage in possession of Ice and Air. Unlike Gwen, Kitty Liang was the true winner of the LCSS full scholarship and a genuine rival for the IIUC placements.

"Gwen." Kitty inclined her chin. Perhaps because of her affinity with two elements known to produce aloof personalities, Gwen felt Kitty existed on a higher plane. When Kitty did speak, Gwen felt as though she was talking to a doll with a quiet and wispy voice, like the sound of wind whistling through the willows.

The three found a trendy faux-Victorian joint for Afternoon Tea.

Mayuree took a sandwich.

Gwen took a plate of sandwiches.

Kitty watched the other two eat while her petite fours thawed.

"You need to eat, Hon." Gwen regarded the girl. Under her simple skirt, Kitty possessed arms and legs like sticks frail enough to be blown away by a stiff breeze.

"I ate earlier. I just wanted to spend some time with Mia," Kitty replied airily. "You go on ahead."

Gwen quickly ate her plate of sandwiches, then polished off three tiers of the tea set, scones and all.

As a result of Caliban's present fullness, Gwen no longer felt the dizzying yearning for nourishment. But so long as she exercised her Void abilities, her body craved food and energy. Although the pleasure of delicious deserts could not compete with the existential satisfaction of Caliban's Consume, they blunted the edge of her hunger.

Besides them, Kitty watched her eat with an expression between horror and awe.

Perhaps to distract herself, Kitty engaged Mayuree in discussing her classes and instructors. Kitty had a room at the apartment, but she seldom slept over.

"There are only six people in my class," Mayuree said happily. "I guess there are not that many high-affinity Diviners even in Fudan."

"Mao helps us if everyone starts predicting the future," Kitty made a joke. "I am in the opposite position. Even in Transmutation 2021, there's over a hundred of us."

2021! Gwen's ears perked up. That's a second-year course. Both Kitty and Richard were way ahead of her in their Majoring School of Magic. For so long, she was so pleased with having access to multiple Schools of Magic, and now she was comparatively behind in all of them.

Gwen listened to the girl' banter for another half an hour or so, nursing her Earl Grey and resting her mind. When the last dollop of cream was gone, she 'shouted' her mob the luncheon, then left for her Advanced Spellshaping.

Advanced Spellshaping took place in the upper campus not far from the Henglong building.

There were about a hundred students who attended the theoretically-aligned lecture. Their instructor was a handsome Magister called Michio Lee, a Singaporean expatriate who specialised in advanced Spellcraft algorithms. When Gwen eavesdropped on the girls sitting up front, she heard that Lee was from a family similar to Mayuree's House, the fourth son of a Frontier trade Consortium based in the fabled Fortress City.

The first half of the lecture was mainly introductory fanfare. Lee spoke about the importance of having a metaphysical understanding of Spellcraft to create unique Signature Spells. He also outlined the immutable triangle of Spellcraft lore: the trifactor between Elemental Mana, School of Magic Sigils, and the Physical Body as the Triumvirate controlling the Arcane arts.

Spells and Incantations, stated the Magister, were formulas that the predecessors of Spellcraft had left their descendants. Yet, as with bloodlines and primordial fauna, there was great potential in looking backwards for ancient, druidic, and even Demi-human arcanistry to find forgotten laws of causation and effect that humanity's predecessors had used to shape the elemental forces.

"Often, we grow too obsessed with looking ahead, failing to see that so much of what we thought and sought as new knowledge—are instead forgotten by history, hidden by conflict, stolen and hoarded by Clans, Sects, and the Religions."

Lee's accusation did not seem to align with at least half the cohort's view of the world; Gwen even saw a few students filing out of the lecture as the instructor grew more radical.

"Think of China's Undead Incursions every Winter in the North East," Lee said sagaciously. "We fear the Undead, we loathe Necromancy—but so what?"

The lecture grew silent.

"Are we not the architects of Necromantic Magic? You and I, humans, are the ones who first raised the dead! In Egypt, the Cult of Anubis first reigned supreme under their God-King Pharaohs! Narmer! Khufu! Khafre! Each was peerless in their Necromantic craft. In our nation of the Central Kingdom, the Great Emperor of Qin, Ying Zheng was the Ruler of all under heaven; his tomb remains the greatest mausoleum known to humanity - the burial palace of a Necromantic God who sought to rule forever!"

More students left the lecture.

"The ancient teachers of Magecraft," continued Lee. "Promised impossibilities and performed miracles, shackled dragons and tethered demons. These modern masters transmuted life and formalised the rules to create the chimaera that we call Spellcraft. Thanks to human knowledge, we have penetrated the recesses of the Wildlands and hunted the Demi-human in her most secret hiding-places. They ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the mana circulates and the secrets of the Astral Soul. They have acquired new and almost unlimited powers, mimicked creation, and mocked the invisible worlds of Positive and Negative Energy!"

Murmurs of agreement floated from the upper lecture hall.

"But I digress." Lee laughed, ignoring his students. "Necromancy is forbidden. The point—is that Spells are not arcane constructs confined in textbooks to be aped. All magic is a result of experimentation and hypothesis. Do not be afraid to test your limits. Break the rules now and then. In this world, you and I are all explorers. Those ancient Mages could find the tipping point of life and death through their curious enquiry of the world around them, so it should be no trouble for you too, to find new and novel ways to wield your magic for the benefit of humankind."

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The auditorium offered scattered applause as Magister Lee finished his lecture and retrieved the projection crystal he used to show the students historical anecdotes of magical experimentation and discovery.

Gwen felt well instructed by the two-hour session, so much that she was still thinking about it when she finally arrived at the apartment, opening the door to find Petra watching the news.

"Hey." Gwen walked over to the couch.

Petra was bundled up in towels, waiting for her hair to dry.

"How was your day?" Petra asked, stretching out her toes.

"Oh—Pats." Gwen made a long face before leaning heavily into the armrest. "Where to begin?"

Wednesday.

Gwen underwent Supplementary Conjuration with Magus Kumiko in a class of about twenty students, practising the basics repeatedly to train for efficiency, consistency and proficiency. She then had a follow-up session with Petra, who aided her in consolidating the knowledge she had picked up throughout the week.

"Well done! I'll be at the lab tonight, so don't wait for me." Petra surprised Gwen with her absentee notice.

"Sure you don't want to grab a bite?" Gwen asked. It was almost six PM.

"Got data to collate and reports to write." Petra lifted herself from the bench. "I have an errand for Master as well. I'll be home late."

"I can bring you food," Gwen offered.

"No, no. Go rest. Big day of classes tomorrow as well."

"It's just Gen-Ed."

"Which I know you love. Professor Ma is presiding. Go on; I'll be fine."

Gwen bid her cousin good night, then retreated from the lab. She may be a part of Wen's cosy little study group, but Gwen knew she wasn't a part of the team but instead its test subject. Even now, Gwen had no idea what the scholar was doing with two Cubes full of Void Matter and Druidic Essence each fortnight and chose not to ask. All she could do was have faith that her allies were wise enough to not slaughter the golden goose for the malformed eggs in her oviduct.

Once she was out, her mind shifted toward dinner.

In all honesty, Gwen didn't want to eat out by herself. Her Caucasian-ness drew as much unwanted attention as her appetite, which when combined, became a spectacle. There was a seafood buffet on University Boulevard, and the one time she ate there, she had inadvertently recreated Homer Simpson's infamous display in the 'The Frying Dutchman'.

She could eat home, but there was nothing but instant ramen at home. Neither of the girls was remotely good at housework, and as such, the fridge had nothing but a few pieces of ageing fruit, water, some juice and a slab of mouldy bread, which she should throw away before it became her third Familiar.

Gwen gnawed her lips and considered her options, finally raising her Message band and punching in a Glyph.

"Hey Mia, it's me, Gwen."

"Yeah, listen, er… Have you had dinner yet?"

"No, no, I am just downstairs."

"Can I? That's wonderful!"

"Okay, I'll be up in twenty!"

Perfect! She thought to herself. Free dinner. Just her and Mia in the privacy of their own homes. There may be a stone-faced Kitty presiding beside them, but that was a risk she was willing to take.

Gwen's grin froze.

The pixie girl wasn't home, but Marong was.

The man didn't technically even live at the apartment. But why was he so omnipresent whenever she came around?

"Magister Lee's an interesting guy." Marong drew a serpent in the air with this smoke and watched it swim through space in front of his eyes. Earlier, Gwen had told Mayuree about her day—but Marong did not recuse himself from their girl's night-in.

Above the dinner table, Gwen watched the serpent arch its back until it looked like a rainbow stretched across two smokey landscapes. Silently, she sipped her cranberry juice. Was Marong trying to hint at something, or was his 'display' merely a coincidence? The Rainbow Serpent incident during the Black Sun event was common knowledge by now, but only her Sister and Brother-in-craft knew of her involvement.

Dinner itself had been a pleasure, consisting of meat and three veg and heirloom mushrooms. Marong had eaten a small portion of his steak, then contemplatively watched Gwen deliver piece after piece of bloody flesh to her lips. When Gwen began to glance over at his plate, the Smoke Mage told the maid to make her another portion.

Later, Gwen furthermore polished off Mayuree's serving.

"Michio Lee is famous for being an oddball, but he means well," Marong responded to Gwen's curious enquiry about dredging up the 'hidden knowledge' the Clans and Sects for the betterment of the greater Spellcraft community. "He's also from Singapore, so he's more Mageocracy than CCP, you get me?"

"What are the Sects hiding, though? Signature Spells? Never-before-seen Arcana? Forbidden magic?" Gwen asked.

Marong watched her face.

Gwen felt a little heat touch her cheeks.

Marong followed her gaze until it landed on Lei, their servant, in the middle of preparing desert.

"Any Clan or Sect worth its weight has secrets." Marong scratched his brows to hide his misjudgement of her interest. "Mia and I are members of one of those 'Clans' your instructor despises so much. I can inform you that we have secrets, big ones, but nothing to the degree of Unique Schools of Magic."

"Does such a thing exist?"

"Of course, they 'exist'." Marong chuckled cooly. "Let me give you an example. Years ago, I had a Senior in Tsinghua who could cast a form of body enhancement that allowed him to leap several meters at a bound, walk on walls, and balance on tree branches as thin as your fingers. Think about what you would need to achieve the same thing. Spider Climb, Jump, Adhere and Enhanced Dexterity, to name a few, and that's assuming you could parkour. You know what parkour is?"

Gwen nodded.

"My Senior was a Jianshi, or Wushi, depending on your dialect. He refused to participate in the IIUC, but if he had, Tsinghua might not have lost."

A Wushi? Like in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Gwen felt a strange thrill trying to imagine a Mage scaling walls while swinging a sword, finding the vision as ridiculous as it was enticing.

After all, when a monster like Elizabeth Sobel could drain the life out of a city with ten million souls, what use were Romantic notions of close combat? It was the difference between a special forces unit and a WMD. Swordsmen had their applications, of course, as assassins perhaps, but wouldn't the other side also have an equal and oppositional force to defend their VIPs?

A Jianshi made good storytelling, of course, not to mention fantastic propaganda, but they were hardly conducive to the outcome of a significant regional conflict. Mao certainly did not take China from the dynastic Clans by swinging his sword arm.

"Lee also went on about Necromancy," Gwen continued. "Do you know anything..."

"That's a topic best left well alone outside of academia," Marong warned her with a wave of his hand. "Pretty much everything north-west of Xian is gone to the dead. And yes, Humans did it."

"But Lee said-"

"His opinion is hardly original. Don't you think people thought of that already? That only the Undead could fight the Undead? That we should be developing Necromancy ourselves?"

"Why can't China turn back the tide with its current forces? The news said we're holding steady and slowly progressing westward."

Marong chuckled.

Gwen was well aware she had been watching too many propaganda vid-casts, but to laugh at her was just rude.

"Because they're the Undead!" Marong laughed, taking a toke on his cigarette and allowing the smoke to add to the constructed scenery, which now resembled the Great Wall. "This is not a war the PLA can win without opening itself to bigger problems down the road from the American and the British Mageocracy. Can the Chinese win? Probably. What's left after 'we' win? Not much. If they take Manchuria and North Korea, they'll lose their most precious advantage—the sheer volume of Mages they possess."

"There isn't enough Mages in China of all places?"

"Think about it; China has got a few million NoM soldiers and about six thousand Mages up at the Northern Front. The Public Information Bureau says around 12 million Undead or so, not including their Magic Casters. Now, where do you think the 12 million bodies come from?"

"From graves?" Gwen said.

Marong shook his head and gave Gwen a look with his darkly lined eyes that said, "Oh, you sweet summer child."

"From us!" Marong chortled suddenly. "There wasn't even that many people in all of China when the Qin mausolea dug into the earth! The number of Undead sealed to serve the old Emperor would number no more than ten thousand, maybe twenty thousand! Now there's 10 - 12 million! There's no more than a few hundred thousand even with a dozen tombs. And Lichs? Draugs? Spectres? Wraiths? Death Knights? A few hundred at best. Now they number in the tens of thousands."

Marong snorted sardonically.

"It's us. Don't you see? The more living there are, the more become fodder for the Undead. The only way to stop the Undead..."

Marong left the rest to her imagination. Above the Mage, the smoky Great Wall collapsed into nothing.

"It's best to think of it the Undead incursion as a natural disaster, like Mermens," the Smoke Mage advised. "To be honest, it's best not to dwell. The threat is contained; that all the PLA is willing to do."

Gwen wanted to ask more about this 'threat', but Marong seemed disinclined to discuss the matter further.

"Do we have to participate in this defence?" Gwen changed topics toward something closer to home.

"Goddess, I hope not." Mayuree made a face.

"Fighting the Undead makes for a good career boost for the PLA and the CCP track if you're a free Mage. However, there's not much merit in dying for the government for the Clans and Sects. As for participation, Tower Mages are exempt from conscription, if that's what you mean."

"There's conscription?" Gwen's voice lowered an octave.

"For the NoMs, of course," Marong's voice droned on. "Gaps need filling, no? Humanity is trying to stop a flood, after all. There's a lot of bodies lying around, which is both the solution and the problem."

Marong motioned to the distant horizon where they could see NoM habitat-blocks rising toward the heavens like swords stabbing into the sky.

Gwen thought of the supersized apartment blocks with their underground facilities, mini hive-cities, all of them, where the NoMs made their living. Conscription? She should've known. If the country needed to supply the frontlines with bodies, how could she see those NoM structures as a socialist government doing the best for its non-magical citizens?

Suddenly, the air around her grew suffocating. Her thighs prickled, spontaneously becoming plucked gooseflesh. Jesus, she thought, Shirley Jackson would have a field day.

"Gwen?" Mayuree regarded Gwen's pallid complexion with worried eyes.

"It's nothing," Gwen said, taking a deep breath. "Just indigestion's all..."

Thursday.

Thursday held the one class she and Mayuree attended together—Transmutation Utility.

There were several such courses for the first-world Mages—Abjuration Utility, Transmutation Utility, Divination Utility and more. The idea was that there were essential spells from each School of Magic a Mage's party should never be without and which could be taught by rote learning.

Thereby, "utility" spells were simplified versions of the spells available from each School, adapted for general use at the cost of potency and efficiency.

Transmutation Utility covered most of the translocation spells necessary for general Adventuring, Combat, and Dungeoneering.

Currently, her lesson involved the gradual mastery of Jump, Feather Fall, Levitation, Enhance Ability, Lock and Knock, Expeditious Retreat, Spider Climb, Dark Vision and Aqua Lung.

Almost all of the students participating in the course were non-Transmutation students, but not so for Gwen.

Her primary reason for taking the class was Levitation, a lesser form of "Flight", arguably the most helpful spell for a Junior Mage. At tier 3, however, mastery would likely use up the rest of the semester, which was fourteen weeks.

"Without mobility, you are nothing but stationary turrets ripe for destruction," the instructor, a Magus named Canto Luo, a nephew of the Dean, told his students earnestly. "You will be a liability. Do not venture into a Dungeon without ensuring that your party possesses every possible means of mobility. Remember—dead Mages don't contribute to damage."

Mayuree had no talent in Transmutation, but her natural intelligence and good breeding ensured that she could arguably follow the instructor's incantations without delay nor confusion.

Gwen, meanwhile, could feel her long-neglected Transmutation Sigil pulse with eager luminosity as she alternated between Lock and Knock, abusing her abnormally large mana pool.

"Good work, Gwen." Magus Luo nodded approvingly at her progress.

The students split into a dozen stations. The class spent their training time moving from station to station, attempting various spells while under the careful, watchful eye of Instructor Luo.

After just one afternoon, Gwen completed her tier 1 staples.

When she arrived at the apartment building, she felt overcome with mischief and so carefully and meticulously made use of Expeditious Retreat and Enhance Strength. In one bout, she scaled twenty flights of fire stairs, then burst through the fire door into her apartment after casting a Knock, marvelling at the ease of her transit.

Then, in the middle of her living room, her Transmutation wore off.

"Ouch…" She felt the first cramp coming on. "OW—OW—OW—"

Gwen collapsed onto the couch, her face ashen as her body took stock of the muscular fatigue forced onto her tender flesh, paying it back to her in full with compounded interest.

Tears of regret gushed from her eyes as she sobbed helplessly into the micro-fibre fabric of the couch and laid unmoving like a corpse.

Play stupid games. Gwen told herself between sobs. Win stupid prizes.