(CS) Chapter 6. D1 (Patreon)

It turned out that the lizards were called winged olms. They were bred and raised by a group of people called the Kho’Ya. The people had been there long before Wendown had even been founded. They didn’t have much in the way of technology, but they had the Waking Dream and knew how to live in the cavern indefinitely. They’d been found while the founders of the Spartan Initiative had been digging beneath their land, and had been kept secret, only known to the members and the Wendown noble family.

The Kho’Ya had tamed and domesticated the winged olms way back. They’d been small and feeble before, just another part of the food chain in the depths of the cavern’s subterranean lakes, but the Kho’Ya had bred them for size, and a mixture between evolution and a high concentration of ambient Essence had done the rest. Massive flying lizards were cool, but apparently they needed a lot more food. An olm could eat about twice as much as a human before being full. The small ones needed much less, consuming an almost impossibly small amount of food to keep themselves alive, but the large winged olms were an entirely different case.

The winged olms had a special relationship with the Kho’Ya’s hunters, working together to gather fish–one of the only foods in abundance down here–for the tribe, but overhunting had hit the tribe hard. The people had gone hungry, and the olms grew weak. That’s why, when the Spartan Initiative happened to stumble upon them, they gladly agreed to host and assist in the training of their prospective graduates in exchange for large shipments of fish and other assorted foods.

All of this was explained to Arik by John, with some assistance from their chauffeur, Cha’Alak. Alak, as he preferred to be called, was a few years older than Arik, though you wouldn’t be able to tell at a glance. Arik still looked somewhat youthful, with an almost childish innocence to it, while Alak had the face and body of a hardened warrior. His body rippled with lean muscle, not too large but extremely defined, a sign that he had a healthy balance of Physique and Limit, and he guided his blind olm through the air with the grace of someone who had been practicing all his life.

Alak explained that the winged olms were bound with their future riders at birth. They ate together, drank together, slept together, and learned together. They formed a bond over the span of their life, and when they had their coming of age ceremony, if they were close enough, they entered it together.

“Galak is like a muscle to me,” he said, his exotic accent drawing Arik in, “I am the same to him. He thinks, I move. I think, he moves. He uses my eyes, and I use his wings. We make up for what we lack.”

Apparently, the Kho’Ya who had both the opportunity and the bond to enter the Waking Dream with their winged olms often gained Classes specifically related to it. Sometimes they’d even get Skills on their olms' behalf. It was said that the strongest rider in the Kho’Ya’s history actually sacrificed an entire Class to his bond, making it one of the only animal Classers Arik had ever heard of.

Once Alak had flown them over most of the underground city, they landed in a courtyard, and the two surface-dwellers disembarked. There was a noticeable straightening in the olm’s back as John got off, causing Alak to smirk a bit before flying off, yelling what he assumed was some kind of taunt over his shoulder in the Kho’Ya’s native language. John ignored him and led Arik across the field, into a large building that looked like a hotel. Sure enough, it was the dorms.

“Go find yourself a room. Keys are in the locks, just don’t leave yours out. You don’t know anyone here, and shouldn’t trust them yet. We won’t be changing any locks during your stay here.”

Arik walked into the first door that still had a key in it, placing the key on a table in the room and locking the door behind him. He found a switch on the wall and pulled it, causing some moss on the ceiling to illuminate the room. The light was dim, but it would be enough, so he stopped trickling Essence into his Starlight. His low supply had already been cut in half, even with the spell barely requiring anything from him and only being active for a few minutes.

He frowned, his eyebrows creasing. I’ll have to raise my Essence stat. If I were above ground, it wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but… He looked out the window of his room, revealing only bare scraps of glowing moss up above. Yeah. Right now all Starlight does for me is give me perfect vision in darkness, but I’d bet that I’ll get more Skills that require a night sky from that blessing.

He dug around in his room for a while. It had been getting dark when they’d descended into the caves, so he assumed it was just time to get some sleep, but he wanted to get acquainted with his new surroundings first. He checked a closet at the side of the room and found 10 sets of clothing in two styles. There was workout gear, with white t-shirts and gray shorts, and uniforms, which had white button-ups, crimson suit jackets with gold filigree, and equally crimson slacks.

Knowing now where everything was, Arik felt comfortable removing his sweaty clothing and getting some shut-eye.

===

Following a night of no changes to his slate, Arik rolled out of bed and entered his room’s bathroom. He said a silent prayer of thanks to whatever gods were listening that he didn’t have to share a bathroom or shower with the others in his hall. A quick, hot shower later, and he quickly got dressed. He put on one of the sets of casual workout clothes, deciding to go for a run through the field outside.

As he was on his way out, Arik was stopped by a Kho’Ya woman in a formal suit. Her appearance and demeanor told him that this was someone who wasn’t to be messed with. “You! I was told we weren’t taking students yet!” She shook her head, quickly writing something on a clipboard by her side. “End of the hall, take a left, then go straight. The cafeteria is behind the door at the end. There should be some workers there cleaning up after breakfast for the staff, go see if they can scrounge up anything for you.”

The woman’s voice carried an unquestionable authority behind it, and Arik immediately went in the indicated direction. A few moments later, he opened the door to a room the same size as the field outside. It was filled by long tables, with benches rather than seats. Oddly, the tables and benches were attached and stood on wheels, like some kind of… Mobile bench cafeteria table, or something like that. An odd sense of childhood nostalgia filled him, even though he’d never seen one before. Must be some kind of enchantment, he thought.

One of the workers caught sight of him from across the room and started yelling at the others. Many accented repetitions of “yes chef” were heard. Oh wait, I think I’ve heard about this. Are these guys from Winarea? Winarea was home to Eyladia’s greatest crafters, and they took everything related to creation very seriously, even things like painting and cooking. Their greatest workers had a reputation for working in groups and doing everything by hand, disregarding the more modern Hinri Fyord methods from Rholumni. According to them, it was better for their Skills, meaning they got higher quality and growth in exchange for lower quantity.

Arik soon found himself seated at a table, staring down a plate of cheesy eggs and sausage. The first bite made his taste buds melt, and he couldn’t even remember his second. He only came to himself when his utensils brought no new food to his mouth. He stared down at the plate for a moment, his mouth still salivating. Then his eyes closed, and he pushed the plate away, exiting the cafeteria a moment later.

The signs above the cafeteria doors led him to believe that they went straight outside, into the field he’d arrived at by way of olm yesterday. Now fed, however, he decided to wait a while to let digestion kick in. That was how he found himself wandering the halls of the dormitory, looking for something to do.

He’d only been walking for a bit over half an hour, finding himself on the second floor of the building, when he heard a weird hissing sound. He looked for the source, but found nothing at first. Then he heard it again. “Psst!” There was a chuckle following the sound. “Over here!” A hand reached out from the wall and pulled him towards it. After a moment, he started to struggle, but the shock was enough for his assailant to get ahold of him, pulling him towards it rapidly.

He fell on his face, and heard a giggle coming from above him. Arik looked up in a daze, but saw only darkness.

“What? Can’t see in the dark?” The voice was distinctly female this time, and carried the accent that all the Kho’Ya seemed to have.

He breathed for a moment reaching around in the darkness, grasping at his surroundings and finding nothing. After a long moment, he managed to calm himself, then nearly slapped himself as he remembered his spell.

[Starlight]

The room lit up faintly around him and his dark vision ramped up, revealing a startled girl of about his age. As he’d thought, she was Kho’Ya. She gave him a guilty smile. “Hi there,” she said, extending a hand. He took it, and she helped him up, her strength surprising for someone of her size.

“What was that?” His shock had died by now, but he was still very confused. It looked to him like he’d been dragged through the wall.

“Ah, that section of wall there is an illusion. The staff put in a few of them here and there to hide extra rooms.” The girl’s smile turned toothy and mischievous. “I’ve got a Skill that lets me find them. It’s pretty fun, and I thought I’d include you, since you looked bored and we seem to be all alone here.”

Now under the effects of his Blessing because of Starlight, he looked back at the wall and found that, where it had previously been opaque, it was now somewhat transparent.

Arik shook his head, his confusion not yet dispersing. “Why would they hide something like this? Aren’t they concerned that students might find it?”

The Kho’Ya girl raised a finger. “Well, their illusions have a couple features that make them extra hard to find. First off, they have barriers that resist hard impacts. If you’d been moving even a little bit faster, you would’ve hit your head on one,” she put up another finger, counting off the things that these fake walls could do, “Secondly, they’re also tactile, so if you touch one, you’ll feel it. Even if you do pass through it a little bit, it’ll feel like you just brushed up against it. Thirdly, they radiate a certain feeling that they’re not important, that they don’t matter. That’s actually how I noticed them in the first place.” She smiled at him. “Also, this is just a branching hallway. The real rooms are locked up.”

“So, they’ve just got additional, intersecting hallways in between the branch hallways?” Arik frowned, thinking about the building’s layout. On each floor, the stairs would lead to one wide hall, which would then have a series of connecting hallways and rooms. On the first floor, this room was mostly the reception area, and all the hallways led to dormitories, putting women on one side and men on the other. The only exceptions were a main auditorium, on the womens’ side, and the cafeteria, on the mens’ side.

On the second floor of the building, there were mostly large classrooms, and the third was just offices and administrative rooms. The building was honestly massive, and there was no reason that Arik could think of for them needing extra rooms or hallways.

“Yup! They’ve also got stairs going up and down in all of them, even on the ground and the third floor.” Arik blinked. What? Not only did they have extra rooms on each floor, but they also had a hidden basement and fourth floor? What’s the purpose of all this? He was thoroughly discombobulated.

“What’s your name?” He asked, finally landing on a course of action that wouldn’t increase his perplexity.

“I’m Dris’Nisha. Dris is my family name though, so please call me Nisha.” She held out a hand to him. It looked a bit awkward, though, as if she hadn’t done it before. “We shake now, right?”

Arik chuckled a bit, but shook her hand. It felt small in his, but it contained a certain undefinable strength to it. It wasn’t exactly the feeling of someone with a powerful Physique, but it was definitely Essence-based. ”So, how did you find this place?” He looked around at the dark room.

“Ah, yes, my Class is based on sight and knowledge. As I mentioned, I have a passive Skill that lets me see in the dark and through illusions that I detect.”

Arik frowned. “You can only see through illusions you can sense? Isn’t that kinda the point of illusions? To be indetectable?”

She shook her head. “It’s supplemented by other Skills that help me notice things and learn faster.”

“Wait, Skills that help you learn faster? Isn’t that just Talent though? Is it just a flat multiplier?” A Skill that just straight up gave you a multiplier to your Talent for everything would be pretty strong. His Bladework Skill helped him learn to swing a sword around faster, meaning it only applied to certain, niche things. If he got more Skills relating to swords, they would probably gain Skill levels at an increased rate because of his Bladework, but to get the most out of that, he’d have to add a lot of redundancy to his build. While specializing in a gimmick could turn out great for some people, diversification was considered the safest. Even the strongest artillery mages had at least some defensive Skills or enchantments.

“It’s a flat one per level, only works when I’m not under physical or emotional stress, and its level increases as I level my other Skills or learn new things. It helped me pick up your language over the past year, but I only got three levels in it that whole time.” She seemed slightly exasperated, and he got the feeling that she’d said the exact same thing to numerous people.

“I see.” The Skill giving a flat number does somewhat curb its usefulness in later Class and Skill levels. If it were a multiplier, it would be broken. The slow leveling pace also helps to make it a minor benefit, rather than a build-altering Skill.

“It’s still pretty good, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not what you were hoping for, I’m sure.” A soft smile graced Nisha’s face.

“Oh well,” he smiled back at her, “It’s still pretty good. So, what led you here?”

Nisha frowned. “What do you mean?”

“The Spartan Initiative. I heard that your people were helping with it, but you seem a bit young for that.” Arik winced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“No, no, I’m not offended at all. I’m actually here to learn with you surface-dwellers. The elders wanted to train a representative in your ways, and I was the best candidate.”

“Do you… want to be here?”

Nisha shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter what I want, does it?”

“Of course it does,” Arik said with a frown, “You get a choice in what you do with your life.”

“I’ll do what’s best for my people.”

Arik didn’t want to push the issue, so he let it drop. “If you say so. Just don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

She nodded.

Arik’s Essence was starting to run low, so he gave Nisha a nod and ducked out of the hidden space. “I hope I’ll see you later,” he said. There was no response.

===

Arik wiped some of the sweat off his brow. He’d run four laps around the field, and he estimated the distance to be about a mile. With his new Physique, he figured that was more of a light warm-up, but he didn’t quite know what else to do, since he hadn’t found any sharp implements with which to train. Then again, it was probably a good thing that the school didn’t have tools of death strewn about the place, but the lack of progress sucked.

With little else to do, Arik had decided to try to work on his Starlight and it had been fun, but now he was starting to run out of Essence. He once more pulled at the spell with his hands, directing the intent to stretch towards the spell. The use of his hands wasn’t strictly necessary, but it helped his focus. Just as he was about to get the spell into a new shape, his Essence drain-induced headache flared, breaking his concentration. The spell shattered like glass, fading into nothing.

He held his forehead with a wince, lying back into the odd grass-like moss of the field. That better get me a level tonight.

The sound of flapping floated into his addled mind, drawing his attention away from his pain for a moment. He looked to the source, and found a whole lounge of winged olms flapping towards him, each with three or four passengers. Are those..?

The lonely halls of the main Spartan Initiative building were about to get a lot busier.