Annabelle’s Bastion

Anna finally felt what it was like to be a gaming addict like her best friend.

While her addiction wasn’t a game, her focus was on it just the same. She dedicated the entire week, the remaining five days, toward studying the encyclopedia’s guide with the fervor she had often seen her friend have.

That must have been how it felt to be addicted to something; Anna had never felt that kind of obsession before.

There was something that gnawed at the back of her head, but even that was of minor importance.

Wake up, go to the cafeteria for breakfast, eat, read, sleep, repeat. That was Anna’s schedule until she was confident in her rudimentary understanding of the magical world—the very basics that were included in the tablet.

Yet even then, she felt like a frog that had only just left its well.

She had even forgotten about the two annoyances until two days ago when she suddenly remembered while lying in bed.

Due to the changing schedules, she didn’t see Ashton or Jared all week and they—weirdly enough—didn’t try to come for her. But she was able to get a hold of Mia to tell her that the fight wouldn’t happen until combat training.

Then it was all quickly shelved again.

She wasn’t about to go out of her way for a fight fueled by ego and some lunatic’s desire for revenge. And whatever else Ashton got out of it.

Reading the tablet, watching some of the included video guides, and discussing with Aria was far better.

They were both reading up on Apex Sigils—one of the last things they had to read about.

“I don’t see anything about how to get these Apex Sigils,” Anna said as she hopped off the tablet and fell to her bed. “I feel like I’ll be screwed for choice if I don’t get one asap.”

Aria followed suit, leaving her tablet and sitting on her bed across from Anna. “I agree. However, there is predictability if you choose your path wisely.”

“Mana Adaptation, huh?” Anna muttered, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She just read about that last night. 

Sigils and Mana Adaptation Affecting a mage’s choice of Apex Sigils. Sigils is the term for spells, and though even Bastion barely understands how or why they exist, they’re basically just like scrolls in a video game, which is how it was described in the encyclopedia. 

However, rather than a one-time use, the mage absorbs the Sigil and can use it permanently.

The so-called downside was that the Sigil absorption process contaminated the mana with whatever the Sigil type was. If a mage absorbed enough fire Sigils, their mana would only be able to absorb and use fire Sigils to their true potential—permanently. Even then, the effects were immediate; one fire Sigil meant any other elemental Sigil after would be far weaker. More fire, then the others couldn’t be activated at all.

There were two exceptions.

One was Utility Sigils, which only needed mana as energy, regardless of elemental affiliation. Examples of each would have been helpful, but that was spared for the dedicated required courses on Sigils. A no-brainer class to take—for Anna, at least.

The other exception, though impossibly rare, was when a mage had an inordinate amount of mana purity. Sadly, the encyclopedia didn’t explain what purity entailed. But it was rare, and it meant mana couldn’t be contaminated by the elements. Which, unfortunately, though sounding powerful, meant the mage couldn’t absorb attuned Sigils. In other words, none of the supposed best combat Sigils were on the table.

They’d be locked to a supporting path. Which wasn’t a bad thing, actually. It meant they’d be a ridiculously powerful supporter, and any non-elemental Sigil would shine in their hands; utility and support.

The problem seemed to just be the lack of knowledge and variety of nonattuned Sigils.

“Well, unless I’m high-purity, if I absorbed even one fire Sigil, then decided a year later that I wanna be a water mage, I basically just wasted some capacity.” Anna sighed. 

In the depth of her mind, Anna did have a sneaking feeling she might be someone with that purity—it would explain her importance. Supposedly, it was even more extreme than a one and a million.

The true scale of that type of purity wasn’t something she fully comprehended.

“So you must decide early—capacity can become a problem.”

Capacity was how many Sigils her soul could handle. Apparently, it could grow, but it was arduous to do so. The only way mentioned in the encyclopedia was training, simply using magic.

Honestly, Anna kind of hoped she really did have that high purity. It meant that she could still be strong and be a healer! A paladin sounded awesome. But those with high purity were so rare that Bastion deemed it a fool’s errand to find them.

“Early mistakes can really bite you,” Anna said, then sighed.

“Which is why they want us to choose our path now,” Aria explained. “They will give us a choice of Sigils—common ones.”

The encyclopedia also mentioned that Sigils were split into rarities, but those rarities weren’t always related to power. 

Fireball did sound cool, but so did a water jet, and so did flying through the sky, and so did healing the most grievous of wounds.

In the end, Anna was undecided. It sucked that the system wasn’t free, but that should have been somewhat expected.

Anna shook her head. “I still don’t know which path to choose.”

“Still?” 

“There are so many ways!” Anna rustled her hair, turning on her head. “And even among the existing paths, there’s pretty much an infinite number of branching paths!”

There were options such as a ranged fire mage, a melee fire mage, or even a utility fire mage. Not to mention the mix of support and craftsman professions or the weapons that pretty much changed the mage’s entire fighting style. A blade covered in fire? That sounded awesome.

Aria nodded. “Not even an idea?”

“Kind of. All of it sounds so cool!” Anna sat up and faced Aria. “What about you?”

“Swords and other melee weapons.”

Anna glanced at the katana she considered part of Aria’s being and snorted. “Of course.”

Aria pet her katana sheath. “It’s all I’ve ever known.”

She seemed a little sad when she said that, but as always, her emotional changes were difficult to feel. Anna was getting better at it, though.

“I’m not making fun of you; I admire you a lot.” Anna sighed and shook her head. “No, I just wish I had the same confidence in the path I should choose.”

“Oh… what about type?”

“Definitely pure ranged combat magic or support. In fact, I think there’ll be a negligible amount of people in the martial style.”

Aria lightly shook her head. “Did you read the martial section?”

“Nope.”

“It’s convincing.” 

Anna shrugged. “Maybe, but I can’t imagine us Earthlings choosing to swing around a weapon when faced with all these options. Plus, pure magic or support sounds awesome.”

“Support?” Aria looked at her like she was a dolt. “Why?”

“I meeean... uh... “ Anna scratched her cheek. “I could literally be the difference between life and death.” She recalled Alisha’s grim warnings a week ago—how certain she was that Anna would see grievous injury and death.

It was embarrassing to admit, but Anna figured next to nobody would choose a supporting path, and it was probably in high demand. More than that, the thought of being able to save the lives of her future companions was more than a little enticing. But…

“It would be a waste of your talents without high mana purity.”

Those without high purity can still choose support. But their natural inclination was toward elemental attunement and the combatant paths. Going support was like powering a machine with a bike—it worked but wasn’t nearly as effective.

Purity was still a scale, but most people either had average or slightly above average. Supposedly, if it wasn't to the point where mana was incorruptible, it could make all Sigils stronger.

Anna snickered. “If I had extreme mana purity, it wouldn’t really be optional.” She shrugged as she continued, “But I also think I could do cool support plus battle mage path, you know? I bet that’d be pretty badass. Picture it, Annabelle Frost, the Strongest Paladin….”

“Are you serious? Mixing would make you weaker overall, even if you did have the purity.”

Or so they say—but Anna didn’t fully believe that.

“Hence my indecision. The supporting thing is just something I would be totally fine with doing, but even I fall victim to the allure of power.”

She was only human. The idea of becoming a monolith capable of destroying mountains and parting oceans was just as alluring as saving thousands of lives.

Aria nodded. “Nobody could fault you for it. There are no discernible limits to the growth of a mage; even the Grandmaster can still grow stronger,” Aria restated what was in their guide.

“True, but it also said it’s practically impossible to grow stronger once you get to that level.”

“Perhaps.” Aria shook her head. “We digress; tomorrow is Monday. You have to decide now or waste time enrolling in basic courses until you do.”

Another recent change was one each student was informed of via a new application on the tablet labeled announcements; they didn’t have to choose a path if they decided to enroll in general courses. Bastion also added a Tournament app, but they couldn’t open it yet.

“Those aren’t a waste, though,” Anna argued. “Even you’ll probably enroll in them at some point.” 

Mana control was one of them, after all—so was the Sigil class.

“I will not.”

“Of course not.”

Aria already mentioned her desire to throw in as many combat-related courses as she could. That, and various levels of weapon training. If she could hack and slash her way to the top, she’d definitely take that path. One of those battle maniacs.

Which reminded Anna of Thagrin and his giant axe.

“How strong do you think Thagrin is?” she asked.

Aria paused for a moment, likely processing the sudden change in conversation. “Why?”

“Curiosity—he is my combat teacher, after all.”

“He’s a Barbarian, a race with natural power on par with the strongest human enhancements. Before magic.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “Seriously?” 

She figured he was strong, but that strong? 

“Yes.” Aria lightly sighed. “But I’ve heard his race is near extinction.” 

“What?” Anna moved closer. “How?”

“Unsure, I only heard from eavesdropping, but it was not through natural means.”

In other words, it was likely one of those threats Alisha mentioned. Which meant there was a force out there capable of wiping out a race as seemingly powerful as the Barbarians. 

Anna pictured billions of people as tall and big as Thagrin, and she just couldn’t see any way for them to nearly all die. Her mind just couldn’t comprehend it.

“Maybe some kind of pestilence?” Anna asked. She didn’t want to imagine what sort of power was behind the opposite.

“I don’t know, but they abandoned their home world because of it.”

“D-damn.” 

She had a newfound respect and admiration for Thagrin and a reignited desire to chat with the Bastion mages.

How many had similar stories? Furthermore, it created another thread linking her to the support path. She could prevent something like that from happening.

“Again, we digress.”

“Yeah...Well~!” Anna jumped off her bed, a bold idea in her head. “I think I wanna go talk to Alisha.”

Aria’s eyes widened. “What?”

“She recruited me for a reason, right?” Anna snickered as she went up to their door. “I wonder if she has a clue which path I should take.”

“It isn’t that easy to meet with someone in her standing.”

Anna smirked. “I’m special, remember?”

Aria paused for a moment, then nodded. “Maybe.”

“Wanna come with?”

“No.” Aria shook her head. “I will do the same and reach out to Thagrin.”

“Oh god.” Anna cringed. “Why?” 

“He is a unique Barbarian.” Aria hopped off her bed and went to the door while she strapped her katana to her waist. “He has risen in magic and martial strength, blending them seamlessly—what I wish to do. Though I will not do as he did, I want to hear his experience.”

“Remember what you said about me holding that giant axe? I think...” Anna stopped and rescanned Aria. “Actually, you’d be pretty dang cool with those.”

“Thank you.”

Anna chuckled. “Let’s meet up at that place we talked to that group after, okay? Oh, and Thagrin likes it when you do things that are... crude or barbaric. Be forward with him.”

Aria nodded. “Of course.”

With that, they went their separate ways.