Day -3 of the Academia Scholastic Trials
Satoshi began his day with a renewed fervor and spirit for his study. Ever since his meeting with Oda last night, he had a newfound conviction in his goals. It was either the urgency from the recent news about Kirgio, or the news about Mulah's grand achievement. Or it could be both.
The three teachers were not available to help him this day, so Satoshi asked their permission to enter their studies and continue studying on his own. The teachers didn't mind, thus Satoshi proceeded to basically ransack them for any valuable study materials.
The convoy of elders from the Universal Council of Elders had finally arrived in Istindi, and had begun with their preparations for the week-long trials. The three teachers from the Palace Museum had been summoned for help and collaboration for said preparation, thus their unavailability to help Satoshi.
Satoshi didn't mind, since it couldn't be helped anyway, so he planned to use the remaining days for independent study. He planned to push himself and his predictive learning technique to the limit.
Day -2 of the Academia Scholastic Trials
Streams of convoys and travelers had arrived in Istindi unceasingly. They came from every which direction toward Golden Ayodhya and Golden Sanguine. Golden Sanguine, was another sub-district within Istindi Province, outside of Giava Territory. Those would be the two places where the trials would be held within the Istindi Province.
The trial venue in Golden Ayodhya had always been the preferred choice, for some reasons. Mainly because it had a bigger capacity to accommodate more trials participants, the Golden Ayodhya's status as a place with Myriad Adepts, and the availability of accommodations for the supporters that came along with the many participants.
On this day, the whole Golden Ayodhya had become several folds more lively and business had boomed through the roof.
Meanwhile, Satoshi was still engrossed in his study, back at the Palace Museum.
Day -1 of the Academia Scholastic Trials
The preparation had reached a fever pitch. Waves of incoming participants had greatly lessened, but never really stopped. The entire city had gone eerily quiet, as in tacit understanding to allow all the participants one last quiet time to study for the coming day.
On this day, Satoshi had decided to stop with his study. On the last day, he wanted to give his mind the chance to settle down and really incorporate what he had learned so far.
But he was not entirely relaxing, instead, he worked on the order from the old lady of the Palace Museum's cafeteria that he had put off for so long.
Currently, he was in Unsui's study. Satoshi was seated on the floor in front of a sizable basin filled with water. There was a simple jig resting ontop of this basin. On the wall in front of him, there was an illumination crystal, shining a bright light onto the jig and the basin.
Satoshi gently caressed the stack of paper that the Old lady had given him. He smiled when he felt the all familiar feeling of paper rubbing against his skin. He couldn't remember how many times he had done this in the past.
Unconsciously, his mind went back to the days he spent with his father, working on all those water-print products.
Satoshi couldn't help but chuckle when he remembered his conversation with his father back then. Now that he thought about it, he was indeed a little bit afraid of the future. But who would have thought that only a couple of years later, he would end up preparing for something more dangerous than he could ever dream of, all because of a single lie?
Satoshi finished water-printing the paper in a flash. Ever since he learned more about the basics of inscriptions and enchantment techniques from Unsui and Tellrog, Satoshi had become much more skillful and refined in his imprinting technique, especially for something as simple as the water-print technique.
Satoshi gathered all the paper he had printed and left Unsui's study. He didn't even bother to clean up too much, since the study was already too messy, to begin with. That was why he chose to do it in Unsui's study in the first place.
After he handed the finished paper to the old lady, Satoshi felt a sense of relief. Now he could really focus on the trials tomorrow, with no other responsibility weighing him down. As he was heading to his room, Satoshi heard his communication terminal chime.
Satoshi turned it on and saw a new voice message, it was from Sepphira.
[BEEP! Playing message. BEEP!]
"The assessment crystal had arrived. Go to my study in half an hour and we can test your affinity."
[BEEP! End of message. BEEP!]
Satoshi frowned when he heard the message. He still couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling he had due to the whole "piranha" misunderstanding. Now that Sepphira had sent him the message, he couldn't be sure whether she already found out or not, at least not from her voice.
If she hadn't found out, then at most it would be an awkward meeting. If she had found out, then being awkward would be the least of Satoshi's worries.
Satoshi couldn't make up his mind for quite some time. In the end, he decided not to reply to the message for the time being.
It was more than an hour after Satoshi received the message and he was in Sepphira's study at this moment. Aside from Sepphira, there were also Unsui and Tellrog. It was very faint, but if one were to look closely one would be able to see some unpleasantness on Sepphira's face.
Unsui and Tellrog were practically dragged by Satoshi into this.
When he thought about the loudmouth that was Unsui, Satoshi couldn't let him go scot-free from what was about to come. Tellrog was also begged to come by Satoshi as insurance, if anything bad were to happen, at least there would be someone to save him.
Sepphira looked at the three men in front of her and felt a little bit conflicted. She didn't invite Unsui and Tellrog, but they came anyway due to Satoshi's invitation. If she insisted on them to skedaddle, then it would be too weird, so she could only swallow it.
Tellrog warily looked around toward Unsui, Sepphira, and Satoshi. In a sense, he was the most alert among all of them.
Unsui had been quiet since he entered the study. As if frozen, like a deer in headlights.
Sepphira reached into her bosom and took out a small pouch and handed it to Satoshi.
"Here, take it, it's the assessment crystal."
Unsui's eyes lit up when he saw where Sepphira took the pouch from, he almost reached for the pouch but managed to stop himself at the last moment.
Satoshi received the pouch and opened it, there were two clear crystals the size of half a palm inside and they were both warm to the touch. Satoshi quickly told his mind not to wander around when he felt the warm sensation.
"What do I do with this?" Satoshi asked Sepphira.
"Put some mental energy into it and the crystal will react. It will change its internal structure and from the result, we can see what kind of affinity you have."
"Do I need to do it twice?" Satoshi asked since there were two of the crystals.
"Generally speaking, no. The second one is just to be entirely sure since there can be minute differences from one crystal to another."
Satoshi had heard of such crystals before and he knew each of these would fetch an astronomical price.
"Since that is the case, I'll just do it once, you don't need to spend an extra crystal on me."
"Nonsense, Mulah had prepared two because we want to be sure. If two is not enough, he is prepared to send some more."
Satoshi was startled to hear that, "Mulah sent these?"
"He did. He wanted you to get every edge you can get for the trial, and since this will especially be helpful during the interview section, you don't need to be modest." Sepphira answered with a smile.
Satoshi looked at the crystal in his hand and thought about Mulah. Even a thousand miles apart, he was still thinking about Satoshi.
Satoshi no longer hesitated and sent a stream of mental energy into the crystal. He held nothing back and went full force, the crystal began to shine with a soft wight light that gradually turned brighter by the second. Satoshi kept sending his mental energy into the crystal until it could no longer receive any.
After several seconds, the light from the crystal dimmed down and completely went out as it no longer absorbed any mental energy from Satoshi. Satoshi opened his hand and saw that there were changes within the crystal.
"What now?" Satoshi asked.
"Unsui." Sepphira called on Unsui to get his assessment.
Unsui woke up from his stupor and accepted the crystal from Satoshi. He gave it a serious look, turning it multiple times to look at it from different angles. In his hand, the previously clear crystal began to contain several spots of black clouds that rapidly expanded, changing the whole crystal to a blackish color.
After some time, the entire crystal had settled and no longer made any changes. Unsui knitted his brows even further as he said "There's nothing."
"What?" Sepphira and Tellrog asked at the same time.
"Look, there's nothing," Unsui said as he showed the crystal to Tellrog beside him.
Tellrog gave it a look and gave the crystal to Sepphira, which in turn seriously looked at Satoshi.
"Give the other crystal a try," she said.
"What's wrong? Did I do it wrong?"
"No, we can't say yet. Just do the other crystal for now and we can see."
Satoshi obliged and did the other crystal as Sepphira asked. He did as he does before and gave the crystal to Unsui. Unsui studied the crystal for a while and finally looked at Satoshi and Sepphira.
"It's the same," Unsui said.
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