Soul Transmigration Chapter 5 (Original chapter Chapter 102)
Three Months Later
Docks, Dog Star Island
"Do we have to?" Emma whined as she eyed the ship we were about to board with a mixture of scant favour and slight fear.
"Yes, Ems, we do." I said patiently.
"What's her problem?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrow. Today, on the day that our entire class was set to go to the Canis Isles, she was hanging with me, Emma and Amelia instead of Sophia. This was because we were required to group up with our roommates for the duration of the trip. Sophia was with three other commoner girls, none of which I recognised from my last life, but they could have been part of the clique that made my life hell for a year and a half, for all I know.
"She's got a bad case of seasickness whenever she's on a ship at sea." I informed her. "And I don't know the spell to banish seasickness yet. Professor Cole won't teach me it. She says I don't know enough to use it"
To be exact, she had told me to stop being a little brown-noser. I learned a bit later on from Master Clarke that she had vied for my father's attentions and failed, so she was taking her dislike of my mother out on me. Lovely.
"Have you tried asking one of the professors to cast it on her?" Lily suggested. "There's Professor Clarke right now. Why not ask him?"
Minutes later, and a moderately powerful anti-seasickness spell cast on Emma, we were trooping aboard the Mage Passanger Ship Breath of the North Wind and waiting on the afterdeck for Professor Clarke to tell us about the itinerary for the next two weeks.
I knew the basics of it, of course; the Canis Isles were a pair of islands three days south-west of Dog Star Island that were the exclusive property of the Kingdom of Sirius' Guild of Mages. They were a positively huge treasure trove of magical ingredients, monsters and even a few of the Fae folk, according to rumor, anyway. Each Class visited them at differing times; ours was last, and for good reason.
The reason, as I understood it, was that up until now, we had no reason to visit the isles because we had very little ability to cast spells. Four months into our education was the very earliest that we needed to come to the twin islands. The reason we had to come here? To get materials for our casting devices.
"Attention!" Master Clarke called out as the last of the class climbed onto the afterdeck. "Malcom Merton, get over here! Everyone here now? Good. Ahem. As you all know, we are going to the Canis Isles to gather materials for your fist casting instruments."
"Why do we need casting implements, professor?" Chris asked.
"Because, my very naïve students, you require a channel in order to cast more powerful spells." Master Clarke explained. "For Unranked and Circle 1 and 2 spells, a channel isn't necessary, but with Circle 3 and up, you need a channel. Can anyone tell me why? Miss Lavere?"
Amelia looked unperturbed as she answered, "Having a casting implement, such as a wand, staff, ring or bracer helps to reduce the pressure on the veins that carry our magical power from our Cores to our hands, and Circle 3 spells are considerably more burdensome in that regard."
"Exactly." The old professor nodded in satisfaction. "As you grow older and your magical veins grow sturdier, you will find that you can cast higher-ranked spells without the aid of a casting implement. At my age, I can cast Circle 9 spells completely unaided."
I was impressed here. Circle 9 spells were incredibly powerful. Master Clarke had told me that my Mom had access to a Circle 9 spell called [Ocean's Tempest] that she had used to sink a fleet of pirate ships that had tried to attack her ship about five years ago. If Master Clarke could cast spells of that magnitude without a casting tool, he was far more powerful than I had guessed.
"You will be coming here every year to gather materials for a new casting implement." Master Clarke continued. "This is because, as you become stronger, you may overload your implements."
That got a series of confused whispers from most of us. Even I only had a vague idea about what he was talking about.
"Ah. I haven't explained how the casting implements word, have I?" the old man realised. "Basically, the tools, whether they be wands, staves, rings, pendants or what have you, absorb excess amounts of magical power when you cast spells, drawing more out of your body rather than having it overload your veins and cause them to shatter. As you become stronger, however, the amount of magical power that you output will overwhelm a casting device built with a less-powerful Mage in mind. If a powerful mage uses an inferior wand too much, it can have deadly consequences…such as exploding in the middle of a spell. Trust me when I say that it can have very negative consequences for your ability to cast magic."
I shuddered slightly at the implications. Something exploding as I channelled magic through it? The backlash would fire itself up my veins, shattering them to pieces, and maybe even hitting my Cores. I did not want to think about that happening to me. Nope. Not happening.
After that, the voyage got underway. I found a part of the deck that wasn't crawling with sailors and sat down with a book. It was one of a series on monsters; names, elemental alignments, verified special abilities and the like. As a Summoner, being able to recognise a monster that I had summoned, or one that an enemy Summoner had summoned, was critical.
Absently, I ran one hand across my crystal holder, now carrying six crystals, each with a monster that I had summoned and bound to me. I would have more, but the stupid restriction against allowing students to summon without a Master present meant I could only nail down Master Clarke once a month for about an hour. The fact that what I got was so goddamned random complicated things and justified the damned injunction; even my best [Contract Magic] was only good for Circle 5 monsters at absolute best, and I kept getting Circle 6 and above ones!
The monsters that I got to keep could only be as strong as my [Contract Magic] was, something which limited me to the single Circle 5 monster that I had summoned. The rest were Circles 1 through 4, with two being Circle 3. Master Clarke had promised to waive the restriction once my [Contract Magic] was good to contain up to Circle 10 monsters. Summoning monsters above the tenth Circle required special catalysts, so I would be safe at that point.
"Why do you hang out with her?" A familiar voice asked me. Looking up, I withheld a sigh as Victoria Dallon scowling down at me.
"By 'her', I assume you mean Amelia." I responded tersely. "She's my roommate; I kinda have to."
"You do way more than the bare minimum interaction with the spawn of pirates." The other girl accused me bitingly. I eyed her body somewhat enviously. Even at twelve, puberty was hitting her like a truck. Lucky bitch…
"So simply because of who her father is, something she has no control over, she's guilty by association?" I raised my eyebrows at the girl. "Do tell what crimes she's committed, Heiress Dallon? Being smarter than you, perhaps? Outperforming you in class? Or not just coasting along like you have?"
The flush of anger in Victoria's cheeks was interesting. Looks like I hit the nail on the head. Amelia was getting consistently higher grades than Victoria, mostly because the Dallon Scion did the bare minimum and little else.
"Th-that has nothing to do with it!" Victoria spluttered.
"Look, I don't believe in accusing people of crimes without evidence, nor do I believe in people being tainted by association simply because they are related to someone who did something wrong." I said firmly. "Until and unless she does something worthy of being called a crime, leave her alone."
"You and what army will stop me?" the blond narrowed her eyes before they widened again in shock as I withdrew one of my crystals from my bandolier.
"Me and my army of monsters, that's who." I said coldly. "Get over your mother's hatred of marquis, Victoria Dallon. Hatred makes people very stupid, and you are far from being stupid. Treat her as someone you've never met before and learn what she's like as a person, not as a humanoid shape labelled 'Daughter of the Pirate Marquis'. Judge her by her words and actions, not by those of someone else. Now kindly leave me alone; I have a book to read."
Turning my attention back to my book once I settled the crystal back into its pocket, I huffed and ignored Victoria completely. I had endured one set of Queen Bitches in my last life; no way in hell was I putting up with another set of them in this life.
Two Days Later
"I hate everything."
Emma looked exceptionally queasy today. The spell had run out this morning and the only reason she wasn't throwing anything up was thanks to taking deep breaths and eating only bland foods.
"Chin up; you only have to endure this until Master Clarke has a free moment." I said encouragingly.
"Easy for you to say, Tay…" Emma groaned. She was lying on the deck and hoping that the fresh air would do her good.
"Are your parents bad with sea travel at all?" Lily asked in morbid fascination. She'd obviously never seen someone so obviously seasick before.
"No…Father travels all the time and he's as fit as a fiddle." Emma replied. "Mother doesn't travel nearly as much, but she still does it enough that if she got seasick, she'd have put a stop to it sharpish."
"It's odd." Amelia declared flatly. "Someone with talent in the Sphere of Water shouldn't have an adverse reaction to floating atop of water."
"Well excuse me for being odd." Emma grumbled. Before anyone could say anything else, a cry from the lookout made us leap to our feet in alarm.
"BLACK SAILS OFF TO PORT!"
Rushing to the port side, we gazed over the side to try and make it out. Sadly, we couldn't spot anything with our naked eyes, but I had learned several spells that were useful here.
"Water, come gather! Dance, reflect, refract and magnify! [Water Spyglass]!" I chanted. Several lenses and prisms of water appeared in front of me and I mentally adjusted them until the image of a ship with black sails appeared in the viewing lens.
"That's an old Champion-class frigate from the Libra Theocracy." Master Clarke said as he came up behind us. "The last of them were sold or broken down before the last war, but they were the mainstay of the Libra Navy in the war before that. At least a hundred and fifty crew aboard her if they are running light."
That wasn't good; the Breath of the North Wind was a passenger ship, with a crew of over a hundred, but most of those were ordinary sailors, cooks and other non-combatants. There were only twenty or so soldiers aboard, armed with pikes and light armor. Not counting Master Clarke and the other two teachers from the Academy who had come along with us, as well as the rest of our class.
"Miss Hebert, kindly direct your spell a touch to sternwards." Master Clarke urged me, and I complied. Unfortunately, that had me spotting two smaller ships.
"Sword-class corvettes." The Master Mage grimaced. "About a hundred men aboard each. Again, retired ships from the Libra Theocracy. They have to have seen our pennant by this point, so they know we're of the Mage Academy. The fact they haven't broken off means that either they're stupid enough to think that they can handle three Master Mages or that they've come prepared, and I am disinclined to infer stupidity without sufficient proof. Can you magnify the images of the flag they fly?"
Doing so, I brought into focus the image of a bird with spread wings atop a man's skull. The escutcheon was white, while the flag itself was black.
"I don't recognise that flag." Amelia frowned. "At the very least, it's not the flag of any Black Sail group in the Kingdom as of the start of term."
"Oh, I doubt very much that it's a real Black Flag group." Master Clarke chuckled humorlessly. "In all likelihood, what we are seeing is a strike force of the Libra Theocracy's Navy. A covert operation to capture you all to use as bargaining chips to force the Kingdom to capitulate on concede land to their masters."
"How can you tell that?" Lily asked in surprise and not a little fear.
"A small covert naval task group in the Libra Theocracy is one frigate and two corvettes." The old mage replied easily. "Plus, now I know what to look for, I can sense the power of four Master Mages on those ships; one on each corvette and two on the frigate. The Marquisate Black Sail group is the only band of Black Sails who possesses a Master Mage in their ranks, so four in one group is ridiculous to consider as anything but legitimate military."
"Orders, Master Clarke?" I asked steadily, already assessing ways to use my Summons.
"In all likelihood, we won't be able to outrun them; the Breath is big and slow, while they can chase us down easily." The Mage stated. "Our survival depends on exactly how skilled their Mages are and if we can overpower them quickly enough to avoid being boarded by those crews. The instant it becomes a boarding action, we lose. I must go and consult with my colleagues. Excuse me children."
As Master Clarke left, I absently noted that the corvettes were called the Vandal and the Vaunting, while the frigate was called the Eclipse. I was not particularly enthusiastic to basically slug things out with the enemy Master Mages when they outnumbered our own Master Mages, even if it was just by one.
"Tay…" Emma said hesitantly.
"It'll be fine, Ems." I reassured her as I chose one of my crystals in particular before injecting magical power into it and letting it tumble off my hand, over the side of the ship and fall into the waves. When it hit the water's surface, the crystal vanished and my monster appeared, vanishing beneath the waves.
Mentally ordering it to activate both of its special abilities as it followed the ship, I absently rolled my shoulders as I stared at the ships through my [Water Spyglass] spell, even as the ship came alive with activity and more sail was let out in an effort to escape the pursuing 'Black Sails'.
"This is really ballsy of the Libra Theocracy." Amelia said softly. "Coming after our class, the one that has the most Nobles out of the current four years? The only way it would be ballsier would be if the Crown Prince was in our class."
"Isn't he in the year above us?" I mused. "Why not go after him rather than us?"
"The Crown Prince is escorted everywhere off the island by four frigates of the Royal Guard." Amelia informed me. "Each has two Master Mages aboard, plus enough crew to swamp anyone trying to capture him. No, they're going for us because we're an easier target by far."
"And you know this how?" Emma asked, her seasickness driven from her by worry.
"He told me." Amelia rolled her eyes. "He came and pulled a 'how-dare-you-come-here, traitor' routine a couple of weeks back. He's apparently under the impression I'm here to kill him. Idiot."
The Crown Prince…who is he again…? Oh…NOW I remember…Aegis…Carlos…is the Crown Prince. Looks like he's a bit of a jerk this time around.
"So what was the monster you summoned there?" Lily asked me in a low voice.
"Wait and see." I smirked. "All I'll say is that I'm not one to bow my head to people trying to capture me."
"Heh." Amelia chuckled. "Same here."
It took about half an hour for the small flotilla to catch up to the Breath of the North Wind, during which time my plan proceeded apace without a problem. My Dad had given me (or rather, the Taylor of this world) a talk about the military ships used in this world. They were enchanted from keel to stern to provide some degree of protection from various types of magic, mostly the offensive kind. They were also enchanted to protect the ship from biofouling, negating the need to sheath the hulls in copper.
Sadly for whoever is in those ships, they were not designed to protect the ships from what I was planning on doing. So, as the frigate moved to the port side, the corvettes flanked us from both the stern and starboard. Fine by me. I mentally commanded my monster to follow my instructions to the letter.
"Ahoy the ship!" a man yelled over from the frigate, his voice magically enhanced. "Heave to and prepare to be boarded!"
"And be stewing in a cell in Liberia's jails within the month? I think not." Master Clarke growled back, his voice enhanced as well. "I recognise that idiot near the mizzenmast; Jack the Blade Sorcerer. Still eking out a living as a Mage for Hire, I see."
"Come now, that's just mean." a horribly familiar voice responded. Not him…not HIM!
Peeking over the side of the ship, I blanched as I spotted the man Master Clarke was talking about. An utterly ordinary guy, with a brown goatee and an easy, somewhat charming smile. A figure I could never forget…Jack Slash. Former leader of the Slaughterhouse Nine and the one who had sent Zion batshit insane.
That did it; these ships were going down hard. Like hell I was going to let these people get their hands on me with that lunatic on their side!
'NOW!' I ordered, and my monster obeyed my orders.
Seconds later, the corvettes and the frigate groaned as wood buckled and broke, revealing an army of blue blobs growing out from in between the planks that the ship was made of.
"Man the pumps!"
"They're jammed! What the hell are these things?!"
"The hull's got more holes in it than cheese!"
As the shouts of panicked 'pirates' resounded through the air, Master Clarke turned wide eyes on me, as did most of my classmates.
"Miss Herbert? Is this your doing?" Master Clarke asked in disbelief.
"They expected the Masters to do something, but a First Year student?" I said with a small smirk. "Nope."
As we spoke, the frigate listed and then started to sink, swiftly followed by the corvettes. I had made certain to have the monsters appear right along either side of the keels of the ships, meaning that the chance of managing to repair the ships, barring with a Mage who knew either the Sphere of Nature or the Sphere of Wood, was pretty slim.
"Well, isn't this a pickle?" Jack's voice floated over from the sinking frigate. "I really thought we had a chance here. One of your colleagues is a Summoner, I take it? Tch, what luck. Mimi, get us out of here."
A woman I recognised as fucking Burnscar staggered over to him and they both vanished in an explosion of flames. Fire-based teleportation?! Was that even possible in this world!?
As the three ships started to sink properly and the crews abandoned ship, I ordered my monster to capture them, giving my classmates and Professor a good look at what monster I had used.
"Are…are those seriously Amoeba?" Victoria Dallon asked in disbelief. "One of the weakest of all monsters?"
"Yup. A Circle 1, water element monster, the Amoeba." I said with a shrug. "It only possesses two abilities, [Propagation] and [Size Shift], not to mention the natural ability to 'eat' anything it absorbs. It can only be used in water and is easily defeated by almost any human or monster in a direct confrontation."
"So how the heck did you do that?!" Emma demanded, looking awed.
"Simple." I answered with a smirk. "I Summoned my Amoeba about half an hour ago and had it use both of its skills to start making more of itself and to shrink down to a size that not even a keen-eyed lookout could spot while it followed our ship. Then, when the 'pirates' drew close enough, I had them stuff themselves in between the cracks of the boards of the hull, especially along the keel. Then I had them expand rapidly back to full size in an instant. With so many of them appearing at once, they broke the hulls into shards when they appeared. By the way, Master Clarke, what should I do with the prisoners?"
The man started. "Er, have them brought aboard, Miss Hebert. We can shove them into a storage hold and seal it with magic until we get to the Canis Isles Naval base."
"All three-hundred or so of them?" Chris asked in disbelief.
"The power of the Lesser Sphere of Space is a wonderful thing." Master Clarke replied with a smile. "Have no fear on that front. Miss Hebert, how much strain are you under?"
"Some." I admitted. "But I don't have any of the symptoms of a Shattering or Fracturing of my veins, so I should be alright."
All Summons drew magical power from their Summoner once summoned, in order to power their special abilities. Once I had thrown the crystal into the water after unlocking it with a drop of my magic, I had been steadily sending power to my Amoeba for the last half an hour, allowing to use and maintain both [Propagation] and [Size Shift]. There were over three-hundred of the things running around in the ocean water right now, all ensnaring drowning/swimming sailors with their pseudopods and carrying them to the newly-lowered platform and staircase, where some of the soldiers hauled them aboard, checked them for weaponry and then bound their hands in rope before having a sailor lead them up to the deck and then down into the hold, where another Master Mage had expanded a spare hold to fit the three hundred captured sailors.
Well, there were actually two-hundred and fifty-three, as some sailors had drowned and some had been eaten by a sea monster of some description, while the Master Mages on the corvettes had somehow teleported or flown away with some of the crew from the ships. Slippery buggers.
"That was an exceptional use of using tactics and strategy to compensate for a lack of power on your part." Master Clarke stated. "But you risked the destruction of your Summon in doing so."
"Nope." I shook my head firmly. "See, I figured out that in addition to its two active abilities, Amoeba has a passive ability as well. I was reading a book on monsters after I chose Amoeba and discovered that no matter how many of the clones created by [Propagation] are destroyed, every single one is technically the same Amoeba. So long as one survives, it can never die and it is only wounded if that last one is attacked. I call this ability [All is One]. The risk to my Summon was less than nil."
"And once you deactivate [Propagation], all of the clones will vanish." Master Clarke nodded. "Well, it seems like you're starting your military career early, Miss Hebert. Although next time, kindly tell me before you do something like this; it would be nice not to have to worry about my students as I have been."
"Sorry professor." I said, chastised suitably.
After the professor walked away, muttering about wunderkind students or something, I turned to see my friends and classmates staring at me.
"Er…well, that was fun." I said modestly.
"You are the most bizarre person I have ever met." Amelia told me again.
"You've told me that every day for the last three months or so." I informed her dryly.
As argued with the Pirate Scion, I dearly hoped that this was the last overly exciting episode on this trip.
Sadly, I was very much mistaken.
So…that happened. Classic Taylor; using a seemingly weak power/monster to do things most people wouldn't expect. Very easy to write this little fic.