"So this 'Impter-nat' thing makes glowy screens show images and text? Fascinating!"
"Well it's the internet, not whatever you just said, and yes it does, just a little more complex."
"Hmm, seems too complicated, for now."
"You're going to recreate the internet? Are you crazy?"
"Crazy ambitious, you know my goal, and if people know more, they are more likely to fix problems. Like, I'm sure there are many people who dislike the baron in this area, but not everyone knows that they are the majority."
"There is probably a better way, in my world, the internet gave birth to a generation of people whose only skills involved the internet."
"We will have to see, for now, it's about time I started on my armor."
I had Devin do some alchemical modifications to the fluid which was somehow able to mimic things. I had him make it ultra-fire resistant, this would both make it more useful and easier to make, part of the procedure later required the fluid to withstand a lot of heat.
I spent my time scribing the secret enchantments that my dad bestowed upon me onto spirit paper, making sure that nobody saw them, I did a little editing here and there, but the core of the enchantment was the same.
I emerged from my hidden wood shell and addressed Devin while he did a small test sample of the fire-resistant fluid.
"How is it going with you?"
"We'll find out in a second."
He put it into a miniature kiln and let the intense heat do its work. After about ten minutes, the substance had seen no change.
"That should do it. I'll just have to do the rest of the fluid, which I'm calling Mimic from now on, and then it's all on you."
"You got it."
I took the purifying hammer and started to hammer the ore, infusing it at the same time. The ore was called Ryustitite and would collapse upon itself when purified if the metallurgist didn't weave the metal at the same time. This meant that the metallurgist had to be inside a person-sized infuser to purify it. Luckily, the school let me borrow one because of my dad's strongarming and Larry's authority.
Clang! Donk! Clang! Donk!
I hammered for hours, spending my entire reserve of Eneru several times over and using potions to keep up. In the end, I sat down in front of my single ingot of Ryustitite and fell asleep. When I woke up I was surrounded by Orin and the infuser was put back. Laura was standing over me, saying something I wasn't paying enough attention to understand.
She grabbed my ear and put me on my feet.
"You're about to be late dumbass! Wake up!"
"Crap!" I looked at my pocket watch, if I took off now with just my wings, I would only be ten minutes early for Dueling, but I could fix that.
'Orin, I need your help'
Orin woke up and looked at me, the mind link is impossible to sleep through.
"I got to go to dueling. I need your speed."
"Done." He stood up and led us outside, growing to his full size when he got out. "Hop on, I've wanted to test this with you on my back anyway."
I got on his back and waved at Laura as Orin started running. It didn't take me long to notice that Orin's paws stopped touching the ground.
"You're heavier than I expected!"
Every time Orin stepped, he got further from the ground as he used near-solid air as stepping stones.
"I can only do this because I read your mind, your understanding of pressure is crazy!" He shouted over the wind.
I got the same feeling I had when I first took off with my glider: nostalgia, awe, and uncertainty all combined into a euphoric sensation.
"I was BORN to fly! WOOO!"
'Woah, calm down there Ingen, you'll wake the dead.' Spirit advised me.
With no regard for the dead's slumber, I continued my celebratory shouting all the way to dueling class and when we landed, I was exactly fifteen minutes early.
"What is that racket! You are in for a WORLD of hurt if you thought that it was appropriate to SHOUT at the break of DAWN, TRAINEE!" Clara shouted, aware of her hypocrisy.
"Ma'am with all due respect, you are shouting."
"Finally! Hey Unda! Your trainee finally grew a backbone!"
'What? I just found her annoying.'
'She's being annoying on purpose dumbass, she sees that you're too meek to survive your mandatory military service so she's trying to get you to start yelling back.'
'I thought she just didn't like me, I know that in my previous life the military just wanted obedience.'
'That works in massive units, but as far as I can tell, the military here is based more on a small party, where you're supposed to become friends with your unit because that way you have to fight well even if you don't care about the county if you want your friends to stay alive.'
'I have to admit, that is pretty ingenious.'
"Hey, TRAINEE! Get out of la-la land and pay attention when I give you merits!"
"Miss, you misunderstand, I have a superior spirit, as you know, and I need to speak with him, kindly wait your turn." My eyes returned to grey.
'As I was saying, that's a great plan, comradery is also noted as a strong source of willpower, so the soldiers should be better at Flow Manipulation because of it.'
'You're exactly right, but you should probably get back to Clara, she looks like she's about to blow a fuse.'
"Are you DONE yet, TRAINEE?"
"Yessm" I put on my best nonchalant voice.
"As I was SAYING, you will be dueling today, and your partner will be Ward. I understand that he is your roommate?"
"Yes ma'am. I came ready today, so I won't need to prepare other than the charms."
"Good, he's already at the platform, get up there." there was a short pause while I checked that I had everything "NOW TRAINEE!"
My confident facade faltered, as I ran up to the platforms I tripped, only catching myself because of skeleton armor. Class started 15 minutes later.
"I am prepared," I said, and Ward repeated
"Duelists ready?"
"Yes ma'am!"