The end of the meeting brought some fresh faces to our party, Doyle and Olga's replacements, Anno Iscosul and Aubrey Pahur. They were both human and were both relatively young mystics who boasted the same classes as the retirees, including their subclasses. They accompanied us back to our tri-hollow. Yet their words were reserved for Zeff, Olga, and Doyle.
"The politics at these events can get crazy. Heh! I see why you left." Anno chortled weakly. "You don't think you could've waited another year, though?"
"No." Olga said before Doyle could. "I couldn't stand it anymore. The politics and their overbearing attitudes became too much when this one riled them up." She pointed at me. "But by his hand, my life turned around completely. I have everything I've ever wanted. You can too." She said to Zeff.
"Well, I'll have to go somewhere." He sighed. "And we all know I don't want to go back to the lands of Polaris."
I turned to give him a curious glance; alongside several others, it seemed, prompting him to give a reluctant answer. "Well." He sighed. "I suppose you'll find out, eventually. You all saw the Headmaster's health, after all." He sighed again, prompting me to halt and face him fully.
"The Millennial Class is the Bodhi Tree's last. So, it seems like I'll be joining you after all."
"You can keep teaching if you want." I told him, continuing the pace. Then looked at the awkward youthful faces beside him. "Naturally, that extends to you two as well. Though you won't have a station as high as these three. They were my teachers, after all. But the point still stands. There are countless institutions of learning in the Empire and the Legions alike. Education and knowledge are things I value highly."
"Ah." Zeff nodded. "Well, it will take some time to, er… adjust. But we'll make do. Eventually." He murmured.
"Thank you for the offer." Anno added. "I may have to take you up on it."
I gave them a firm nod before continuing into the tri-hollow, only to halt at the sight of a familiar face nearly sprinting up to me. Like the Keeper of the Misty Arbor, there was something peculiar in the gilded eyes of Ferris Licht. A glint that made me wave all but the Troupe forward to hear what she had to say.
"Amun!" she panted. "Did you hear what happened?"
Somewhat playing coy, I tilted my head as a response. Not that playing coy could be believed anymore. "Plague." She continued. "On the southern end of the Kasian border. I know you said you aren't altruistic enough to be a healer, but our witches are at a loss. The Prince can think of no one else to ask."
"The prince?" I asked with a raised brow.
"Of Chaulort. Prince Daereindil Chaulort. The country is a principality. Though it hasn't always been. The former king's son was… not meant for the throne; at least, not yet. He entered at a time of unrest between his people and the Rharian Kingdom. Kasia has always been a threat, and now this. I… think he wants to meet you. He's mentioned you many times, though never by name. And I often find him staring at those rocks you put in the sky."
"Interesting." I nodded for a few seconds before turning to her. "What can you tell me about the plague?" I asked, motioning to the Troupe. "I have a few people versed in such things."
Her eyes brightened with newfound vigor at the words. Suddenly, the dour witch was like a schoolgirl hearing her crush liked her back. The transition was quite jarring, to say the least.
"It's been dubbed White Pox." She rambled. "It's like a… stony spore that partially calcifies the victim, leaving them in great pain."
"Ooh, that sounds fun!" Reina cooed. "I'll send someone over. Just try not to be jarred by their appearance too much."
"Same." Iris chimed.
"I'll send something with them." Leary added. It was his area of expertise, after all.
"And there you go." I smiled at Ferris, now that the deed was practically done. "That said." I continued. "We have some business to attend to beforehand, so we won't be in Chaulort in person for quite some time. I would like to meet this ruling prince, if possible. Especially if he's having problems with the elves of Rhar."
"I'll pass along the word. In the meantime, would you like to go through the dossiers together? There are a couple of other things I'd like to talk to you about."
She waited until she sat at a table at the far end of our hollow before continuing. Mostly because of the wide eyes of wonder she cast around the space. From the calm hills of 1st Legions alcove to the wild winds of 10th Legions' accommodations, her eyes lingered for several moments to absorb the wild wonders within.
Then she turned to me with a most severe expression. "Okay. You probably already know this, but I want to make sure I want to warn you. You'll catch the blame for anything bad that might happen during this event, and it wouldn't surprise me if someone sabotages them. People are already saying things because of the… changes to your appearance. On top of that, you like to break the mold. And if there's one thing humans in power dislike, it's change. Especially the kind that makes them lose control."
"Such a thought process isn't exclusive to humans, but thanks for the advice." I told her.
"Yes." She nodded. "And I would advise against going to Nonus next year as well. Or, if you do, try not to change anything. Keep as low a profile as possible."
"That's much harder than it sounds." I snorted. "I'm the God of such natural things, you know."
"Yeah." She nodded. "I know divinity when I feel it, and so do they. But that won't matter to them. In their eyes, you're just an evil god."
"A god of good and evil." I corrected. "But I get your point. I'll do my best to limit collateral damage. And if I can't… well, I always clean up my messes." I smiled.
She seemed okay with that and picked her stack of dossiers to flick through them. As did I, albeit at a much faster pace, to scan and store them in the Net's archives.
While others had specific things they chose to lookout for, I stuck with the general aspects, going over their places of origin, species, skills, and magic more than anything else. Like Class 999, they were an eclectic mix of mostly humans, sprinkled in with a few other species; and while their magics were many, they were no more exotic than those I'd already seen.
"As always, these beasts are weak." Granny Abbot huffed. "The students would be better off fighting your cousins."
"If only." I snorted. "Sadly, it's against the rules. But I agree, it'd be better to just throw goblin paragons at them."
"Can you imagine one of them fighting Leary?" Eban snickered. And we all turned to the Undying Goblin Emperor.
"I was wondering what he was." Ferris nonchalantly said, then hummed to herself in apparent amusement before turning her gaze to me. "Is that what you meant when you said you can make creatures stronger?"
"It is." I nodded. "Although Leary took a bit more work than others. Like this uh, giant tiger, for example. Felines belong to my twilight domain, so the divine mana pouring off of me changes them without my input. I can control it before that happens, however. To that end, I can grant this tiger misty abilities to challenge this water Djinni."
"I- I think that'll work." She blinked rapidly, recoiling at her papers. "Why don't we do this on the entire list?"
"Because that would come with conditions. Depending on how they're evolved, the spoils would have to be returned to the Legions. Such materials born from their corpses can sometimes be… volatile."
"I see." She nodded, looking away for a few moments. "Well, there's no easy way to say this, but that's your problem, talking to the guilds."
Me, along with Eban, couldn't help but erupt in laughter at her words. It was perhaps the third time now; the woman phrased her words in a way that could've been taken negatively, only for her to turn her sentence around with something helpful or, in this case, hilarious.
"That it is!" I snickered. Yet she seemed to care little for the humor.
"In that case, there's not much else to get done. I'm going to get some rest before the students arrive." She stood with a heavy sigh, yet looked at me with a million emotions bottled in her eyes; all positive, save a few. "And, Amun, thank you. Prince Chaulort will be delighted to hear of the news."
"Of course." I nodded to her, prompting her swift exit.
"I like her." Eban whistled low.
"She's a sorceress of light, you know," Etan monotonously quipped. Only for his brother to quip back with a pinpoint of twilight on his finger.
"Would you look at that? I can use light too!"
"You all have fun." I waved to them, stepping off. "I'm going to the library."
"Oh, Hells yeah!" Eban bounded forth to join me in diving off the Bodhi Tree's canopy.
If I ignored Eban's wild whooping and subsequent complaining about 'tree hugging architecture', it was an uneventful descent and migration to the library. The students were out in the field, so the place was empty, and it was just the same as I remembered. Even the library had the same three alcoves positioned around the central space. Yet, unlike before, a hidden stairwell unveiled itself upon our entry.
The top floor boasted only three sections, and much to Eban's dismay, none were related to spellcraft. The first was a copy of below, which listed all the potential paths for the classes the Bodhi Tree knew of, but for no charge of points.
Doing the diligence, Eban went to peruse them and thus add them to NoxNet's archives while I continued to the second section. In short, it was an annotated map of the Southern Peninsula, listing the countries and their relations alongside any potential points of interest for the adventuring students. Like the map below, it was magically connected to the many diaries and biographies of documented adventures.
Conversely, the last section was dedicated to the explored realms of Nonus. Only, it was focused around the Optimus Regni. Like the aforementioned map, it listed the lands of each guild alongside their specializations and relations to one another, but held no books to speak of, for the Regni was subject to change year by year.
Before I did any work, I analyzed the two maps here and the larger one below, using every perk and ability I had to determine exactly how it worked. Of course, I had my own versions of the map, but the enchantments and Druidcraft within either contained sigils I'd never seen before or were on a level I had never before witnessed.
Either way, Zorrenor's Druidcraft connected to the paper, leather, ink, and other materials comprising the books, to the shelves they rested on, enchanted to display the information he, most likely, used the tree to process. Powerful indeed, and no doubt magically taxing- for anything other than a demonic half-human high orc with an affinity for love, that is.
That, or, of course, technology.
With that done, however, I returned to the Regni map to study the guild I was considering shadowing the most come next year. And then pointed it out to Eban. "This is our next adventure."
"Now that looks fun!" Eban beamed.