Yggdrasil Academy: The Insurance Plan of the Gods Ch. 1 (Patreon)

"There are no incorrect Paths. You may lose your way at times, get turned around, and even tread the same ground, but, no matter which route you take to reach your goal, it was your decisions, willpower, and resolution that brought you there."

                                                                               -Öde, the Sage of Wisdom

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, a young man with wild, windswept green hair opened his hazy purple eyes to find a piece of chalk barreling towards the center of his forehead. 

At a glance, the piece of chalk appeared as though nothing could prevent it from reaching its mark. Instead, it stopped precisely seven centimeters away from the youth's forehead before rebounding in the direction it had come. At the same time, the green-haired youth stretched his arms to their full length, a series of satisfying pops echoing through the ancient-looking classroom he and seven others currently occupied.

Catching the repelled projectile between her index and middle fingers, a petite, scholarly-looking woman with aquamarine eyes, pale-pink hair, cat ears, and a curled tail pushed up her thick, purple-rimmed glasses as she said, "Fledgling Alexander. I have tolerated your antics for the past three years. The least you can do is stay awake during my final lesson..."

Adopting an apologetic smile, Alexander, better known as Dyne to his friends and colleagues, suppressed the urge to yawn as he sat a little straighter and said, "Sorry, Professor Sariel. I didn't get much sleep last night."

Snorting through her nose, Professor Sariel alighted from her usual stool before walking to the front of the pulpit. Even with abnormally thick soles, her maximum height was around 138cm. As a result, she was a lot shorter than the majority of her students, but, as a seasoned professor with more than three hundred years of experience under her belt, Professor Elenora Sariel wasn't someone just anyone could look down on.

"I understand how nerve-wracking the night before the practical exam can be. However, as someone aspiring to be a Sage, how can you allow sleep loss to affect your behavior and performance?"

Unable to maintain his apologetic mask, a wry smile developed across Dyne's face as he mused, "Come on, teach. We both know I'm going to pass. Of the six of us that remain, the only person with better chances than me is Will. Besides, I'm sleeping because I don't want to let sleep loss affect my performance. It has nothing to do with how boring your lectures are."

While several of his classmates stifled snickers in response to Dyne's words, the icy look on Professor Sariel's face made it clear she wasn't amused. Unfortunately, this was the last lecture before she sent this particular group of students off to take their final evaluations. Even if she wanted to, it was too late to give Dyne detention.

Flexing her hands open and closed, a superficially sadistic smile formed across Professor Sariel's face as she said, "Pray you don't end up as my understudy, brat. I'll have you deboning fish for months."

Raising his hands to the side, Dyne supplied a carefree shrug in response to Professor Sariel's threat. Though she would undoubtedly hiss at him if he said it aloud, he knew she was all bark and no bite. If he did end up as her understudy, the person receiving torment wouldn't be him.

"I've already been under your care for three years. If anything, becoming your understudy would be a relief. I would rather have someone I trust to look after me than some wily old man or crone."

Hearing Dyne mention his trust for her, the sadistic smile on Sariel's face became awkward and apologetic. She knew he was being facetious, but, as one of only six Fledglings to persevere until the end of the curriculum, it was difficult for Sariel to stay mad at any of her students, much less one of her best.

Exhaling a sigh, Professor Sariel habitually pushed up her glasses as she said, "Don't think your flowery words will have any effect on someone as sophisticated as myself..."

Without waiting for Dyne's response, Professor Sariel reached into the tiny pouch at her hip before pulling out a silvery knife whose dimensions far exceeded the comparably small container. The eyes of every student in the classroom immediately came into focus, as, despite possessing an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the arcane and various artifacts, they were rarely allowed to use them. 

The school the students attended, the Yggdrasil Institute, didn't believe in shortcuts. Magical items and artifacts were the most common method of arbitrarily increasing a person's power. In many situations, the people using said items would become utterly dependent on them. Thus, during their first three years of study, most students split their focus between developing their bodies, studying theory, and mastering their respective, inborn abilities known as Innates.

With everyone's attention focused on her, Professor Sariel paused for a moment before dragging the silver, s-shaped blade across her palm. A large volume of carmine liquid immediately flowed forth, but, without so much as flinching, Professor Sariel watched as it cascaded towards the ground in a single, unbroken stream.

Upon contacting the marbled floor, Professor Sariel's blood emitted an eerie red glow as it quickly spread to form a complex, five-tiered magic circle. Such a circle would typically take an exceptionally skilled Magus several hours to produce. In Professor Sariel's case, it only took a mere forty-three seconds.

Though she was feeling a little dizzy, Professor Sariel managed to appear calm and relaxed as she traced a finger laced with greenish-blue magical energy across her palm. Moments later, the unnecessarily deep wound on her hand had closed entirely.

Pulling out a dainty, vanilla-colored handkerchief, Professor Sariel took a moment to clean her palm before fixing her aquamarine eyes on Dyne and announcing, "Well then, Fledging Dyne. Since you are confident enough to sleep through my final lecture, I assume you have already made adequate preparations to summon your first Einherjar? Feel free to step forward and show your fellow Fledglings how it's done."

Rolling his eyes, Dyne pushed himself to his feet before meandering down to the edge of the ruby-red magic circle. In the process, he unleashed the yawn he had withheld previously, an action that earned him a faint glower from his favorite and only feline Professor. 

Reaching the edge of the pulsating magic circle, Dyne didn't even hesitate before unsheathing the relatively plain dagger holstered at the back of his waist and saying, "You're too serious, teach. The only requirements for the Einherjar ceremony are a clear understanding of what we want to summon and blood sacrifice. Most of us have spent the last six months researching the best possible Class to support our ambitions. I'm no exception."

Punctuating his words, Dyne used the impeccably sharp tip of his dagger to cut two lines into his palm. The two lines formed an ancient rune known as Naudiz, the Elder Rune associated with summoning something to meet one's needs.

Seeing the rune Dyne had chosen, Professor Sariel was a little surprised. Naudiz wasn't a terrible choice, but, more often than not, it was the rune students chose when they lacked confidence or weren't sure what they needed. In Dyne's case, she had expected him to go with Fehu, Uruz, or Mannaz, the Elder Runes representing Wealth, Strength, and Man.

Unaware, or, more accurately, unconcerned about his teacher's thoughts, Dyne placed his bleeding palm in the center of the space reserved for the summoning catalyst. In response, the gently pulsating magic circle issued a hum that resonated with the surrounding mana. Shortly after that, it was like the entire classroom had been submerged in a bluish-green liquid, the result of an ever-increasing concentration of pure, untainted mana.

Similar to his fellow Fledglings, Dyne was briefly mesmerized by the breathtakingly beautiful scenery that surrounded him. It was rare to see such a dense concentration of mana. At the very least, there was no way he could emulate such a feat at his current level.

Directing an appreciative look towards the petite cat girl standing on the other side of the magic circle, Dyne found Professor Sariel staring at him with a playfully arrogant smile on her face. A sudden and intense urge to roll his eyes swelled from the very depths of his soul, but, as little as he cared about the actual Einherjar he summoned, Dyne knew better than to lose focus partway through.

Following a deep, steadying breath, Dyne imagined the valves of his heart widening as the condensed mana within began to surge through his veins. He, like many with an affinity for magic, possessed two distinct but wholly inseparable hearts. Both occupied the same space, but while one existed in reality, the other derived its existence from a combination of belief and a non-existent but highly influential plane known as the Imaginary Axis.

Simply put, only those that genuinely believed in magic were able to tap into its power. Even then, the amount of magical power any single person could store was inconsequential compared to the amount required for an average spell. There were a few exceptions to the rule, but, more often than not, the bulk of mana powering a spell came from the environment, not the Magus casting it.

Using his mana pathways as a guiding current, Dyne drew in the mana from the environment with each breath he took. From the perspective of his classmates, several small vortexes of energy had appeared along his back. The largest of these fed directly into his heart. As for the others, six in total, they fed into what many practitioners of the physical arts knew as Chakras.

Feeling a little tipsy due to the excessive amount of mana invading his system, Dyne bit the interior of his cheek to maintain his focus. Excess mana in the bloodstream led to a condition known as Mana Intoxication, so, before it could settle in, Dyne pumped as much mana as possible into the magic circle before retracting his hand like a child that had carelessly placed their hand atop a stove.

Fortunately, the Einherjar Ritual didn't take much mana to complete. So long as the Magus maintaining the magic circle drew it correctly, it was virtually guaranteed to succeed. Every micron of additional mana went towards increasing the summoned Einherjar's potential.

Though Dyne wasn't concerned with the type and Class of Einherjar he summoned, he didn't want to compromise on its potential. His goal was to one day rise to the position of Sage, a status and title that even the Gods feared. To that end, he would need powerful companions at his side. The greater the potential of his Einherjar, the sooner he could reach his goal.

Staring intently at the nebulous mass that had formed at the center of the magic circle, Dyne didn't even notice he was holding his breath. He wasn't the only one, either. Professor Sariel had even leaned forward slightly, as, despite seeing the ritual tens of thousands of times, she never got tired of seeing what popped out. She was the only one of her colleagues that had yet to see a student summon a dragon on their first attempt. 

The odds of Dyne calling one out with a Naudiz Rune were astronomically small, but, as one of her best students, she was hoping he could pull off a miracle...