It was the dawn of the next day, when Ashrosaliera had to wake up early before the rooster crowed as promised with Luciana. The young gremlin with short white hair and red eyes crawled out of her lower bunk bed before starting to stretch and yawn tiredly.
She looked at her roommates. Tarnisha Smithdottir, the round, cute beastman, was lying on the other bed in the lower bunk. While Cinderella Twilight the half-elf, got the top bunk.
"I should get me one of those…" Ash whispered, approaching the two of them.
Tarnisha was wearing a pair of adorable pink pajamas with clouds on them, while Cinderella was wearing a modest and elegant nightgown.
"Squishy…"
Ashrosaliera poked her finger on both of their cheeks, watching as they bounced right back. She especially poked Tarnisha's cheek thrice because the girl had fluffier and softer cheeks, which intrigued Ashrosaliera.
Realizing her mission was stealth, Ashrosaliera reluctantly pulled her finger away. Finally, she turned towards her own bunk. She saw Zofia Adinberg, who had returned to the dorm room after getting a full recovery in the infirmary.
Last night, when Ash got back from running around, she saw Zofia was already sound asleep, so the girls haven't had a good chance to greet one another yet.
Ashrosaliera hesitated. She climbed up the ladder of the bunk for a good look at the sleeping beauty, and she noticed that Zofia seemed weaker; her skin was not as pink as Ash once remembered. She still needed more than a few good nights' sleep to fully recover.
"Squish squish."
Still, Zofia wasn't safe from Ashrosaliera's scheming when the kettlehead squished her cheek with an evil grin.
"Muheheh."
Ashrosaliera put on her school uniform and made her way out of the room. She closed the door behind her and observed: the Royal Magic Academy at 5AM.
Curfew just ended, and many other rooms on all floors started opening their doors as students woke up and went about their business. Lamps were brought, and fire magic was cast to show the way in the vast, empty darkness, only illuminated by a few oil lamps on the wall.
It is said that if you saw 10 silhouettes in the morning, chances are only 8 of them were real, but Ash wasn't afraid of old wives' tales, so she shrugged.
Noises were kept to a minimum because even when you could walk around at 5AM, you could not make loud noises until 6, which meant Ashrosaliera had to climb the stairs instead of flying.
Passing the second, third, and fourth dormitory floors, then the Cafeteria, which wasn't serving yet on the fifth, park sixth, and library seventh, then [Common] training on eighth, she made her way to the ninth.
The ninth floor of the Royal Magic Academy is another training ground, but instead of being used by [Common] magic users like Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. It was for the 2 [Uncommon] and the two [Rare] elemental attributes: Ice, Lightning, Light, Dark.
Ashrosaliera opened the door to the [Ice] room.
She saw an image that would be burned into her mind.
As far as the eye can see: a glacier stretched beyond the horizon, a snow mountain so magnificent that Ash thought it came from the miraculous weaving of gods. The dark artificial sky mimicked the nautical twilight that blanketed the dots of stars, shimmering faintly above. The sounds of her heartbeat synchronized with the wind as it whistled through the ice spikes protruding from the ground. It felt like the world had slipped into a snow globe, serene, peaceful, yet cold enough to be cruel.
It was breathtakingly beautiful. Ash walked onto a part of the frozen glacier, and if she were to lie down somewhere in the snow over there, her corpse would probably never be found.
"Now I gotta check out all the other floors when I got the chance, too!" she said excitedly, channeling some of her [Fire] mana to heat herself from the cold. "This is mesmerizing."
At first, Ashrosaliera was very confused. Why would someone with [Wind] and [Water] attributes like Luciana Bloodforge be hanging out here in the [Ice] training room? But she kind of got it now, this room is beautiful, especially before sunrise, and twilight was upon her.
Ash took a deep breath of air to fully immerse herself in the serenity, her eyes relaxed as she let go of all the worries in her mind and tensing in her muscles.
"I could be here forever…" Ash muttered.
"Now you're getting it." Luciana said, suddenly appearing next to Ash, startling the girl.
Ash took a step back all defensive, but she slid on the unfamiliar terrain of ice, and fell to her butt.
"Ouch… Stop scaring me like that, please!" She exclaimed in anger.
Luciana, however, didn't mind her, as he crossed his arms behind his back like a thinker. He didn't have his sun hat this time, and Ashrosaliera gazed in awe, possibly envy at his beautiful, smooth, long hair that fluttered ever so slightly in the chilly wind. He finally spoke while his eyes gazed upon the stars.
"The eight elements of this beautiful world are more intuned with one another than what you young 'un thought. It is especially clear for those of us who saw the wonders of 2 attributes usage." Luciana said with an even tone, "You're too green to grasp, but your father does, and I expect the fruit won't fall too far. After all, the man had spent his entire life on the elemental fusion thesis of [36 - 255], half of the world is waiting for his official publication."
"You know my dad?!" Ashrosaliera exclaimed with confusion.
She thought Luciana was lying because there was no chance Davey Säpphroaleryst was that well-known! Sure, he knew how to teach Ash everything she knew about magic combat and a surprising amount of theoretical knowledge that she let fall out of her other ears instead of into her brain, but he was not well-known, right?
Luciana paused, followed by a warm and cute smile as he turned to Ash.
"No, just kidding, fuhuhu~ We just met yesterday, remember? Now follow me to the 10th floor, I already reserved us 10 minutes at the stadium." Luciana gave Ash his hand, offering to help her stand up.
Ash frowned, all confused from the sudden mood change of this weird vampire. She initially wanted to stand up on her own, and tried pushing herself up from the ground, but Ash never learned how to deal with ice and kept slipping down, hitting her butt again, she accepted Luciana's help hand.
They made their way to the 10th floor, still holding hands like a couple for some reason. Luciana didn't let go after he pulled Ash up. He held her hand as they walked side by side, and she was too much of a wimp to dare raise any question.
'Is this a… Vampire thing? Or is he just weird like that? Is he going to bite me? Kind of cute, but I can see why people would wanna avoid him.' Ashrosaliera panicked as thoughts ran through her mind, 'Still! I'll just beat him up later! I know [Fire Pillar] now which is an advanced fire skill!'
They made their way onto the tenth floor and opened the only door. They first saw a sandstone-like wall blocking their way, with two signs leading down two different dark corridors.
The left sign read "If you're fighting."
The right sign read "If you're spectating."
The two held hands as Luciana led Ashrosaliera down the left path, and he asked:
"I think you don't know this, but the stadium can change the battlefield scenery on 5 presets. Would you like the basic [Colosseum], [Jungle], [Island], [Mansion], or more of an [Urban] area?" Luciana added, "And we got 10 minutes, the reservation was hard, that's why I told you to wake up early when nobody wanna fight."
"I can choose?!" Ash exclaimed in excitement, "Can we do a jungle?"
"Anything for you, sweetheart," Luciana said casually.
Ash's shoulders tensed, her face scrunching like she'd bit into something sour upon hearing that alien, affectionate word that even her parents didn't use.
===
The [An Honorable One Always Pays Thy Debt] Questline Updated
O̶n̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶Q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶:̶ ̶A̶n̶ ̶H̶o̶n̶o̶r̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶O̶n̶e̶ ̶A̶l̶w̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶P̶a̶y̶s̶ ̶T̶h̶y̶ ̶D̶e̶b̶t̶
D̶e̶t̶a̶i̶l̶:̶ ̶R̶u̶n̶ ̶e̶r̶r̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶"̶L̶u̶c̶i̶a̶n̶a̶"̶
R̶e̶w̶a̶r̶d̶:̶ ̶0̶.̶1̶0̶ ̶S̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶ ̶P̶o̶i̶n̶t̶s̶
F̶a̶i̶l̶u̶r̶e̶:̶ ̶[̶L̶o̶w̶]̶ ̶p̶u̶n̶i̶s̶h̶m̶e̶n̶t̶
S̶t̶a̶t̶u̶s̶:̶ ̶O̶n̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶
>
Ongoing Quest: A Debt To Be Remembered
Detail: Fulfill Luciana Bloodforge's Requests
- A friendly sparring match
- A day of running errands
Reward: 0.15 (0.30 if victory in the match)
Failure: [Low] Punishment
Status: Ongoing 0/2
===
"Wow, 5 extra points for all that trouble," Ash muttered when she saw the system message popping up.