Agnisotra: Origin Tails

I awoke to a familiar feeling. I looked outside and it was a beautiful Friday morning. The birds were chirping. The sky had a nice blue color and some clouds floating around. There was a slight breeze and autumn leaves were dancing in the wind. It was quite cold by human standards but I was unaffected.

The end of the year isn't super far. I checked the date. Hmm, I seem to have forgotten my birthday. Is that why Greg and Raishin were hanging out a lot with me a week ago even though we all were busy? We had some kind of get-together at Raishin’s birthday in September. But that’s not important right now. I looked out on the campus and it just seemed like a normal day. I opened the filter which allowed me to see the dimensional fabric and this painted another picture.

Nothing seemed to want to get through to this side but the fabric was festering. It wasn’t as bad as the time in Boshi town but this was worse than I had spotted in Witchaven. The one in Witchaven was just a big hole, this is full-on festering, it’s the size of a building. There are even maggots here.

I shattered some random illusion I made and got my [Illusionary Dagger]. I defeated the maggots with the dagger and blasted the fabric with foxfires. The fabric recovered a bit, it wasn’t perfect but I still don’t know how to properly fix this. I torched the fabric with white opaque flames. This should attract more maggots so that I can fix it more later on. I closed the filter and the nauseous feeling was gone. I need to find a way to fix this without going pseudo 9t mode. That’s what I call it because it is different from going into 9t mode normally.

Normal 9t mode doesn’t mess with the day and night. I also have to figure out what all that is about, on top of that full moon bullshit that told me I’m not a 9t. So many things that I don’t know about myself and here I am teaching human students. The mythology literature or mythology-related literature here is absolutely useless. Have I raided the Misha library for mythology-related literature? I think I did. They didn’t seem to know much about my race and what they did know seemed to be related to prior encounters they had. I never got to ask what relation the headmaster had with my mother. I don’t think I can get that answer though. My relationship with the Misha is a bit complicated now, I either will get chased away, they will run away because I have a run-on-sight order on me or they will try to keep me inside Witchaven. None of these situations seem favorable to me.

I left my room. I had no classes and these lazy students seemed to be getting another holiday next week. Didn’t they get one in October? Anyway, that is not my problem. Because the lazy students will get a holiday that means I will get one too. A large portion would stay here because this uni is like a fucking city. Only those who have arrangements with their families will leave.

I casually walked around. It has been a while but it’s time for some pranks. I have the privileged position that I don’t fall under student rules but also not under professor rules because I am not certified to be one. It makes me wonder if employing Greg and me is illegal, not my problem.

Getting fired is beneficial to me so I assume they are not going to do that. This professor thing pays terribly by the way, no wonder nobody wants to be one. It seems to be good pay compared to other educational facilities on the continent, almost twice as high but adventuring for a week will easily outearn the monthly pay these professors get. I’m not hurting for money so again this is not my problem. I decided to make some boring lectures more interesting.

I went into stealth and snuck into the Magic Theory lecture. It is Levitating professor! Oof, doesn’t she notice that half her students are dozing off? She was waving a stick to point at the runes in various magic circles she had drawn. I used [Transform] on the stick and it turned into a chicken.

“Aaagh!” She tried to cast capturing magic on the chicken but I hijacked it to shrink the net and made it give the chicken a kinky fishnet outfit.

The students loved it. She tried to [Levitate] the chicken that tried to run away and I hijacked it and made her enlarge the chicken.

“What is going on! This... this is disruption!”

Uh oh, don’t tell me she realized that it was me? I saw her scramble her magic circles but doing a poor job. She tried to cast [Reveal] and I hijacked it and turned it into [Flash Bomb]. I decided to use this opportunity to shatter an illusion and return everything to normal and get out of here, any longer and I will get found out. The scene returned to her holding the stick. The students and the professor all seemed confused.

I thought about my next prank. It can’t involve disruption because I might become the prime suspect. I walked around absentmindedly and ended up in the canteen. Someone had left a pot of sauce unattended.

An idea welled up. I put on my gasmask and snuck into the kitchen. I looked around and dumped a jar of my secret weapon inside the pot, stirred a bit and cast an illusion on the pot to temporarily hide the fact that I just added mustard to it. It should wear off at lunchtime.

I wandered some more and got assaulted by Crissy. She hugged my tail. “As fluffy as ever! What are you up to? My last lecture has just ended.”

Oh, but it’s only 11:30, you got lucky with your lectures then?

“Yup! Want to hang around the canteen and get an early lunch?”

Uhh, I will pass on that. I think I will practice at the lake. I need some exercise. Teaching students doesn’t count for much of an exercise unfortunately.

“Wow, that hurts! But I guess you’re right, do you even know what you’re going to teach us after the break?”

Yes, and I bet you all will suck at it.

“But that’s what you’re here for right? To make sure we suck less?”

You can see it like that yeah.

We arrived at the lake. Various students were trying to freeze the lake. It was cold but not that cold yet.

“We were hoping to be able to ice-skate but it doesn’t seem like it will be cold enough soon, can you help us out?” Crissy asked while holding my tail like it was precious to her.

Hehe I’m not going to make it easy for you students!

“Oh, it’s the Silver Torrent, can you freeze this lake for us?” I didn’t recognize this student. This is nothing special as I don’t recognize half of the students in my class. I decided to act natural.

Yes, but first I want to see how you guys attempt it.

“But none of us are adept at water magic or have affinities for it!” A random student thought that this was a smart answer.

So? That doesn’t mean you can’t freeze a lake.

“Huh, and you are supposed to be a professor? Of course, you need a water affinity to freeze a lake!”

Hey Crissy do they teach physics here?

“I think they do but it’s not very popular.” Crissy seemed to start thinking about how those 2 are related. I’m glad that at least this student is smart.

Do you know the true nature of fire magic Crissy?

“Uhh, putting stuff on fire and heating them up?”

Then why do most fire users have a high heat resistance and high cold resistance or more accurately, temperature resistance and not resistance against just fire?

“That! Hmm, never thought about it. It is true that most fire users with a notable heat resistance also have cold resistance. Wait! Don’t tell me the answer! Let me think!”

Some other students also started to think about this question. Crissy made the magic circle of her [Fireball] appear and looked at it. Because of my course she knows her magic circle well. If the professor teaching magic runes and stuff is doing their job, they will be aware of the most important parts of the magic circles.

“Oh, are these runes responsible for the temperature? I don’t know how to change these like you do.”

I showed Crissy her [Fireball] magic circle but with the temperature section having the temperature going to the negative. Crissy looked at the temperature sequence and tried to form the magic circle. Some students with fire affinity did the same. This would be the easiest for Crissy because I had modified her [Fireball]

The same skill can vary slightly in magic circles between different users. Crissy managed it and used it on the lake. She shot out a blast of cold which froze a patch on the lake. It was small and inefficient but it wasn’t bad for a first try. The other students got excited. A student approached me.

“I don’t understand this… but I’m curious.”

I don’t blame you students. It is called fire magic by everyone and I assume even your fire magic professor calls it such and teaches it to you as fire magic. The more appropriate term is Temperature magic. But that doesn’t sound as good as fire magic. How most of you that use fire are only using half of what this magic branch can do. Personally, I don’t use the other side a lot. because I don’t need to because I can use water and ice.

I flashed a magic circle and the temperature around us started to drop.

“Wow! That was so fast! I didn't see even what the magic circle looked like! How did you do that!”

A lot of research, sleep and practice. It is unlikely that yours becomes that fast but with a lot of studying magic runes and practice it might be possible, so far, I’ve only met one person that had magic circles this fast. But this isn’t important, focus on dropping temperature instead of increasing it, ask your fire magic professor, see if he knows hehe.

It made me think. I was able to flash my magic circles before I studied Azu’s research. How did that happen? Did I unconsciously pick up how Azu did that and my tails copied it and applied it in my long sleep? The mana flow through my magic circles is identical to what Azu’s research proposed. I already knew this but tailed beasts can actually get stronger by just sleeping.

Dragons like to sleep for months or even years, is this why? While not common, we mythical beasts can do this too. Our tails will organize any information and magical skills in our possession and make everything more efficient where possible.

The students were still messing around. There was still one method left on freezing this lake.

There is another way to freeze a lake. Who here can use wind magic?

3 students put up their hands.

You guys really should give physics a try… Just blow a very strong wind over the water surface or make the air near the lake expand rapidly.

The wind magic students messed around and created small patches of ice on the lake.

“Where have you learned all this?” Crissy was still messing with her magic circle but could seem to make it more efficient in reducing the temperature.

I don’t blame her what she is trying falls more into what I have studied in Witchaven. She will need help from her fire magic professor or Magic Theory professor to get a template that can accommodate this change better. Universities work with templates for ease and wide use. What I studied allows me to make magic circles from scratch, maybe even make new templates and basically have way more freedom in messing with magic circles. I don’t think most humans know what 80% of their magic circle does. They can change the last 20%. The other 80% that’s what Azu and I researched.

It’s partly physics and where I grew up this was taught. I have a high fire affinity but I got taught that it was more control over the temperature.

“I never see you using fire.”

Do you want to find out why? Guys back off! I’m going to use [Fireball]

“So what?”

These students sure have an attitude. Maybe it’s proportional to their ignorance.

I created a [Fireball] and they backed off because of the heat. It was just my basic fireball so I gave it more juice and more and more students ran away from the monster of a [Fireball] I created. It didn’t grow much in size but the heat was real. The students backed off for 100 meters and it seemed they could still feel it. They used it to warm themselves up.

This is just a [Fireball] by the way. I’m not feeding it a stupid amount of mana, if I use this, I will instant kill almost any human that I fight.

I killed the mana flow and the [Fireball] disappeared. The students approached me again. The students started trying out what they had learned on the lake.

Now that you know about the other options, I will freeze the lake for you.

I used [Frozen Ground] on the lake and it froze over.

“Thanks! That was interesting!” The students went and messed around on the lake. Only Crissy stayed behind. She was still messing with her magic circle. I put my hand on her shoulder.

Stop messing around with it, go and have fun.

Crissy nodded and joined the other students.

It was time to check on my canteen prank. I activated my Elgards eyes and grinned. The people were loving my secret weapon. The canteen staff had its hands full with the chaos.

I continued making the campus unsafe till late in the afternoon. Most of the students that would leave had already done so. I walked through the shopping district on the campus. The sun had already set and I was enjoying the cool breeze. To anyone without cold resistance this would be quite cold but it felt pleasant to me.

It was dark, the place was empty. I had this place for myself. I was enjoying it so much that I noticed something very late. Behind me… something was following me. I looked behind me with my Elgards eyes. It would probably flee if I would turn around. I saw a disturbing looking black blur with orange glowing eyes. It reminded me of the thing that I saw in the room where I had sealed away that Dimsha. Is it the same thing? It looks similar but different. I kept pretending to enjoy being alone here in the cold but unfortunately that was not the case. I went through filters but it stayed a blur and it was following me. I went around the corner and went into stealth.

It came around the corner to find out that I had disappeared. It kept walking down the road and turned around several times. I assume it was looking for me and then it disappeared in some sort of black fog that dispersed. What the fuck was that? Nothing should be able to hide from me if I find the correct filter? And it is extra disturbing because I had seen something similar but didn’t pay much attention to it. I had no idea what it was but my intuition told me that this is bad news. In movies and videogames this would be seen as foreshadowing and it probably is. It might make sense later on but I hope it won't be too late when I find out. I scanned the area to make sure it didn’t go somewhere else to look for me but I couldn’t find it.

What I did find was some nausea. I opened the dimensional filter which revealed the dimensional fabric full of disgusting maggots. The hole seemed to have closed but it looked disgusting, it didn’t help that the maggots made sounds as if they were slurping slime or goo. I circulated nature energy, shattered a random illusion and dealt with the maggots.

After annihilating the maggots, I looked proudly at the dimensional fabric that looked smooth and fresh. It even looked better than the fabric around it. Did I get better at this? While not knowing what I’m doing? Nah I probably got lucky. This method isn’t very time-efficient. I sat on the fresh new patch of dimensional fabric while being lost in thoughts. I patted the dark purple fabric.

It felt like silk, it looked and felt smooth but it was way thicker than any fabric used for clothing. After running my hand over it I felt something that felt like a weak pulse. How strange. Is the fabric of space part of a living being? I focused more on it but I didn’t feel the weak pulse anymore. Did I imagine this? Or did I misinterpret what that pulse could be? It felt like a pulse of a living being for 10 seconds before it disappeared. I wonder when I will get answers and not more questions.

I always felt strange and different when walking over the dimensional fabric. Maybe I can find out how and what. I paced around on the dimensional fabric and shot a [Spatial bolt]. My spatiotemporal skills need a lot of work, this attack is super weak. It does feel stronger than when I’m not on this fabric. Do I get a boost? I hopped off and shot the same [Spatial bolt]. It seemed to be weaker. So, I do get a boost. What else?

I hopped back on it and tested various types of things but the only conclusion I could make is that my spatiotemporal magic gets a boost when I’m on the dimensional fabric. I wondered if this is how I should practice spatiotemporal magic. So far, I can only play pranks with it. I can only use this well in 9t mode.

9t mode, hmmm space does act wonky when I do that, what if I go 9t mode on dimensional fabric? I decided to test that some other time. I hopped off the dimensional fabric, closed the filter, and went back to my room.

I brushed my tails and thought about that Blur I saw.

What was that thing?

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