Juliette Abad stared at the list for a long moment, the Nirian Token in hand. She could scarcely believe that Professor Davar had been willing to give these out as a prize for something so mundane as winning a game in class. Tokens were incredibly useful and exchanging them for a professor's services was the least it could be exchanged for. But then again, perhaps Professor Davar was given a quota to spend. Heh, she could just see the sly admin doing just that. Since the professor was new, her tokens had not been properly circulated yet, hence inflating their value due to scarcity. And from the listing in front of her, she could tell that these tokens were quite valuable just by themselves.
"Melee or ranged combat training?" Sofia muttered as she read over Juliette's shoulder. "Who would bother with that?"
Juliette shrugged and pointedly read out the next line, "Runescript conversion."
Sofia jolted. "Does that mean what I think it does?"
Juliette shrugged. There was not much description in the service list, but it was easy enough to verify. Except, when she asked the registrar attendant, the man also couldn't give any details.
"Spend for a mentorship hour instead of a specific service to find out," the attendant said, not a little bit of amusement in his tone. "Professor Davar's a hot commodity right now, so you'd better get your reservation now."
"Did she give out more tokens?"
"She has a class every morning, from Waterday to Earthday. Two different classes and I guess she gave them out again today. Even the faculty, the other professors, are curious about her." The man paused, then added in a whisper, "Secretary Ferron's been acting strange, and there are rumours that the Vice-Dean considers Professor Davar a peer."
Juliette's eyes widened in surprise. So the woman who she'd accidentally met in the training grounds that day was that important and powerful? A peer meant that the Vice-Dean, a True Magus, knew that Professor Davar was at the same level.
Then she frowned and considered the top of the listing. Melee and ranged combat? If a True Magus thought it important enough to top the list meant that neither she, nor her flatmate, and probably the rest of the student body, knew what its value truly was. Perhaps she'd ask to be mentored with that too.
"One hour, 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 3, Fireday afternoon," she said to the registrar and handed in the token.
"Alright," the man said as he wrote down in a book. "That'll be tomorrow then. First Training Hall, Room 203. And you?" he asked Sofia.
"Same." Sofia turned to Juliette. "Merge time?"
"Yeah, that works."
"So 2 o'clock to 4 then."
"Thank you," the two girls said.
Sofia headed towards her next class. The week's grind continued and there were nine more weeks until the vacation break.
__________
The Hillside Burrows was an unusual Chaos Fount comparing it to all the other Gwendith had seen before. That wasn't as many as she would have liked, but what they were doing should remedy that.
The Burrows was on a large…well, burrow. A burial burrow if she understood what the Adventurers' Guild resources, one made several millennia ago. The top of it was roughly a couple of hundred paces above the surrounding farmland. There were several towns practically equidistant from the thing, and there were supposedly an equal number of gates that led inside the Fount.
The inside was also supposedly much wider than the space the Burrows and the towns occupied, and it was this size that practically guaranteed that the Fount could create Ambrosia at a regular pace. Nirlith City was a couple of days away, but it laid claim to the Fount and had a significant presence in the southwest town of Kaliso, where she and the other two had taken rooms at an inn, which also served as their current base of operations.
"How are your reserves, Miss Saki?" Gwendith asked Yuriko's taciturn Shadow Guard.
The young woman shook her head. Her tawny hair had grown below her shoulders and she'd taken to putting it up in a bun. Her yellow eyes were placid, though they often danced from shadow to shadow.
"I've not used up any Animus today, Miss Gwendith. And the amount I spent over the journey has been recovered."
Gwendith nodded. The Animus Regeneration Cubes that they all bought from Legion Command didn't work well without ambient Chaos, but after weeks in the region, they found out that the cube actually drew in Elemental energies and slowly converted it to the attuned Animus within. Essentially, it regenerated Animus at a low, low rate of about five lumens a day. Thankfully, there was enough storage within the cube so that if Saki or Ryoko used it, it would refill their reserves. And of course, when they were in Chaos Founts, their Animus regeneration, and the cubes', returned to half of what they would have while in Rumiga.
As for Gwendith and Heron, the extra Animus their outer reserves held meant that the cube was much less useful. Thankfully, being exposed to so much Elemental energy and the general lack of ambient Chaos meant that both of them had learned Yuriko's trick of converting Ennoia energies to Animus. Well, Yuriko taught them how, and while they couldn't mimic the exact technique, just knowing it was possible was more than enough.
Heron met the two of them in the common room for breakfast. His hair was slightly damp, but his gear was ready, wearing Light Infantry Armour but with the helmet off. It would have made him stand out if not for the fact that there were a few adventurers in the King's View Inn. She wore the same, even if her Frozen Scales weren't quite as efficient. The armour from the Siderious actually drew in Elemental energy to power itself, so that was handy. It wasn't as efficient as when they were in an environment with ambient Chaos but it was better than nothing. Otherwise, they wouldn't even consider using the things as they would have drained their Animus reserves dry.
After breakfast, the three of them headed towards the nearest gate. It was about a couple of leagues from town, at the foot of the burrow. The gate itself was behind a metal fence that was manned by guild staff. Unlike other Founts known to produce Ambrosia, the Hillside Burrows didn't have a reservation list since it was incredibly difficult for a single group to monopolize and search through the entire thing. It had leagues of tunnels and caverns, and not all of them were connected to each other. A small group could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of monsters, too.
They only had to pay a small fee, three silver coins each, to enter. They went through the gate a few minutes after the previous group of adventurers. The step-through involved the familiar lurch in the guts, but the space she entered couldn't be more different than the Waterfall Caves or that unnamed Chaos Fount that Yuriko collapsed.
Before she stepped through, the burrow had only been a hundred or so paces away, but as soon as she did, she ended up in a grassy plain with grass taller than she was. She could see a few blotches in the distance when she hopped, but everything else was concealed. The gate was on a clearing ten paces wide and there was an adventurer group waiting to exit a few paces away. They nodded to her in greeting as she and the others moved out of the way.
"Well, this is strange," Heron muttered as he looked up. Her gaze followed and beheld the thick white clouds covering the blue sky. And of course, the shadows darting about in the sky.
They had purchased intelligence on what could be found here, of course, and unless there were unknown flying beasts, those were Vultures. They won't descend unless there's a lot of corpses on the ground, but if they do, they would attack everything living in the vicinity.
The gate they entered was labelled SW01 on the map, and three trails emerged from it, heading northeast, northwest, and southeast. While everything else in the Fount could change after a while, the first few 'rooms' were practically the same.
"Where to?" Gwendith prodded Heron, who had affixed his helmet on and sealed it. She did the same while Saki invoked her Invisibility technique. Weeks of practice allowed the handmaiden to figure out how not to spray Shadow Ennoia energies all over the place. Well, Gwendith reasoned that back in the Empire, the ambient Chaos actually hid or overwhelmed Elemental energies.
Heron pointed northeast, directly across from them. "To the nearest burrow."
"Tsk, just because you're tall, you don't have to flaunt it," Gwendith muttered. Heron's eyes were just above the tall grass.
He turned to her and smirked, which annoyed her a bit until she added, "Where's that assertiveness with love, eh?"
Heron coloured and grunted, "I'll wait."
"Why though?"
"Because I've pushed too hard before."
"Huh."
They marched down the trail, which twisted around enough that it hid the sight of the entrance clearing after a couple of minutes. Heron was in the lead, which meant that Gwendith couldn't see anything since he was as broad as the trail. Her hands twitched as she considered casting a Sending to chat with Yuri. But the spell could not cross the Chaos Fount's space, and it would take something like a ten- to thirteen-circle spell to accomplish that. None of them could cast something that complex yet.
Gwendith was able to cast five circle spells easily enough, and so was Heron. Saki was the same, but she struggled a bit more to learn and only knew the basic spells. Arcana Weaving was surprisingly easy to do. Still, using her Anima techniques was more potent and intuitive than waving her hands and chanting memorised words to fight. Heron didn't even learn any combat spells but focused on utility and travel.
The attack came from underground. Not that it was unexpected. Gwendith didn't even move a finger as the beast bit down on Heron's leg. Its teeth broke upon contact with his Anima, and a casual swipe of his spear slew it. He was about to just leave when she called him out on it. "You kill it, you skin it."
He froze, then swore. Gwendith giggled and broke out into laughter. The delve was boring, with the foes barely worth the fight. So teasing the rather thin-skinned Heron livened up the moment. Ah, that was why Yuriko's childhood friend, Krystal, was such a tease.
_________
Room 203 of the First Training Hall wasn't all that big. It was a room roughly ten paces by five, with the longer side covered in floor-to-ceiling mirrors. When Sofia and Juliette knocked on the door and entered, they found Professor Davar sitting cross-legged in the middle, which was somewhat scandalous since she was clad in a dress.
As soon as they entered, Professor Davar opened her eyes and rose to her feet. Or rather, she floated off the floor and stretched her legs down.
Sofia swallowed nervously. The professor was a True Magus.
"Ah, Sofia Garcia and Juliette Abad." Professor Davar turned to smile at them. "Come in." When they entered and stood in front of her, she continued, "What can I help you two with?"
Despite what Sofia thought yesterday, she still wasn't sure what she wanted out of the mentoring session. Her efforts in runescript conversion had hit a roadblock and only studying spell theory with more depth could possibly solve her conundrum.
"Hmmm, did you bring your rapiers?"
"Eh?"
"Your swords," Professor Davar said. "The ones you used in the practical exams." She clicked her tongue, "Don't tell me you picked those at random?"
Juliette shook her head, "No, ma'am. My weapon is enchanted with the Wind Blade spell. It's not really something I bring for training sessions."
Sofia shifted uneasily. Her rapier had been a loaner from someone who owed her a favour. It had been enchanted, too, to help her pass the exam.
Professor Yuriko frowned, then reached out. A wooden sword flew into her hand from a basket on the corner. "You disrespect the sword," she said flatly. "I think you could stand to learn more about it."
Sofia took a step back reflexively but jumped when the doors slammed shut and the lock snapped close. There was a fiery light behind the professor's eyes.
Maybe she should have traded the token away after all.