Now on a bad note, Spider-Woman is an impulsive chatterbox who seems to have no concept of personal space and is always hanging around him, poking him with her front legs. Zorian wasn't afraid of spiders, but this close physical contact was too much.
Basically, she's a spider version of El. And the only reason he tolerated El's antics as much as he did was because she was his sister.
Despite this, Zorian was actually happy to see her. But she still has a wealth of information about psionics and Alanya. Every explanation the matriarch gave seemed to Zorian like a thinly veiled attempt at manipulation, nothing deceptive about it. Most of the time, she speaks her mind.
[Man has built many strange things,] and novelty is announced after glass bottles are inspected visually and tactilely. Zorian wondered if spiders in general liked touching things so much,
【How do you do this? This is the same clear rock you use to make the "window" stuff. This clear rock is called glass, and it's not really a sculpture. It is made from sand that is heated until it melts so it is malleable, and then shaped by inserting long tubes into the resulting melt and blowing air into it. "
Novelty turned around and all eyes were on him.
[In the name of grandma’s wrinkled egg sack, how did you guys even think of doing this? Do humans have some kind of magical stone sense or something like that? ]
"Uh, no," Zorian said patiently. It's annoying to explain things like this to Novelty, but it makes her more willing to share things with him in turn, so he keeps trying. "Humans have always used a variety of tools. Our natural form is very fragile, so building things is a matter of survival. We use rough tools to make better tools, and then use those better tools to make more precise tools , etc. I don’t really know how glassblowing came about, but it didn’t just magically appear in someone’s head…”
[I really don't think you are vulnerable. ] Xinqi said doubtfully. [You possess incredible magic, with which you nearly conquered the surface world. ]
"Not all humans use magic," Zorian said. “There are only a small number of mages.
"Okay," Zorian sighed. "We're off track again. Let's focus on the course again."
[But those classes were so boring! ] Novelty complained. [You already know most of this; it's just a matter of practice, which you can't do here anyway. Are you practicing? ]
"Of course," Zorian agreed. "I spend most of my time trying to get a feel for my classmates and other students in the building. I don't get anything else useful out of class these days. Things are going well, but I still have to be extremely focused to get any range. I also try By sensing their emotions, but it's still very incidental. Are you sure no one will catch me doing this? Because if anyone caught me messing with people's minds, I'd be in trouble."
[Oh, sure,] the novelty is confirmed. [The basic shielding spells that mages like to use almost destroy your ability to use empathy against them. Too many distractions. On the other hand, detecting them becomes easier. Any mind-affecting spell can make the mind "noisy," even to telepaths. Especially defensive, now that I think about it. Well, except for the infamous spell called "Mind Blank," which actually causes the mind to disconnect from the Great Web, making a person completely invisible to telepathic perception and completely unaffected by mind-affecting magic. . Pretty scary stuff, that. ]
Zorian knew the spell she spoke of. Mind Blank is known as the "ultimate defense" against psychic magic, but the spell is notorious for causing psychological problems if used incorrectly or overused. Some mages become paranoid about having their minds invaded, and become insane after permanently turning them on.
"That's strange," Zorian said innocently. "The Matriarch told me that no fragile human magic could protect me from her if she was determined to capture me, but here you are telling me that I can learn a spell to make myself completely impervious to psychic powers. Influence."
[Ah, well, you see...] Fumbling with novelty. [She's actually right, because these are completely different things, right? The shield is one thing - we can knock it down completely or bypass it. But if you leave the big network, it's like you don't even exist! You first need to sense a mind to connect to it, if you can't connect to it -]
"I see," interrupted Zorian. "No telepathy, no Aran mind magic. And you can't connect to something you can't sense telepathically. Well, apparently the creators of Psychic Blank know a thing or two about psychic powers - it sounds like this spell was specifically designed to defeat them Designed."
"Okay," Zorian said. He had no intention of causing trouble in the Novelty family, so he stopped pursuing the topic. Regardless, their super secret defense plan probably boils down to "destroy the entire tunnel above them." "So mind blanking is a psychic skill that is turned into a spell. I guess that's not surprising - mages love to take the abilities of magical creatures and turn them into spells for their own use."
[Really? ] Xinqi asked. [But I think human magic is so good that there is nothing we can learn from others. The matriarch is always saying how amazing your magic is and how no one can match it...]
"Totally wrong," Zorian said.
[certainly! Who do you think I am? ] Xinqi protested. [If I can't fight telepathically, I'll be eaten while I'm in the hatchery! ]
Zorian blinked. "What, seriously? Like, really eaten or...?"
[Uh, no, not really eating. We haven't had hatchlings eat each other since... well, actually, let's not talk about that. It's just a metaphor, and that's what matters. one way or another! ] Xinqi quickly changed the subject. [I don't know how it works in humans, but newborn spiders are confined to hatcheries for the first few months of their existence. There were usually a lot of us, and we were all locked up in this boring little room with nothing to do except pester the caregivers with stories and fights with each other, and the caregivers didn't like the hatchlings fighting. with each other. They are more tolerant of...experimentation...with our psychic powers, though. Some telepathic roughhousing is to be expected, so you'll quickly learn the basics of defending your mind. ]
Zorian tried to imagine the scene Novel had just described, then shakily gave up the idea. He made a mental note to avoid going near the Spider Hatchery at all costs to prevent this problem from arising in the future.
"That's... interesting... but not exactly what I'm asking about. I'm asking about counter defense, not protecting yourself," he concluded.
"I guess I've always forgotten that psychic powers are not discrete spells, but multiple manifestations of a single overall ability," Zorian admitted. "Retribution doesn't have to be mental, though - if I can stop your mental attacks long enough, I can hit you or cast a spell on you to stop you. Considering I know nothing about telepathic combat, This is probably the smartest choice for me. Which brings me to my suggestion - I want to see how my magic defense abilities stack up against yours. I'll cast some mind shields and you'll try to keep them Take it apart. What do you say?”
Still, Zorian was satisfied with it. He has gotten more from Alanya than he ever imagined.
"We won't 'advance my lessons' because you won't teach me anything," Zorian insisted. "This is just an experiment. I want to see what effect my spell has on you."
[Okay, then I'm totally interested! ] Xinqi agreed, suddenly becoming enthusiastic. [But, uh, you can't physically attack me in response, okay? ]
"That kind of defeats the purpose of the experiment," Zorian agreed.
[correct. So are we assuming I was ambushed or am I pressed for time? ] Xinqi asked.
"What's the difference?"
[Well, if I'm attacking from an ambush, I'll try to bypass your shield entirely with superior skill. It's very effective when it works, but it's slow to set up, so if the target isn't too busy with my stuff or unaware of what I'm trying to do, it won't work. On the other hand, if time is of the essence, I'll use brute force to break the shield. It's faster, but mana is more expensive. Oh, and it's hard to judge the exact amount of force needed to break through a defense without compromising the mind it's defending, so, uh... let's pretend I'm attacking from an ambush, okay? ]
"Yes, let's," Zorian said deadpan.
The next hour was both frustrating and enlightening. While Zorian tries in vain to perfect his defenses through repeated combinations of spellcasting and spells, the novelty treats the whole thing as a game, one that improves over time. It's embarrassing to watch an over-excited, distracted Spider go through his spells for 30 seconds like they don't exist. Granted, those 30 seconds would be enough for him to burn her to death in real life, but only if he has the ability to do so, which is probably an unfounded assumption. What if she hid it from him? What if she was behind some kind of ward? What if she wasn't the only attacker?
- rest -
Zo
ia
Before he even sat down, Xvim decided to talk to him.
"I hear you've been casting fireballs," Xvim said. "Really?"
"Yes, I can cast spells," Zorian said carefully, as if speaking slower would help him avoid the minefield Xvim had set for his question. "Only at minimum power, admittedly, but—"
"Well, that's no," Xvim deadpanned. He stared at him, as if daring Zorian to contradict him. Fortunately, Zo
ia
Xvim was too wise to get excited by Xvim's declaration, so they just stared at each other in silence for a moment. Finally, Xvim broke the stare with an exaggerated sigh. "Magics these days are always too eager to do immature things. I expected better from you. There's nothing wrong with being interested in combat magic, but immediately pursue the flashiest, highest-rated spells you can is unwise. A half-power fireball is no fireball at all. You should focus on building a solid foundation until you can get it right."
"Well," Zorian said quietly, "then why don't you tell me how it's done?"
In response, Xvim wordlessly pulled a stack of cards from a drawer and threw them at him. Zorian instinctively grabbed them before they hit his head, so used to his antics that he was surprised by this move.
"Cards?" he asked, turning them over into his hand. They look just like regular playing cards, except that their faces are replaced by squares, lines, circles, and other geometric shapes.
"Card," Xvim confirmed. "Specifically, cards made of mana-absorbing material. The seemingly decorative runes in the corners will expel any mana the cards have amassed and radiate it into the surrounding environment. To affect them in any way would require a lot of of mana.”
"Will I affect them?" Zorian guessed.
"I'm sure you'll try," Xvim said lightly, without looking at Zo
ia
, but deliberately rearranged the pen on the table. "They are difficult to influence for a weak-skilled mage like yourself. In short, you will attempt to burn the shapes drawn on the cards - and only the shapes. Start when you feel ready. "
Zorian stared at the cards for a moment. He doubted he knew what the point of the exercise was - he had to use a lot of mana, and he had to use it immediately, otherwise the runes in the corners would just radiate his mana away. This is the fundamental challenge of almost all combat magic: sculpt large amounts of mana quickly without disturbing the spell's boundaries too much.
So he took a deep breath, picked the card that seemed easiest to him (just a circle in the middle, how hard could that be?), and put a fair amount of magic into his first try .
Nothing happens except that the corner glyph glows slightly.
damn it. This might be a little more difficult than he thought.
- rest -
After several unsuccessful attempts to affect the card, Zorian eventually succeeded in burning away some vague shapes that were clearly inspired by what was drawn on them rather than being drawn on them. An irregular hole is burned into the center of the card. As expected, Xvim had some very disparaging things to say about it.
Of course, they still fought tooth and nail against the invaders during the Summer Festival.
The next two reboots were much the same - Aranea gathered information about the invaders, sometimes asked Zorian to speak for them when they had to interact with someone publicly, and launched a limited campaign among cultists and other invaders. of the assassination, they managed to confirm. Zorian learned battle magic, the Alanian mind arts, and tried to survive Xvim's lessons without punching the man in the face. Their efforts are steadily bearing fruit, and with each restart of the invasion, which becomes increasingly chaotic, the Matriarch hopes that their mysterious third traveler will soon appear.
Let Zo
ia
What was most surprising was that Novelty actually remembered their interactions from the previous reboot. Apparently the matriarch didn't have a monopoly on memory transfer as Zorian thought, but instead gave him the memories of 6 different Alanya in her memory pack.
Novelty, now Zorian's personal trainer, was considered important enough to be included in that elite company, something the young Spider took great pride in.
But now, Zorian decided it was time for a change of pace. Two Xvim-filled reboots were enough for him, and Taiven had taught him most of what she knew about combat magic.
He knocked on Ilsa's office door and waited for her to invite him inside.
- rest -
"Good morning, Mr. Kaczynski," Ilsa said with a hint of amusement. "I didn't expect you until Friday. I assume you've heard some stories about your mentor?"
"No, I already know what kind of person Xvim is. That's not why I'm here," Zorian said. "No, I'm here because I want to learn how to teleport."
Ilsa blinked in surprise. "That's... quite ambitious. Putting aside the question of why I would take the time to teach you, what makes you think you're capable of casting such a spell? Even the simplest teleportation spell is incredibly difficult."
"It's a fair question," Zorian admitted. “How about a demonstration?”
"Anyway," Ilsa smiled and motioned for him to continue. Zorian didn't need sympathy to know that she didn't think he was capable of impressing her.
So – accept the challenge.
Every difficult sculpting exercise, every complex spell he'd learned in the time loop - he showed it. Every written or theory question she asked him, he retorted with a perfect answer - sometimes because he really knew the topic, sometimes because every time he tried to impress her, she tended to Ask the same question. Then, while she was still in shock that he was skilled enough to graduate from the Academy at this very moment if he wanted to, he took out several magic items from his backpack and began to explain his spells to her Formula Experiment. While Zorian wasn't officially a Spell Formula teacher, she knew from previous reboots that she had a good understanding of the field and could understand the difficulty of the feats he was demonstrating to her.
“I’m surprised you didn’t apply to transfer to a Division I team with these skills,” Ilsa said when he finally finished.
Ah, yes, Level 1 groups—the academy's answer to students who are too advanced for normal classes. Sadly, the prestige of belonging to one of these groups means that many people go to great lengths to put their children into it, which means that the actual classes are unlikely to be much more advanced than normal, otherwise all purchases or other arrangements are made in The people who exist there cannot keep up. Zorian had heard all kinds of things about these groups, good and bad, but the general picture seemed to be that one group of climbers looked down upon the others. Zorian wanted no part of it.
“I believe I can accomplish more through independent study,” Zorian said. “If I really thought my course had nothing to offer me, I would take the exam.”
"Don't be too hasty," Ilsa warned. "I'm sure you'll find the Academy resources still useful over the next year or so. You're not that advanced yet."
The academy doesn't like people taking tests. They are openly proud of their ability to help adult mages, let alone gifted children. Graduating early means that students have nothing to learn in college, which is also a slap in the face. You also don’t get any money for finishing early.
Ilsa continued to think silently for a while, and had to try another method in the next repair——
"Okay, this is my proposal." Ilsa said suddenly. "I will transfer your instruction from Xvim to myself. I will provide you with instruction in advanced aspects of illusions, transformations, animations, and spells. If I am impressed by your dedication, then I will Add dimensional spells to that list, and if you prove yourself adept at them... then I will teach you basic teleportation spells."
Zorian blinked. What? This is far more than he asked for! He's not complaining, but...
"That sounds better than I hoped," Zorian said. "Any questions?"
"Well, first of all, I want you to be my personal assistant," Ilsa said. "I've been trying to find one for the past two years, but the principal refuses to pay them, and it's surprisingly difficult to find a technician willing to work for free. Anyway, you mainly have to deal with the sheer volume of tests and assignments I receive every day, and I also You may be asked to take over some teaching duties in my first-year classes. Or any other random assignment that I deem below me, really."
Very annoying but reasonably priced for what she offers. In fact, the whole thing sounds an awful lot like—
"You will officially become my apprentice," Ilsa continued. "If I'm going to teach you advanced magic and trust you with my work, I want to have some legal control over you."
…like that. Normally, Zorian would be very wary of signing an apprenticeship contract with someone he barely knew, as their main purpose was to screw the apprentice over if they broke their agreement with their mentor, but this contract only lasted until the end of the semester. Reboot, so what.
"Oh, by the way, you will be the class representative of your group." Ilsa said suddenly.
Ilsa smiled. "Zo
ia
, the reason I gave you this position is that Akoja doesn’t want it anymore. She said she hated the position—that everyone shunned her because of it and that I should give it to someone else. Unfortunately, I haven't received any invitations to exchange with her. Not from anyone I trust, anyway. She gave Zorian a knowing look. "You were one of the people she recommended for this position, but I didn't even bother to ask you about it." Everything I've heard about you indicates that you won't accept this position. "
"You're absolutely right," Zorian agreed, still slightly shocked. Akoja doesn’t want to be the class representative? But this girl lives for these things! Anyway, if she doesn't want to do it, why is she so involved? If Zorian is stuck in a job he hates, he'll do as little as possible or even screw it up on purpose so that Ilsa will feel pressured to replace him as quickly as possible. Why can’t Akoja do the same? "The only reason I'm taking this now is because your offer is so good."
"So we have an agreement?" Ilsa asked for confirmation.
"Yes, but I have a question and a request," Zorian said. "First of all, why are you teaching me these specific subjects? Second, I want to learn teleportation magic before the Summer Festival."
"It's been a dream of mine to be able to do this," Zorian shrugged. "In my opinion, teleportation has always been one of the prime examples of what a true mage can and should be able to do."
"Interesting. Out of curiosity, what else could a real mage do?" Ilsa asked.
"Create a force field, create a magic item, create a fireball, repair damaged objects and become invisible," Zorian said. "I can already do the first four, but the fifth is illegal without a special permit."
He was already working on getting the invisibility spell anyway, but she didn't have to know that.
Ilsa gave him a knowing look, and if Zorian wasn't sure he could detect any random intrusions into his thoughts, he would worry that she was reading his mind.
“To answer your first question, I chose these subjects because they are my own majors,” Ilsa said. "It's only right for an apprentice to learn from his master's expertise, isn't it?"
"Of course," Zorian agreed. "I'm not sure what all these things have in common though. Aren't majors supposed to be more focused?"
"Well, when I was a young mage, I too had a dream," Ilsa said. "Specifically, I want to master the actual spell."
Zorian blinked. "Like creating real matter out of thin air? Isn't that a myth?"
"Yes, that is the current position of the Academy," Ilsa agreed. "Pre-Cataclysm sources claim that powerful mages could accomplish this feat, but all the spells capable of this have been lost, and no one in modern times has been able to recreate them. Many mages believe they never existed, and the old The records simply made up or described something other than actual physical creation. Regardless, as a young mage it had always been a dream of mine to recreate these spells, so I researched any avenue I thought I could use to achieve this goal. Modern conjuration is basically about creating illusions of entities, so it was somewhat natural to start with illusions and then progress to conjuration. Then, since real spells involve real matter, I moved on to transmutation spells that deal with object creation."
"Then...did you succeed?" Zorian asked curiously.
"Depends on your definition of success," Ilsa shrugged. "My ultimate goal was to design a spell that could summon materials from somewhere else, without the caster having to know exactly where the materials came from. This is how I imagined how the ancient Ikos might have "faked" material creation. I was somewhat successful, but The spell I cast only worked in a specially prepared room, and the mana cost of the spell varied greatly with each cast, depending on what I wanted to summon. Also the gold creation part of the experiment was from nearby The embarrassing incident of these ancient coins being stolen from the museum..."
She shook her head. "Let's tell this story next time. No matter what, I have to go to class as soon as possible. I will prepare an apprenticeship contract for you to sign tomorrow. Be sure to come over and take a look when you are free."
- rest -
The next five restarts were both hectic and boring. Busy because there is always something that needs to be done, boring because there is little that is truly new in it. Continuously improving his various skills, Spider became very good at fighting intruders in various ways,
Zack seems to have finally come to terms with the background Zhongzheng
Something very unusual was going on, and it wasn't of his doing.
It's almost impossible for Zach to think of Zorian as the cause of these changes, as the sheer magnitude of them tends to overwhelm anything Zorian does personally. In each reboot, Aranea is always very aggressive in providing anonymous tips to the West Oria Police Department, assassinating some people, and even spreading some rumors.
As a result, when Zorian entered the first class, this change had spread to the entire city, including the teachers and students of the academy. Zach didn't seem to doubt that Zorian or any of his other classmates were the ultimate cause of this.
In this regard, Zorian begins to agree with Zack - whoever the third time traveler is, he certainly doesn't belong in their class. Zorian talked to them all under various pretexts - he found nothing that implicated any of them.
All in all, from Zorian's perspective, things were going pretty well. The final reboot was particularly good as far as Zorian was concerned - he finally managed to learn the teleportation spell from Ilsa, and Zack actually started to fight back against the intruders intelligently, rather than simply trying to deal with it with his combat skills Their last invasion attempt failed to capture the main college building or the student shelters because the spiders had somehow managed to influence the college leadership to adjust their defense protocols.
But the matriarch was getting impatient. She was getting more and more nervous with each reboot, and she refused to tell him what it was, giving some lame excuse every time he asked. She seems to be focusing most of her energy on some sort of personal project, which she describes as "information gathering" and "following your gut," and whatever results she gets are clearly unsettling to her. Zorian strongly suspects that she has discovered some important information about the nature of the time loop, but she refuses to share it with him for some reason. To be honest, he felt a little bitter about it. What could be more disturbing than what they already knew about this phenomenon?
Regardless, the matriarch insists that the third time traveler must be found, and the sooner the better. Once Zorian confirmed that they were not in his class, she was convinced that, like Zach, they were out of the city most of the time. It's likely that they simply provided key information to the intruders at the beginning of the reboot and then went about their business. If they had tried to get their attention, the invasion would have likely failed miserably.
As a result, the matriarch made plans for the next reboot, which definitely cannot be ignored...
