"Whoa…" Rean's mouth was agape. They had just entered the stairway room where Class VII had fought the gargoyle during their orienteering exercise. Elliot and Morgan exhibited the same reaction as Rean while Gaius merely crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.
On the one hand, the gargoyle that Class VII had encountered during their orienteering exercise was gone. However, it wasn't the only thing that was currently missing; the stairway room was now about half the size it was originally, with the rest of the floor now being barred off by a wall and another door.
"Was that door there before?" Elliot questioned.
"Nope." Morgan recalled the day of the exercise. "I specifically remember running through an open corridor to get to you guys. On top of that, it looks like this room's even smaller than it was before."
Rean shook his head in disbelief. "I'm not sure what to believe anymore…"
"Strange though it may be, we should go and take a closer look at that," Gaius said, pointing to the new door. "This is essentially why we came, after all."
The group descended down the stone staircase and walked to the new door at the far end of the floor. To their surprise, when the group got near it, it slid open by itself like an automatic door. They went through the door...where they were treated to an even bigger surprise.
"Um...guys?" Morgan asked. "Are you sure this is the same place?"
"I don't even remember going through this place at all!" Elliot exclaimed. "And we even went in circles the first time through!"
"Unbelievable…" Gaius remarked. For once, his face showed visible shock. "There are even new structures that weren't here previously." He pointed specifically to an orb-shaped device to the right of the group that seemed inactive at the moment. "I've never seen anything like this at all."
Rean turned to face the other three teens. "It looks like the entire layout of the floor has changed since we were last here. Not only that, but I'd bet on anything that there are new types of monsters roaming around here, too."
"Yes." Gaius nodded his head. "That's what I'm sensing as well."
"So what's the plan?" the lone girl of the group questioned. "Are we going to keep on exploring?"
"Well, the principal sent us down here to investigate these mysterious changes, so that's exactly what we're going to do," Rean answered. "Now that we've seen just how major these changes are, there's no way we can go back empty-handed. We should head as far in as we're able."
Elliot slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Here we go, then…"
Morgan patted the air behind his back. "Ah, relax. It probably won't be as bad as you think...probably."
The tallest of the group said a quick prayer for good measure. "May the Goddess be with us."
After walking a fair distance, the four students came across a pair of slug monsters.
"Slug-like monsters…" Elliot said, a little bit creeped out.
Gaius hummed to himself. "This one could prove a little awkward to fight."
"And there's two of them to boot," Morgan added. "Well, that's why we've got these, right?" She brought out her ARCUS.
"You're right," Rean agreed. "If we make good use of our combat links, we shouldn't have any trouble at all."
"Then let's pair up." Morgan waved her ARCUS around. "Rean, you want to be my partner first?"
The swordsman nodded. "Sure thing."
Gaius turned to Elliot. "Then I guess the two of us are linking up?"
"Looks like it," Elliot affirmed. "I'll do my best to back you up."
"Are we all ready?" Rean asked. The other three students nodded. "Then let's do this!" Two pairs of combat links were immediately formed as shown by two glowing lines connecting two fighters together along the floor. Rean unsheathed his sword, a longsword with a sleeker blade that he called a tachi, and together he and Morgan rushed to meet the monster on the left. Gaius meanwhile started moving towards the slug on the right with Elliot preparing an art.
Rean landed the first blow of the fight, slashing at the left slug before it could notice he was coming. The slug tried to retaliate, but Rean sliced two more times, staggering the monster. "Now's your chance!" he called to Morgan.
"I got you!" she replied. Taking that as her cue, she rushed the monster and let loose a flurry of axe swings. "Go down!" She brought down her weapon with one vertical slice and promptly defeated the slug.
Off to the side, Gaius was drawing the attention of the remaining monster, stabbing at it from a safe distance. Eventually, the slug hurled back and let out a liquid solution that the spearman easily dodged to the side. He gave a quick nod to Elliot and the orbal staff user moved up to the monster while it was distracted and released several blue orbs from its staff, staggering it for a moment. With a critical opening, Gaius thrust his spear into the monster with full force, soundly ending it.
Elliot breathed a sigh of relief. "Well...that sure seemed to do the trick!"
"Yes," his partner concurred. "We fought well."
Rean flicked his sword to get rid of the monster goo on it. "If we can master these combat links, I'm sure they'll prove really useful in the battles ahead." He sheathed his sword. "We've practiced the basics in Instructor Sara's combat classes, but now's our chance to get some proper field application. We should probably try to practice as much as possible while the stakes are low." He then noticed the last member of their group crouching down at the spot where the monster she defeated was. "Morgan, is something wrong?"
"Huh?" Morgan turned to face the group. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just...doesn't this look like sepith to you guys?"
The three boys walked forward to inspect the spot where Morgan was crouching. Sure enough, there were several crystals of assorted colors scattered on the ground. "That's sepith, alright," Rean confirmed. "Did that come from the monster we just defeated?"
Elliot quickly ran over to check the spot where the monster they defeated used to be. "There isn't any sepith on our end."
"Maybe only certain monsters drop sepith upon being defeated?" Gaius tried to explain.
"And just what determines that?" Morgan wondered. She then shook her head. "Eh, whatever. It looks real, so…" She proceeded to scoop up all the sepith and put it into one of her blazer pockets.
"W-wait, you're just going to put those in your pocket?" Rean asked. "They just came from a monster!"
Morgan shrugged her shoulders. "If you've got pockets, you might as well use them!"
"No, that's not…" Rean shook his head in defeat. "You know what, never mind. We should move on."
The students made no more objections and proceeded to do so.
The investigation team continued to make their way through the maze-like floor. There was less room for talking as there were more monsters present than there were previously, but they did strike up some conversation in between fights. Namely, Morgan was surprised to hear that on top of fulfilling requests for the Student Council, Rean took the time to help Elliot with unloading some packages that came from home and watch Gaius draw some rough sketches in the Art Club, a rather stark contrast to how she spent the majority of her morning. It was also then that Morgan learned where the other two boys came from. Gaius hailed from the Nord Highlands, which surprised both her and Elliot considering the class had just talked about the location in history class the previous day (according to Rean, he had the same reaction as well). Elliot, meanwhile, was from Heimdallr, same as her, although he lived on the east side of the capital whereas Morgan lived on the west side. Given how Heimdallr consisted of sixteen different districts with a population of around 800,000 and counting, it was understandable that neither of them realized they came from the same city.
Eventually, the group found themselves in a rectangular room. To the left side of the room, there was another orb-like structure like the one the group saw at the beginning of the floor. To the right was a cylinder with lights that appeared to be an orbment chargin station. Up ahead past a set of stairs was another area sealed off by another door.
Gaius let out a chuckle of relief. "Looks like we made it through."
"That we did," Rean affirmed. "I'm sure there's something else beyond that door there, but let's take a moment to catch our breath first."
"Not sure what a charging station is doing all the way down here." Morgan commented, pointing to the orbment station in question. "But if it works, we may as well use it, right?"
The other students agreed and together they inserted their ARCUS units into the charging station. While they were waiting for their orbments to recharge, they all huddled around the orb-shaped device. "Didn't we see something like this near the entrance?" Elliot asked.
"It does appear to be the same kind of device," Gaius confirmed.
"And this one's inactive too, from the looks of it." Rean inched a bit closer to the orb so he could inspect it.
"It looks like a gigantic light bulb," Morgan noted. "You think it lights up?"
Rean shook his head. "There doesn't seem to be anything like a switch." The students then heard a chime from the charging station, signaling that their orbments were all recharged. "I guess we'll find out later."
Each of them took his or her ARCUS unit from the station and opened it. "Yup, all charged up and ready to go," Morgan said. "Now that I look at it, though, the rest of you guys have different quartzes, right? Mind if I have a look?"
"Not at all," the tallest of them said. The two of them exchanged ARCUS units while Rean and Elliot did the same with theirs.
"So yours is green, huh?" Morgan commented. "That means that it's a wind elemental quartz."
"And yours is blue, so it's a water elemental quartz," Gaius responded. "I have to say, I find the color soothing."
"Oh, your quartz is blue, too?" Elliot asked. "Mine's the same. Now that I think about it, I'm sure things would be pretty confusing if we all swapped ARCUS units."
"I wouldn't be too concerned," Rean said. "Each of these quartzes has a symbol in the middle, so I think we can tell whose ARCUS is whose based on that." Rean handed Morgan Elliot's orbment. Sure enough, his quartz was blue but had a arrow-shaped symbol adorned with outwards-pointing spikes embedded in the middle. Rean took a look at Gaius's ARCUS unit and smiled. "Wow, Gaius's looks like a bird's head."
The teen from Nord gave a lighthearted chuckle as he and Elliot traded orbments. "I was surprised when I saw that, too. I'd say it's fitting, though, considering where I come from."
"Are there a lot of wild birds in the Nord Highlands?" Morgan asked.
He nodded. "Various kinds. Watching hawks soar through the blue sky was one of my favorite pastimes." It was brief, but the exchange student from Nord had a wistful look in his eyes. "Moving back to quartzes, though, this one's yours, right Rean?" He showed the ARCUS to everyone. It had a red quartz with the symbol of a flame in it. "The imagery is fitting for a fire elemental quartz."
"Now that I think about it, what do each of these symbols mean?" Elliot queried. "I mean, I get that it's to distinguish each of these quartzes apart from each other, but I can't be the only one to think that that's the only reason, right?"
"You know, I just remembered!" Rean spoke up. "I know a guy on campus who can answer any of your quartz-related questions. I'd be happy to direct you to him once we're all finished here."
"I think that's a good place to leave off on." Morgan closed the cover on the ARCUS unit in her hands. "We've spent enough time resting, right?" Once each of the ARCUS units was returned to their respectful owner, the group walked up to the door on the far end of the room. Much like the door leading to the first floor, this door automatically opened as soon as the students went near it.
Upon entering the room, the investigation team took a moment to look at their surroundings. The room was fairly large in length and height with several sets of stone pillars positioned throughout it. It made the students question how something this big was inside a single building.
As the students walked further in, the door behind them closed shut.
"Uh oh," Elliot worried. "That doesn't sound good."
Suddenly, a vortex of light in the center of the room crackled into existence.
Morgan immediately drew her weapon. "You just had to say something, didn't you?" The three remaining boys readied their weapons as well.
As the light dissipated, a strange monster appeared in its place. It was humanoid in shape, except it had pointed horns on its head, its arms and legs were covered in fur, and it had long, purple claws attached to its hands and feet. Its body and head also seemed to be covered in armor, adding to its menacing appearance. The creature reared its head and let out a loud roar.
"Looks like we're going to have to fight our way out of this one," Rean said.
"This looks tough," Elliot cautioned. "Be careful!"
Two pairs of ARCUS links were tied, one between Rean and Morgan and the other between Gaius and Elliot. The monster charged in with a punch, prompting both pairs to jump out of the way. Gaius made the first move by thrusting his spear into the monster's hide from a safe distance. Elliot immediately began casting an art and released a heavy mass of water onto the monster. The enemy was stunned for a moment, which gave Rean and Morgan a chance to dash in and attack it together. The monster quickly regained composure, however, and it spun around to get its attackers off of it. Both Rean and Morgan were sent flying backwards in different directions.
The monster then set its sights on Gaius, lunging towards the spearman while swinging its claws. Gaius did his best to parry the attacks as best he could without taking substantial damage. Eventually the monster breathed a cloud of purple mist, which caused Gaius to drop his guard for a moment as he tried to swat away the mist. This allowed the monster to land a clean hit and send Gaius skidding across the floor. Panicking, Elliot tried to rush to his partner's aid, but the monster took note of him and blocked his path. Its stance then lowered, signalling that it was preparing another attack.
"Not on my watch!" Morgan quickly activated her ARCUS with Rean following suit. "Aqua Bleed!" She called out the name of her art as a mass of water flew to hit the enemy. Rean then finished casting his art and launched a bolt of fire to damage it further.
"Rean!" Morgan said to her partner. "Go help Gaius! I'll support Elliot!"
"Got it!" The two severed their link as Rean went over to help Gaius up while Morgan went to draw the monster's attention. Eyeing the newest threat on the field, it brought down one of its hands to try and crush Morgan. She deftly dodged and rolled to the side. Upon reaching an upright position, she leapt up from the ground and performed a spinning attack, hitting the creature from behind. Elliot assisted by swinging his orbal staff and releasing several translucent bubbles that, upon popping on contact, made the monster fall over.
"Did that do it?" Elliot asked.
Morgan took a few cautious steps forward and shook her head. "No, I think you only put it to sleep. Come on; let's regroup while we have the chance." The red-haired teen nodded and they both moved to Rean and Gaius. Upon reaching their classmates, Elliot put his staff in the middle of them and said a few words, causing his staff to light up. A field of orbal energy materialized, giving everyone some much-needed healing.
"Thanks," said Gaius, looking a little bit better than before. "I appreciate it."
"We've only got a few more moments until that thing's back on its feet," Rean spoke, noticing the monster tossing and turning on the floor. "If anyone's got any ideas, now would be the time to say it."
Immediately, Morgan's mind began to work. First, she looked at the monster, then at her teammates, and finally to her surroundings. She put a hand on the blazer pocket which contained her personal orbment. "Guess now's a better time than ever," she muttered. Putting her ARCUS unit away in her skirt pocket, she reached into her blazer and brought out her own tactical orbment.
Elliot's eyes widened. "You have another one? Wait, no. It looks like a regular orbment."
"Sorry for not showing you guys this before," the black-haired girl apologized, "but I promised myself that I'd only use this for emergencies, and right now I think this is an emergency!" She turned to Rean and Gaius. "Rean? Gaius? Each of you get behind one of those stone pillars. Once that thing's staggered, the two of you link up and unleash your strongest attacks."
"How do you plan on staggering it?" Gaius questioned.
"I've got an idea," she replied. "Just trust me on this. Elliot, can you cast Aqua Bleed again?"
Elliot nodded in response and started preparing his art while Rean and Gaius moved into position. Soon after, the monster woke from its temporary slumber and noticed two people standing across from it on the other side of the room. Elliot began to falter at the sight of the enemy's gaze.
"Don't worry," Morgan assured him as she started casting her art. "I'm right here."
Elliot gave a quiet thanks. The monster began moving forward to its targets, not noticing Rean and Gaius hiding behind the pillars it passed. Before the monster could take another step, Elliot finished readying his art and launched a mass of water at it. Immediately after, Morgan finished casting her art and unleashed a bolt of lightning from her orbment. The succession of arts caused the monster to be dowsed in water and then electrocuted by the lightning. This, in conjunction with the metal armor it wore, caused the monster to be paralyzed in place. Morgan smiled in triumph. "Now's your chance! Go for it!"
The other two front-line attackers yelled in response as they moved from their hiding spots and an ARCUS was created between the two of them. Gaius spun his spear over his head, creating a miniature gust of wind around him, while Rean sheathed his sword and waited. Once Gaius created enough momentum, he readied his spear and thrust it forward, creating a wind projectile that staggered the monster and blew off its armor. Following up on the attack, Rean dashed forward and unsheathed his sword, dealing a critical blow. Finally, Morgan made her move and lunged forward with her weapon pointed towards the monster. It tried to move its arms forward for one last attempt to protect itself, but by that point it was already too late, as Morgan had already thrust her axe into the monster's torso with its blade facing up. "This ends here!" After saying those words, Morgan forcefully dislodged her weapon by pulling it up like a lever. The monster let out one final roar before it disappeared in an explosion of purple light.
Once the light cleared, a considerable amount of sepith lay scattered on the floor. Upon seeing the loot, Morgan immediately began going to work and scooped up as much as she could fit into her pockets.
Elliot let out a sigh of relief as he reconvened with the others. "That was one tough battle. Still, we made it through!"
Rean nodded and smiled as he sheathed his tachi. "We sure did. I'm really starting to get the hang of these combat links now, too. It feels like the ARCUS has practically synchronized my breathing with all of you!" he added.
Gaius gave a small chuckle. "That's a good way to put it. It's a strange feeling...but not a bad one." He looked over to Morgan. "Still, I think we can say that the appearance of sepith depends on whether Morgan deals the final blow."
The girl in question stood up and dusted herself. "Yeah, probably."
"I definitely wasn't expecting you to pull out another orbment, though," Rean said. "You could've told us sooner that you had something like that."
Morgan scratched the back of her head. "I guess it's a case of deceiving your friends first so you can deceive your enemies?" She brought out her orbment for the others to see. "It was made and compiled with chaining together arts of the same element in mind. It's good for small skirmishes and such, but I only know how to use one orbment at a time right now, so don't expect me to use this often in certain situations." She put it away in her skirt pocket alongside her ARCUS unit. "I've been given clearance to keep it with me so long as I don't use it for classes."
"Really?" Rean raised his eyebrow. "Never would have thought that the academy allowed something like that."
"Regardless, it's something to keep in mind in the future," Gaius said as he looked around the room. "I think we've reached the end of the line, however."
"Sure looks that way," Rean agreed. "I didn't see any other routes we could have taken." He folded his arms and closed his eyes to think. "It really does feel like the entire structure of the ruins has changed completely since we were last here."
"Y-yeah…" Elliot nodded his head. "It's a little hard to believe. So what now? Do we head back?"
All eyes laid on Rean to make the call. "Yeah, there's nothing else for us to see. Let's head back outside." The group walked back the way they came through the automatic door. Upon leaving, they noticed that the orb-shaped device that was originally dormant was now lit up. The gears surrounding the device were now turning as well.
"Okay, that definitely wasn't glowing before, right?" Morgan asked to make sure she remembered things correctly.
"No, I'm quite certain it wasn't," Gaius confirmed.
"Has something caused it to turn on, then?" Rean wondered. "We should go have a closer look."
"S-something tells me we ought to be careful…" Elliot worried, but he joined the group in huddling around the device. Rean touched the orb. Immediately, the glow intensified.
"Wh-whoa!" Rean exclaimed.
"Hey, guys?" Elliot looked around him frantically. The circle at the base of the device started glowing as well. In an instant, the space surrounding the group glowed perfectly white, causing each person to shield his or her eyes. When the light died down, the students were standing by the device that was at the entrance.
"We seem to have returned to the entrance," Gaius said, stating the obvious.
"But we were just at the entrance…" Rean's mouth was agape.
Elliot shook his head in disbelief. "This place really is nothing but mysteries!"
Morgan put her hand to her chin. "Is this...magic?" she muttered to herself. 'Why does this remind me of...no, it can't be.'
"I'll just have to keep this in mind when I give my report to the principal," Rean decided. He then looked at his other classmates. "I hate to ask more from you all, but would you mind coming with me?" Morgan, Elliot, and Gaius agreed, and together they left the dungeon.
Fortunately, neither the stairway room nor the entrance hall had changed form since the time they first entered the building.
By the time the group emerged from the old schoolhouse, the sun had already begun to set. The students made their way to the principal's office on the first floor of the main building, where they were met by both Principal Vandyck and Instructor Sara. After giving a thorough vocal report on their investigation, the principal briefly talked about the origins of the ruins beneath the schoolhouse and how they were supposedly around since some 1200 years ago before congratulating the students on their successful expedition and awarding each of them a small quartz that they inserted into their respective ARCUS units. Instructor Sara also gave her congratulations to the students and promised them that she'd look into the old schoolhouse in her own time and update them should she find anything interesting. Before she left, however, she indirectly made Rean promise that he'll help with the investigation and the Student Council next month as well.
"Are you sure you're all right with this, Rean?" Gaius asked the swordsman as Instructor Sara left, whistling a tune as she walked.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Rean assured him. "It's not like I'm signed up to any clubs, and as long as I don't wind up with too many more than I had today, I'll be fine."
Gaius nodded in understanding. "Well...okay, then. But if you need any assistance, please just let me know. It's really no trouble."
"Same goes for me," Elliot agreed. "I'll be happy to come with you next time you go to the old schoolhouse, too!"
"The principal specifically said this was a job for all of Class VII, so I'll try and talk to the other girls about this, too," Morgan offered.
Rean beamed at his classmates. "Thanks again, you three. I'll be counting on you."
The investigation team went their separate ways for the time being, but Morgan then remembered about the sepith that was filling up her pockets and ran to catch up with Rean. "Hey, Rean! You said you knew a guy who could answer our questions regarding quartz, right? Mind telling me his name?"
Rean blinked. "Oh, that's right. I never told you guys, didn't I? Well, I'm not sure if he's still in, but...do you remember the boy who was with President Towa when she checked us in during the entrance ceremony?"
"Oh, that guy?" Morgan tried to recall his name. "His name was...George, right? Second year? Wears yellow clothes? Kind of chubby?"
Rean nodded. "Yup, that's him. You can find him in the Engineering Building next to the Student Union. If you've got any orbal-related questions, he's your guy."
"Next to the Student Union...okay. Got it. Thanks!" She went to the nearest door leading to the courtyard. "Catch you later!" Rean waved goodbye as Morgan left the main building, her destination in mind.
"Hello, hello? Is anyone in there?" Morgan said loudly as she knocked on the door to the Engineering Building.
A young male voice from inside replied, "Yeah, the door's open!"
Recognizing the voice, Morgan couldn't help but smile to herself as she opened the door to the Engineering Building. The inside of the building was significantly smaller than any of the other structures on campus; in fact, its size was comparable to that of the first floor of the Class VII dorm. Despite this, it had everything an orbment fixing shop could need, such as a charging station and the necessary power tools. Behind a counter, an orbal clock hung on the far wall and various unfinished projects were laid out on a table.
The boy who was standing behind the counter gave a friendly smile of his own. "Well, there's a face I haven't seen in a while," he said. "How've you been, Morgan?"
"I'm all right," Morgan replied. "So this is where you are most of the time, huh, George?"
"Yup," the chubby boy confirmed. "Whenever I'm not in class or doing homework, this is where I am." He stretched out his arms. "It's not much in here, but hey, it's got everything I need. So, did you need me for something?"
"Yeah." Morgan nodded and felt her blazer pockets. "I've got a few questions regarding our orbments. How much do you know about master quartzes?"
"Master quartzes?" George stroked his chin. "Well, yeah, I've worked with them before. In fact, I helped Sara gather some of the ones you guys are using in your ARCUS units. Mind if I see yours for a sec?" Morgan retrieved her ARCUS unit from her pocket and handed it to George, who flipped the cover open. "You at least know how these things work, right?"
Morgan nodded. "The longer you use them, the stronger they get and the more powerful their arts become, right?"
"Yup, that's the gist of it." George carefully took Morgan's blue quartz from its center slot. "This little guy here's a water type, so over time you'll be able to use more water arts. I can take a closer look to tell you what arts you can use, but…" His voice trailed off. "I don't think that's what you're here for, right?"
"Yup." Morgan proceeded to talk about what occurred during the investigation, specifically about the parts where the monsters she defeated would sometimes drop sepith crystals.
"Sepith appeared from the monsters you defeated?" George asked once Morgan finished explaining. He then looked at the blue master quartz in his hand. "Oh, I see."
"You know what's going on?" Morgan questioned.
George nodded. "See, there's one thing that most people don't talk about when it comes to master quartzes, and that's that they've got enough power to change certain aspects of the orbal energy surrounding them. It's thought to be a side effect from them being different from regular quartzes, but that's why earlier orbment models didn't use them. Technology back then couldn't properly harness the power stored in these guys, not to mention there were only a few in circulation at the time, but things are different now. Now we can make the most of these master quartzes, and their power comes out as, how do I describe this...passive effects."
"So monsters dropping sepith is a passive effect?"
"Well, I'm no orbal theorist," George admitted, "but that's probably what's going on here. Most master quartzes tend to enhance the strength of orbal arts or something like that, but your quartz is somehow able to draw orbal energy from the environment and convert it into sepith. How that works, I don't know. Frankly, this is the first I've heard of something like this."
"Well, it's a valid explanation at the very least," Morgan said. "Thanks, George."
"Glad I could help." George inserted Morgan's master quartz back into its slot and handed her ARCUS unit back. "Just out of curiosity, though, how much sepith are we talking about here?"
"Why, I thought you'd never ask!" Morgan held up her index finger and took off her blazer. She then grabbed it by its bottom and started shaking it, causing a colorful cascade of sepith crystals and masses to pour from the pockets onto the counter below.
George's eyes widened with surprise as he stared at the little pile of crystals on the counter. "That's quite the amount you've got there." He then narrowed his eyes at the pile. "Hey, is that some mirage sepith you have there?"
Morgan looked closely at the pile as she put her jacket back on, noticing the crystals that were colored silver. "Yeah, it is."
George looked up to Morgan, a pleading look in his eyes. "You mind if I, uh...have some of those?" he asked.
"Not at all." Morgan gave her consent. "In fact, you can keep all of them if you want. What do you need them for?"
"Just for a request that was put in a while back. I had to put it on hold since I was a bit short on materials, but now…" He rummaged through the sepith pile and carefully took out the silver crystals, counting them one by one. "Yeah, this is perfect!" He gathered the sepith in his hands and placed them into a machine in the back. He then reached down to grab a small box and poured its contents in. After a flick of the switch and a rotating of the gears, out came a gold-colored quartz. George nodded in approval at his newest creation before realizing he left Morgan waiting and returned to where she was. "Sorry about that. Got sidetracked there for a sec."
"It's no big deal," Morgan said. "I take it I was able to help?"
"Yeah. I think it's safe to say that you saved me from some extra trouble there." George's eyes wandered to the pile of crystals left on the counter. "You're sure I can have all of this?"
"I'm sure," Morgan assured him. "I'm positive you can find more use for these than I can."
The chubby boy gave his thanks. Suddenly, his expression lit up, as if an idea just occurred to him. "Say, Morgan? Are you signed up with any clubs right now?"
"No." Given the tone in George's voice, Morgan could hazard a guess as to where this conversation was going. "Why do you ask?"
"You see, part of the reason why I'm running the Engineering Club is to help people with their orbal problems," he explained. "I have some extra help on occasion, but for most of the time, as you can see, it's basically just me. It's not too much of an issue normally, but when it comes to certain things like gathering materials, I can be a bit...short-handed."
"So you want me to help you out with that?" Morgan concluded. "Is this your way of asking me to join your one-person club?"
"Well, I won't ask you to help full-time, cause I know how your guys' curriculum is more difficult compared to the other classes', so here's what I'm thinking: whenever you have the time and if you have some sepith to spare, come check in with me. Raw sepith crystals are a resource I sometimes need for completing requests like the one you just saw and it's always a good idea to have some extra in stock. If you can help me with gathering sepith and performing some other miscellaneous tasks, I'd greatly appreciate it. And as a bonus, I'll be more than happy to help with upgrading your quartzes or even synthesizing new ones for you."
"So basically, you're offering orbal services in exchange for supplying you?" Morgan summarized.
George nodded approvingly. "That's the basic gist of it, yeah. So what do you think? Not a bad deal, eh?"
Morgan thought for a moment. "One quick question: what are these "miscellaneous tasks" that you speak of?"
George waved his hand. "Nothing too special. I'm guessing you don't have much experience with fixing orbal devices, so it'll mostly be making some deliveries, unpacking and sorting things, that kind of grunt work."
"Well, it's not like I have anything to lose…" Morgan muttered to herself. "Alright, George. You've got yourself a deal." Morgan held out her hand. George removed one of his gloves and shook her hand. "I look forward to working with you in the future."
"Likewise. Oh yeah! Since you're going to be helping me collect materials…" George went to the back of the building and rummaged through some things. He came back with a set of three small pouches attached to a leather belt. "Take these. It'll help make collecting sepith a whole lot easier."
Morgan took the gift from his hands. "Always a pleasure to have some extra pockets. And hey! They're even around the same size as my orbment! This'll come in handy." A thought then occurred to her. "But wait, how exactly am I going to collect more sepith? I mean, outside of the old schoolhouse, there aren't a whole lot of places around Trista for me to get some."
George looked surprised. "Oh, did Instructor Sara not tell you guys yet? Well, in that case, I won't spoil the surprise. Just be sure to take that bag with you wherever you go, okay?"
"Uh...if you say so." Morgan felt a bit suspicious about those last few words, but she paid it no mind for the time being. She put on the belt around her waist and fastened it, giving a little twirl once she finished doing so. With her new accessory in tow, Morgan thanked George again and made her way out of the Engineering Building to return to the dormitory.
Author's note: And with that, Morgan's first free day is complete! A small congratulations to those of you who managed to stick it to the end. Next chapter is going to be covering Class VII's first practical exam. It's looking to be a bit shorter than usual, so I hope you all don't mind.
Now regarding Morgan's second orbment (this part's for those of you who are coming from the Legend of Heroes side), she uses an Enigma II like in Ao and Akatsuki no Kiseki, meaning it comprises of seven slots, one for the master quartz and six for the other quartzes. This is in contrast to the ARCUS's nine slots. However, for convenience's sake, she will be using the Cold Steel versions of the quartzes as opposed to the versions present in those other games, cause the effects for some of these quartzes differ too much for me to keep track. The only exception to this is her master quartz, which is the Pixie quartz from Akatsuki. However, since this quartz hasn't made an appearance in the main series as of this writing, I decided to change its base effect in that game from increased ATS to keep it from being another Mistral quartz (which has the same effect in Cold Steel). Instead, it'll have the ability to retain some of the orbal energy from the last art that was cast, thus reducing the casting time for the next orbal art, so it functions as a pseudo-Cast quartz. The difference is that amount of orbal energy retained is about 20% of what is needed to cast the art, which means that more powerful arts will retain more energy than lower-level arts, thus allowing a lower-level art to be cast much more quickly. The downside is that it only works when casting arts of the same element (i.e. wind), so if Morgan were to cast a fire art with her orbment, she'd have to start over from scratch.
Also, as for the reason why I chose the Scepter quartz to be Morgan's master quartz for her ARCUS? 1) It's the only other master quartz in the game that starts at Level 1, and 2) it gives Morgan a club to join and an excuse to interact with George and some of the second-years (this'll be important for later).
Whew! Hope I didn't keep the rest of you bored with all of that. Anyways, here's one last segment to end this chapter. See you next time!
"Whew, what a day!" Morgan remarked. Having just finished taking a shower, she was ruffling her hair with a towel and was dressed in her night clothes. The sky outside her window was now a dark black in contrast to the bright blue earlier in the day.
As she dried her hair, Morgan recounted the events of her first free day. It certainly wasn't the way she expected things to go, what with the investigation and all, but overall she felt that she was very productive. She did her homework, helped solve a local problem, and was able to get closer with some of her classmates by fighting alongside them. She even got something of a part-time job at the Engineering Club and received a little gift to boot.
Morgan folded her towel and placed it on top of her drawer to dry. She then looked at the clock on her nightstand. It read 8:59, almost nearing 9:00.
'I wonder if I should listen to something while I get my things ready for tomorrow…' She went over to her orbal radio, a gift from one of her acquaintances in Heimdallr, and turned it on. She cycled through several channels until she came to the channel for Radio Trista, where she was stopped by the sound of a female voice.
"Don't touch that dial, listeners," said the lady over the radio. "You've found the right place to be tonight." For some reason, Morgan found herself drawing her hand away from the radio dial as she heard those words. "It's time for the start of a brand new program here on Radio Trista, coming at you promptly every Sunday! I call it 'Abend Time,' after the word for 'evening.'"
Morgan smirked. 'That's a little cliched…' she couldn't help but think.
"Might be a little cliched," the lady over the radio admitted, "but sometimes, simple is best, right? Cliches are cliches for a reason, after all!"
Feeling a little spooked at the prospect of a radio host reading her mind, she quickly turned off her orbal radio.
"On second thought, I think I'll call it a night," Morgan decided.