Hyperion Evergrowing

Chapter 166: Local Expedition

As Leif exited the greenhouse and entered the living room he spotted Hera lying on a couch, her long blond hair cascading over the back of the expensive furniture as she leaned with her face tilted upwards, a wet cloth covering her eyes.

“Long night?” He asked, holding the door as Lucia scooted into the residence after him.

Hera’s response was a mix between a grunt of affirmation, and a groan of agony. She shifted in place, the cloth slightly falling off of her face as she turned slightly towards them. “Someone important thought the little incident at the arena was a terrorist attack and started calling in military favours. A former provincial governor and his old war pals thought it would be a good idea to try and instate martial law, which they had absolutely no authority to do, and a group of particularly devout, but not particularly bright people broke into a student laboratory and started retrofitting it into an apocalypse shelter.”

“Sounds fun.” Leif said flatly.

“I spent four hours having a standoff with an elite squad of imperial soldiers over the sea with Kastro and Mouric. If they had tried to force their way onto the islands there may have been a tinsy winsy, ever so small civil war. Luckily they didn’t.” Hera said, her one revealed eye swivelling to look at Lucia.

The girl was standing awkwardly off to the side, hovering between trying not to be noticed, and clearly wanting to say something. She tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. “Good to, uh, see you, miss Hera. Sorry for my, um, the way…”

The Blade waved her words away. “None of that. Just happy you’re finally up and about. I trust beating Leif with sticks made you feel better?”

Lucia considered the question, then just nodded.

“She barely landed a single hit.” Leif grumbled, though his tone made it clear he was joking. “I wouldn’t call it a beating.”

“Goodnight, Lucia.” Leif said, indicating that she didn’t need to stay. The girl smiled gratefully, bobbed her head in the approximation of a bow, then quietly scurried upstairs.

“I take it she has a class then?” Hera asked after a minute of silence.

Leif sat on the couch opposite to her, crossing one leg over the other and resting his arms over the back. “She does. [Rogue]. Got a level up too. She just picked her first skill.”

“Ah, the good old days.” Hera mused, returning the cloth to cover both eyes. “I kind of miss it, you know. Only having a handful of skills, all my attributes being below ten. Simpler times.”

“I remember being rooted to the ground.” Leif said. “I think I prefer how things are now.”

“You never know. Tree’s don’t need to deal with multi hour long meetings about bullshit a bunch of high level adults should know how to deal with without acting like children.”

“Perhaps if you had a tiny amount of my innate patience the meetings would be more tolerable.” He countered. “Are things stable now? I assume the civil war has been averted.”

Hera just sighed. “I can only hope. So long as Crest doesn’t pull any more of his mystical system nonsense, things should be okay. Last year… or was it the year before? I forget. Anyway, he showed us all, the other Blades I mean and some other members of the council. A device he had created to allow someone to display their system windows for other people to see. He had a third year girl use it to show us how it worked, and the damn thing glitched everyone in the building’s system to display nothing but scrambled text and symbols nobody recognised for over a week.”

“Sounds like an interesting guy with interesting talents.”

“Interesting. Not sure that's the word I would use to describe him, but I suppose it fits.”

“I thought Blades were picked for their combat potential. Is that why he got picked, or was it something… else?”

“Officially it's because he’s over level one hundred. Unofficially it’s because every other institution in the empire wanted to dissect him like a frog and see what kind of system magic he has tucked away behind his liver.”

“So he’s more of a researcher then?”

“Mhmm.”

“Do you think he’d find my situation interesting?”

“He would. I don’t recommend approaching him though.” Hera warned.

“I wasn’t planning on it. Not after the close call with Mouric.” Leif said. “Actually I’ve been wanting to talk to you about an excavation of Dimid I got myself involved with.”

“The… what was it? The buried temple complex they found?”

“That’s the one.” Leif confirmed. “Apparently Marcus was the one who found it.”

“Really. I did not know that. But I wasn’t really paying attention. Did you get yourself put on the team?”

“I did. Anything I should know or keep in mind before I start working on the site?”

Hera shrugged, the motion making the cloth slide off her face fully this time. She grabbed it as it fell, scrunching it up into a small ball, then she conjured a sphere of light around the cloth that then zipped off towards the kitchen. Neither returned. “Keep a low profile. Your aura should be strong enough to block analysis skills from anyone who isn’t a Blade. Oh, don’t get near the spire head. Vevosis is a blood mage, he might be able to sense something off about you.”

“What’s the chance I'll encounter him while I’m on Dimid?”

“Now that you’ve asked, one hundred percent.”

“Well.” Leif said. “If I suddenly vanish into a streak of golden light and never return, it means I’ve teleported back to Far-Reach.”

“Noted. If that happens, do you want me to send the kids up north to you?”

===

“Morning.” Marcus called as he leaned over the balcony railing, waving lazily down at Leif while holding a steaming mug of something in the other hand. “Today’s the day, huh?”

“It is.” Leif replied. “Should I come up, or should I wait for you down here.”

“Uh, wait a minute, I’ll be right down. I’ll ask Sieg if he’s interested in coming along. Hey! Sieg! Do you-” Marcus’s voice trailed away as he went back inside.

Leif had gotten the man’s attention by doing the aura equivalent of sliding a written message quietly under a door. There were several interesting applications of the ability, he had witnessed a lecturer use her aura to direct the attention of her audience between specific passages she had written on the board in chalk. He had also sensed an interesting use of aura from within the kitchen of a food hall. Something about preserving the state of objects, or in that case, food, after it had been cooked.

Some uses of aura were down to general manipulation, though others, like the preservation effect, were likely only possible due to a specific skill making it feasible. Leif stepped off the path to allow an excitedly chatting group of first years to scamper by. Judging by their conversation, the system going haywire at the arena would be a topic of interest for the next several days, likely longer.

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There was a yell, followed by a spike of panic from down a tree flanked path. Leif turned, only to see a massive furred creature barreling at full speed towards him. Its eyes gleamed under the morning sun, its powerful legs kicking up dust, its tongue flapping out the side of its mouth and its fluffy tail wagging with enough force to buffer the leaves on nearby trees. It approached with impressive speed, only for its nose to catch a hint of an interesting scent, the large animal veering off to the side, sniffing the ground with an unmatched amount of inquisitive energy, its three metre long lead of red rope trailing behind it.

The oversized dog found an equally oversized stick, only to lose interest almost immediately and bound happily over to a partially opened doorway. It stuck its head under some bushes, then tripped over its feet as it got distracted by two things at once. There was another yell from down the path, and a red faced student with a somewhat rounded appearance came running.

Leif held out a fist towards the dog and crouched, only to almost be bowled over as the beast happily jumped on top of him. It radiated friendship as it tried, and failed to lick his face, instead slobbering all over his painted mask. The scion conjured three sets of golden arms, and proceeded to turn the fluffy animal into a wagging puddle of fur and flailing legs. It rolled over, belly presented, eyes partially closed as Leif employed his secret beast taming technique.

“I’m so sorry!” Called the evolved dog's owner as he ran over. “He suddenly sprinted off in this direction and I lost control of the lead. Usually he responds to mental commands.”

“It’s fine.” Leif said, using a conjured hand to wipe slobber off his mask while still multipetting with the other five limbs. “I saw him at the tamed beast housing a few days ago. Who’s a good boy?”

The dog barked happily, and the sound rattled the nearby windows.

===

When Marcus emerged from the apartment complex and out onto the street, he wasn’t alone. Sieg followed, though the man wasn’t in the Academy uniform Leif had seen him in during his stay on the archipelago. Instead he wore a sleeveless vest and legwear suitable for training. Sieg was a large man, but his musculature was usually hidden under his clothes. Both third years stopped and stared at the sight of a horse sized dog blocking half of the road between student dormitories, with several other students having joined Leif in administering scritches.

The dog’s owner, a young man named Bakir, was quick to apologise whenever his tamed beast did anything even remotely disruptive. The large puppy didn’t mind, and neither did anyone else from all the attention they were showing it. Leif detached himself from the pile of fur and limbs, shuffling over to where Marcus and Sieg were standing.

“Nice outfit, what's the occasion?” Leif asked, nodding towards Sieg.

The northerner snorted. “I have training with my team. We’re not too sure how long the delay will be before the quadriad starts up again, but we need to stay sharp.”

“It means we won’t have his sunny company.” Marcus said mournfully, patting his roommate on the arm. “Though he does look good out of the uniform.”

“Are you saying I don’t look good in the uniform?” Sieg asked, affronted.

“No… But you used to wear it badly until we got it refitted.”

“I always wore it fine. What are you talking about?”

Marcus rolled his eyes and turned to Leif as they began to walk away. “He looked like someone had stuffed a bear into a suit.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“It was worse.” The [Arcanist] whispered.

“So, we’re going to Dimid. What’s your destination Sieg?” Leif said, shaking his head in amusement.

“The training facilities on the far side of the island. I’ll walk with you until the portal hub though.”

“Where are we going again, Leif?”

The scion briefly shuffled through his memories. “The granite sparring fields. I’m hoping you know where that is.”

“I don’t, but I can find it.” Marcus said, tapping the side of his head. “Who needs a map when you have…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Magic!”

“If you find another dungeon buried underground please don’t fall into it.” Sieg said, earning another eye roll from Marcus.

As they reached the end of the block of student housing they came across a crowd gathered around a notice board. People were shouting and jockeying for position, trying to push forward to read whatever was posted.

Probably a statement from the Academy about the arena incident and the aftermath. Leif mused, pausing mid step as Marcus and Sieg both came to a stop.

“Have either of you read that?”

“Nope.” Marcus said, then the blond man snapped his fingers. “And now I have. Lets see… hmmm. They apologise for the incident… everything is under control… putting resources into studying the phenomena so it doesn’t happen again… signups for those who want to help… a political statement about solidarity I don’t really care about… tests of the arena shield before the quadriad continues. That’s about it.”

“You can read it just like that?” Leif asked.

“Yup. Pretty neat, right? I can do the same with books, but the more text the harder it is to get a firm grasp of the contents. I need a direct line of sight though.”

“I see.” He said as they walked past. “Sieg, one of the kids I found that are staying with Hera has the [Rogue] class. Could you speak to Linus for me and see if he’d be interested in giving her some tips?”

“You want Linus to help?” The northerner asked, looking baffled.

“He can’t be that bad, he’s on your team.”

“No, he’s a competent fighter. I don’t doubt his abilities, only his character.”

“He’s only a pain when Adriana is around. Those two somehow bring out both the best, and worst in one another.” Marcus said with a shrug. “Are the kids doing okay? How is Roy?”

“They’re doing fine. Lucia, his sister, crawled out of her room last night for the first time since we arrived. They’re both troubled though. The way Roy reacts around food or Lucia acts when she doesn’t have an eye on every entrance is worrying.”

“They’ll get better, as long as they have good people around to help.” Marcus said.

“Right. You can come around later and I’ll introduce the older sibling to you. Might do her good to meet some new people while she’s in a safe space.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll have time over the next few days, but I’ll talk to Linus about your request.” Sieg said, coming to a stop at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the towering building housing the portal hub.

“Sounds good. Best of luck with training.”

“See you tonight, Sieg.” Marcus waved, then he turned to face Leif. “Well then. Shall we go find out why one of my skills sniffed out something connected to you on Dimid?”

“As long as it isn’t some buried calamity, then yes.”

“Ha! What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Don’t say that.”

===

Marcus insisted he knew the way to the granite training fields, but when his ‘shortcut’ led them into a dead-end path between two massive, partially hollow boulders Leif used a divination skill of his own: Asking someone for directions. Twenty minutes later they arrived, around forty students, most of which wearing the Dimid crest on their uniform, milled around in small groups. Their quiet chatter ended when professor Goodwil, flanked by four other members of the islands faculty exited a nearby building.

The elderly woman began to bark instructions at a rapid fire pace, splitting the students into teams and shouting a list of do’s and don'ts. Do stick together, don’t explore unmarked passages, do keep a record of your team's exploits, don’t use any skills that haven't been approved by her or the other teachers unless it's an emergency.

During Goodwil’s speech another professor, some sort of [Attuned: Light] or [Illusionist] class holder, projected a topographic map of the region over everyone’s head. The map showed the route they would travel through the rocky region of the island, mountains, cliffs and ravines were only a handful of the obstacles they would need to skirt around on their way to their destination.

“You went out this way after you scryed something?” Leif sent telepathically to Marcus.

“Yup. Almost fell in a hole.” He whispered.

A few minutes later Goodwil stomped over to their location, a spindly looking man skittering close behind her. “Marcus and Mr Vin. Good to see you. This is professor Nern, he’s a [Geomancer] and an archaeologist by trade. I’m putting you under his expert care since your abilities lie somewhat outside of the general skill sets for the other teams.

“A pleasure to meet you.” Leif said with a bob of his head, Marcus mimicking the motion a moment later.

“Mmmm, yes.” Nern said. “I read your file, Marcus. Two commendations and three recorded expeditions. Not a terrible commitment for a third year if I do say so myself.” The man’s voice was stilted, his cadence irregular, though his accent was refined.

“Thanks?” Marcus asked.

“And you, Mr Vin. Or is it lord? You didn’t have a file, so I went ahead and created one for you while doing my own research. Varan nobility, a distant nation, but still a title worthy of some respect, even here in the heart of the empire. Congratulations on the advances your house has made over the past few years.”

“Uh, sure.” Leif said, honestly baffled. “That’s… good?”

“Mmmm, yes.” Nern said, moving a hand to his face as if to adjust glasses he didn’t have. Marcus adjusted his own as if by reflex. “Shall we depart? We are wasting sunlight just standing around.”

“A fine point, Nern.” Goodwil said, clapping her hands and gathering everyone’s attention once again."Everyone! We're departing in one minute, grab your things and gather around your team leaders!"

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