Genoa's Inheritance happens to be in the west side of the empire.
And further south than the capital.
Naturally, it's a long way to get there.
So the question is, how did a person, more specifically, a commoner, since they have little money, afford to travel to the inheritance site?
Well, that's the thing. Genoa was a graduate of the academy, she lived to be roughly 120 years old, and was part of I believe the 7th or 8th class of the academy. According to Morgan, via voice lines during dialogue, Genoa was bullied for being weak, despite her monstrous 8th circle talent.
In the end Genoa never made it to the 8th circle, and died a hundred or so years after graduating.
But she never forgot the academy, so on the academy graduate stones, which contains the names of all the graduates from the beginning, she left spatial magic on her name
Her name is inscribed on the first stele.
The steles are about 10 feet tall, but the names are only about knee low, and eye height.
When Morgan touched the name of Genoa on the stele, the magic left by Genoa resonated with the thoughts of Morgan.
The prerequisites to opening the teleport magic on her name, was 2 things, a person with great talent, who was weak, and that they were unconfident in their abilities.
As to how Genoa did it, I have no clue. It was a game, was I supposed to look that deep into it?
Genoa did however have such a restriction, and currently Morgan met it.
So I decided to lure Morgan to the academy's graduate hall, where the stones were located.
But first to find Morgan.
No doubt she's currently in her room practicing magic.
Before I begin my plan I needed to really consolidate my plan after preventing the assassination.
In three weeks the first of the 9 episodes will begin.
The school year is divided in two semesters, and the total number of weeks in school is 36.
In the school year this means roughly 4 weeks between each episode.
Except that only four episodes happen in the first semester and 5 happen in the second.
If it wasn't already clear, act 1 meant year 1.
Of course Nyx studios was quirky like that.
But in terms of the time line of the first semester, the first two episodes occur 3 weeks apart, meaning the first episode occurs 3 weeks in and the second occurs 6 weeks in, then we have the next episode in the 10th week, and the final episode unfortunately in the 16th.
The second semester looks a little better.
The 5th episode begins 4 weeks in, and the 6th only 6 weeks in.
The 7th happens in the 10th, the 8th in the 18th, and the 9th on the 20th week.
Not great pacing by Nyx Studios, but amazing writing and reasoning, so I'll let it slide.
That identified the timeline, now I need to consolidate my party.
So for self explaining reasons I have: Mark, Aisha, Celeste, and Morgan if I can convince her.
In the secondary party I have: Aura, Charlotte, Noah, and the twin sisters.
Including myself that's 9 people I can maneuver around Charlotte.
However, they need to be able to handle themselves.
Celeste, Mark, and Aisha as well as everyone else on team 2 is ok for the episode.
Morgan isn't, but with my help might just be our secret weapon.
I headed to the Medez dorm where Morgan while I thought about my plan.
Nearly leaving the path and stepping onto the campus grass due to my focus on the plan.
I never really thought of exactly how this conversation would go, since in the original game, she powers up, but still decides to keep it hidden, and when it is revealed later, if you haven't recruited her, it actually becomes an intermission episode, and is time limited.
What happens is, if you have her in your party, her sudden power increase is explainable via dungeon training,
But if you don't she lacks people to talk to and friends, because of her bullying, and the other students avoiding the wrath of the people bullying her, the bullies accuse her of colluding with demons.
And this intermission episode is timed, unlike the regular episodes which are one off events that have set dates, where they occur and essentially being at the academy is waiting for said events, intermission episodes are episodes that have a number of days to be completed by.
The 'sudden power increase' showed by Morgan also changes based on your actions during free time, and it is possible to overlap intermission episodes with the regular episodes, which immediately fails the intermission one, if not at least 50% solved.
However most people avoid that since it wastes free time in game to complete intermission episodes, and the time spent recruiting Morgan is actually worth it.
So I've shown myself to be not so motivated to work yet.
I need to change that, fast.
From now until the end of the semester, aside from fulfilling my occasional duty to Aura, or keeping up with my teammates, I'll train.
I need people to believe I'm striving hard for something, even if that something doesn't actually exist.
Just enough to be a smokescreen for my teammates, when they eventually start rising fast too.
Alright here.
I showed the receptionist in the lobby my card since I wasn't familiar with the workers and went to a phone room.
Morgan always had the same room number throughout the entire semester up until the intermission episode, because she would always find herself in the Medez hall.
So I called her room number.
And to my surprise she picked up on the first attempt.
"Hello? Who is this? I wasn't expecting a call."
"Hi, I'm Lucas from-"
Click.
Damn. Maybe that's why she answered.
I tried again, and again to no avail.
I had called maybe 6 times in the last 15 minutes, before realizing, I would probably have to catch her outside her room.
I span in my chair thinking about it, before deciding I needed one more attempt.
And as I did someone opened my call room door.
"Um, sorry I;m already-"
"So it's you who's been calling me."
"Yes."
Lucky me I guess, she decided to come to me instead of me having to find her.
"Why are you here?"
"I need your help."
"Don't lie to me, I can't see your magic circle, which means you're a higher circle, did Marco and his goons put you up to this?"
Gotta play dumb.
"Uh, who?"
"Don't play dumb with me. How much are they paying you? Or are you being coerced into this?"
"Look, I need help with something, and it's not entirely magic related, but I heard from someone you have what it takes."
Something vague might work.
"Sure but just in case, you will walk in front of me so that you take the hit if this is a prank."
"Sure."
"Oh, and no manifesting magic, if I see you even try it, I'll knock you out."
"Got it."
"So what did you need help with?"
"Well, I can't explain here, let's go to the graduation hall."
"Then walk."
She was suspicious of me, but I was fine with it. Years of bullying and torment make someone extremely resilient to being messed with.
I led the way to the graduation hall and to my surprise there were a few students there, not any that really meant any harm, and I saw 2 of them were seniors anyways.
"So explain."
"Alright it's like this."
"There's an odd mana signature, but it requires a lower circle to activate."
"Is this really your best way of getting me?"
"I know it isn't any consolation, but here take my swords, feel free to hold onto them while I show you. Hopefully that makes you trust me a little more."
"Maybe."
She cocked an eyebrow, a habit she had when she found something interesting, and it was one of her most used images in the text images during free time or discussion in dungeons in the game.
"Alright then, go ahead show me the circle."
I walked ahead of her again straight to Genoa's engraving.
"Here, put your hand on it."
"Fine."
"Then I think you need to express your feelings about magic, for it to activate."
"Okay, I feel hap-"
"Sorry, I should have clarified you didn't have to express them out loud, thinking them is enough."
She was bright red, and probably very angry.
She held her hand up and waited.
Nothing happened.
"Great, so was that it, was that the prank?"
"No, please calm down."
"Just try one more time, please."
I guess I sounded sincere enough because she tried once more.
I felt something tugging at my body, and before I realized it I was lying on the ground.
I sat up and looked for Morgan.
She was lying next to me, so I decided to wake her up.
"Morgan."
I said, tapping her shoulders.
"Morgan, wake up."
"Uhhhh...."
She sat up.
Then her eyes steeled as she raised her arm ready to cast.
"That was quite the nasty trick you pulled there."
"Wait, look around."
She paused for a moment.
We 'stood' on nothing all around us was the stars.
"So where the hell are we?"
"I have no idea."
She raised her arm again to cast, but then nothing came out.
"I can't cast?"
With that she rushed up to me and grabbed my collar.
"What the hell did you get us into?!"
"Calm down, do you want to alert anything that might be in here?"
"..."
"Alright. I guess the first thing we should do is run self diagnostics to see if we're unable to use mana at all."
"And how do you propose we do that?"
"Well we can both channel mana inside of us, and I can produce sword aura."
"No way, I'm keeping your swords, I don't even know where we are."
"Neither do I so hand them over."
"This could be a pocket dimension given to you by that bastard to humiliate me!"
"I hate that noble son of a bitch and his entourage! But if you don't give me my weapons we could be in serious danger."
I quieted my voice as I spoke.
I wasn't sure what was in here, I never had any dialogue with Morgan in game about much of her time in here.
"Oh. Sorry, I guess you're aren't with them, because, he's not the kind of person to let that comment slide."
"Thanks."
I remarked sarcastically.
Man, maybe that intermission episode wouldn't be so bad after all.
After she handed back my weapons I put mana into my sword, and began to channel my aura.
I still could.
I turned to Morgan, who still couldn't manifest magic.
I tried as well, and failed.
"Any luck?"
I said, knowing there was no advancement.
"No, you?"
"I've got sword aura."
"Do you have any offensive artifacts?"
I mean I still had the wings, and a few communication and defensive artifacts, but no official capacity offensive artifacts.
"Not any I still have on me."
"Damn."
"Did you have any food or water on you?"
"No, did you?"
"Yeah I did"
I always carried rations for about 3 weeks around with me, never know when a flash dungeon will appear. Flash dungeons were introduced in the sequel game, but I couldn't know if they were able to spawn during the main story.
"Are you willing to share?"
"Of course, are you kidding me? Two heads are always better than one, and I wouldn't leave you defenseless and starving in here."
"Thanks."
As soon as I pulled out my beef jerky, I felt a spell being placed on me.
It didn't feel like it was filled with cursed attribute, carried malice, or had murderous intent, but I still prevent the cast.
As soon as that happened, a dome around us shattered.
And I could see the stars surrounding us clearer, like someone who had put on glasses.
"What did you say your name was?"
"Lucas."
"Well Lucas, any guess what just happened?"
"Nope."
Then another voice joined our conversation.
"Well I may be able to solve your confusion."