The Sixth School.

Chapter Twenty Six: Technically true…

Greg sat frozen in his seat. The flat rejection by the healer was still ringing in his ears and try as he would, he just couldn’t reconcile himself with this answer. Of course, at the back of his mind, Greg knew that even if the healer completely refused to take him on as her student, he could still learn from Olivia all he needed to know to begin his journey in magic. Nevertheless, there was this feeling that he just couldn’t shake that he would be losing out on a lot if he failed to get the healer as his teacher. Even together with the fact that Olivia was a primordial’s avatar, Greg knew that she’d only been left with very limited knowledge as far as his path of magic was concerned.

Greg was about to open his mouth to try and convince the healer to reconsider. The healer, however, continued. “You’ve only recently been introduced to the world of magic Roka, so I don’t fault you for not knowing,” She relayed. “Taking someone on as a student isn’t just a simple issue of teaching them a few things before you each part your ways. If I was to make you my student, there is a whole set of obligations placed on both me towards you and on you towards me,” She explained. “The one that informs my decision is one of those obligations that one’s student is always considered to be in their teacher’s faction,” She stated.

“When I speak of factions, I don’t mean anything trivial as having different opinions on certain magical topics. I mean that if one’s teacher makes an enemy, their students are considered to be part of the strength that they can bring to bear against that enemy. Unless one has an ironclad reason for doing so, not helping one’s teacher would be considered to be abandoning them. An offense for which one can at best be disowned as a student and at worst be made into an enemy,” She explained. “There are many other obligations like that that are part and parcel of taking someone on as one’s student. And as a student, many more obligations will be placed on you compared to me,” She relayed.

“You said it yourself, Roka, a seventh-tier mage has no business in this little town out in the middle of nowhere,” She conceded. “I have powerful enemies that would stop at nothing to see me dead,” She relayed, her expression becoming cold and murderous. Even without her saying so, Greg could see that the sentiment was mutual. “The moment you take me on as your teacher, you’ll be taking on powerful enemies you don’t even know,” She informed him. “I was betrayed by people who were close to me,” she stated. “People who I thought were my friends. They were in the same tier as myself, so when they joined hands combined with the fact that they were treacherous enough to make the first strike from behind my back, I was quickly overcome. Their betrayal isn’t even the worst part, the fact is that we were part of an alliance. Those two cowards would never have made a move against me unless they got a nod from someone higher up in the alliance,” She relayed. “I was already a tier seven at the time, so do you want to guess who would qualify as my higher-up in the alliance?” The healer rhetorically posed.

Greg immediately understood what she was trying to say. The one that gave the nod for her to be attacked could only be either an eight-tier mage or, even worse, a ninth-tier mage.

“Let’s even say that we chose to break all conventions and treat this as me simply doing you a favor with no expectations attached. The moment it is revealed that you were once my student, do you think that any of my enemies would believe you if you were to say that you have nothing to do with me?” She asked. “And even if they were to believe you, what would stop them from coming after you just for being associated with me, trying to provoke me to come out of hiding? And that’s if they don’t try to torture that information out of you first! And trust me, you might think that you understand what pain is, but you don’t even have the faintest clue what depths of pain you can be driven to by the kinds of enemies I have,” She relayed.

“Tell me, Roka, do you feel ready to take on tier eight, possibly tier nine enemies?” She asked.

The question was rhetorical. If Greg answered yes, it’d be both stupid and naïve of him. After being exposed to a deity-level being just the day before, one would expect Greg to not regard the eighth or ninth so highly. And in a way, he didn’t. At the same time, however, it had made Greg even more keenly aware of the differences in power that existed out there. As a mundane human, he was less than a worm when compared to such entities as eighth and ninth-tier mages. Even if he was a fifth-tier mage powerhouse right now, he'd still be nothing more than something stuck between their teeth if they chose to take a bite at him,

Greg couldn’t help but grit his teeth in frustration as he realized that the healer’s objection to taking him on as a student had nothing to do with any supposed lies that he may have told. The actual reason for her rejection was a lot more complex and serious enough that not even he could easily dismiss it.

“Taking you on as my student would be dragging you into a fight, that not only are you ill-equipped for, but one that wasn’t even yours to fight to begin with,” The healer explained. “I cannot in good conscience do that,” She relayed in a calm tone. “So, No, Roka, I can’t take you on as my student of magic,” She relayed.

Making up his mind Greg was about to speak up and say that he was willing to become her student regardless. He would lay low and amass power slowly. Once he was powerful enough, however, she wouldn’t even have to rally him to her banner. He would be the spearhead that would bring retribution to all those that had harmed her. Just as Greg opened his mouth to speak, however, his whole body froze. It wasn’t because he was afraid or anything of the sort. Instead, he felt like an insect stuck inside amber, even his mind felt like it had become extremely sluggish Try as he would, he just couldn’t extricate himself from the state.

“What did you do to him?” Greg had already been looking in the healer’s direction, so he saw her turn to his side where Olivia was and ask the question.

“Oh, this?” Greg felt the dull sensation of a hand being placed on his shoulder. “It’s nothing. Just a little trick to allow us to speak candidly without having to reveal any… unnecessary information to ears that are not ready for it,” Greg easily recognized Olivia’s chipper tone and lighthearted manner of speech. “Don’t worry, it won’t do the boy any harm. When he comes out of it, he won’t even notice that he'd been frozen for a while. She relayed.

At first, Greg was panicking that he’d somehow been attacked. From Olivia’s words, however, it was clear that she was the one responsible. Listening to the familiar speak, Greg went from panic to confusion. It was clear from the way she was speaking that, Olivia expected him to be completely frozen in both mind and body. Not only should his body have stopped moving, but even his mind should also have stopped registering something as basic as the passage of time. Greg, however, while frozen in body and sluggish in mind, was still very much aware of all that was going on around him. He could hear and understand everything that they were saying perfectly fine. Whatever the familiar had been hoping to achieve with her spell, unbeknownst to her, had failed.

The confusion Greg felt at this turn of events, however, didn’t last long as he remembered that there was a section of his mind that had been partitioned and kept safe from access by any outside entities by the powerful, deity-level being that he’d met the previous day. Unless Greg had the misfortune of coming across someone that was equally, or more, powerful, there was next to no chance of anyone breaking through those protections. It would seem that the protections weren’t just effective against individuals trying to break into his mind. Even spells wouldn’t be able to affect this last hidden sectioned-off part of his mind. The familiar’s spell hadn’t exactly failed completely. His body was frozen and most of Greg’s mind felt like it was submerged in a viscous fluid that wouldn’t allow it to move as quickly as it usually did. There was, however, some last section of his mind that the spell just couldn’t get to simply because it was protected 

Greg was certain that the only reason his mind was sluggish as opposed to being completely frozen as the familiar intended for it to be was because of the protected section that was still active. He had the feeling that, if he wanted to, he could draw all of his mind back into this small protected section. Like a tortoise drawing its limbs back into its shell, he could get the slowed parts to return to normal by pulling it into the partitioned section where it was safe. And in so doing, break free of the effects of this spell, at least on his mind. Greg, however, didn’t do this. Not only did he not want to tip off Olivia to the fact that he was still awake causing her to raise her vigilance. But he was also curious as to what they needed to talk about that she didn’t want him to hear. Besides, Greg felt no threat from the familiar. Whatever her motivations, Olivia had done this simply for convenience and nothing more.

The healer looked at the boy for a while, almost as if to ascertain that he really was frozen. Seeing no reaction from Greg, she once again turned to where Olivia stood. “What do you want?” She asked.

“You already know who I am, don’t you?” Olivia asked in return.

The healer nodded. “An avatar left behind by the powerful presence I felt in the boy’s room back when he was still recovering,” She answered straightforwardly. It wasn’t exactly a hard thing to guess. “Why are you posing as the boy’s familiar?” the healer immediately followed up.

“Let’s just say that the boy bought something far more powerful than he was able to handle. I’m here to step in until such a time as he can do so,” She relayed. Looking at her expression, Greg could tell that the healer was completely lost. How someone could buy a powerhouse like the familiar’s original was a question that she couldn’t even begin to guess at. Olivia, on her part, didn’t look like she was inclined to explain herself. She just continued talking. “Given that you know who I am, then the real question isn’t what I want, but, what do you want?” The familiar posed. Listening to her now, no one would ever believe that less than two minutes before, she had called Greg master. The familiar spoke with such an air of authority and control that it seemed like all the healer needed to do was speak and whatever she wanted would be delivered. “The boy is in my care. If anyone… and I do mean anyone!” Greg didn’t miss the threat in Olivia’s voice as she said this. From the look in the healer’s eyes, she clearly didn’t miss the threat either. “Tries to harm the boy simply because he’s linked to you, they will have me to answer to,” Greg had never heard Olivia speak in such a threatening tone. If he wasn’t frozen stiff by her spell, he’d probably have chills running up and down his back.

“The boy’s safety isn’t something you need to concern yourself with,” Olivia declared. “So, healer, why don’t you tell me what you are really after?” She posed.

Greg had drawn some information and some conclusions of his own from listening to the short exchange. From Olivia’s answer to the question of why she was posing as his familiar, he had learned the avatar wouldn’t be by his side forever. So long as Greg kept growing in power, the avatar would eventually be replaced by the real primordial. One might think this to be a very obvious detail. This, however, wasn’t as self-evident as one might be tempted to think. The real Olivia could have just as easily chosen to remain in the background and continue to plot from the shadows. That she would come out to show her real self, is both something that Greg looked forward to and dreaded at the same time.

The other thing that Greg noticed was that the rest of the conversation past this point was full of misdirections and lies. Had Greg not been given the chance to see the way the real Olivia came into being, he would have had no way of knowing this. He, however, had. The familiar hadn’t really told any lies verbally. The lie is in what she led the healer to believe. She began by asking the healer if she knew who she was. This was to remind his teacher of the real Olivia and not this avatar that had been left behind. This made the healer unconsciously treat the conversation with Olivia as if she was talking to the real primordial and not just her avatar.

Greg had been in that room and knew perfectly well that whether he sank or swam as a mage, the real Olivia didn’t really care. She had backup options to fall back on in case Greg didn’t make it. The avatar, Olivia, had been instructed to help him and so she seemed to genuinely be on his side. She, however, was just barely a tier two and probably wouldn’t become a tier eight or nine any time soon, so those threats that the healer spoke about were real threats, even to her. Without stating it, however, she had made it seem like should anything happen to Greg, her original would step in and help him. Like a lawyer, the familiar was willing to play with words to get the outcome she wanted. After all, they didn’t really need to fight the eighth and ninth-tier mages at the moment. All they needed to do was to convince the healer to overcome her reservations and have her teach him. What came after that was entirely up in the air.

Greg watched as the healer’s expression became serious as she sent a piercing gaze Olivia’s way. “Powerful as you are, there’s no way you don’t already know what I want,” She said.

After the past couple of days, it had already sunk deep in Greg’s psyche that most good things came with a price tag. While there was the possibility of someone doing a good deed without expecting anything in return, most people do you good expecting something in return. If the healer chose to teach him magic expecting nothing in return, Greg would have been both surprised and very grateful for it. He, however, wasn’t anywhere near naïve enough to expect it of her. That she wanted something in return for teaching him what she knew about magic, wasn’t something he held against her. Greg would have to be arrogant and entitled in the extreme to believe that she should want to teach him without getting anything for her efforts.

There was a long silence after the healer had spoken up. Greg couldn’t help but get the sense that Olivia was waiting for something more. As if there was something that the healer was yet to say, that she should have. The healer, however, remained silent, watching the familiar with both a nervous and hopeful look in her eyes. If there was something else that she should have said, she clearly didn’t know of it. Greg’s sense of the situation was proven right when Olivia spoke. “Is that it?” She asked. Greg could almost see the familiar tilting her head to the side as she posed the question. “You disappoint me, healer,” Olivia followed up. “You have before you possibly the only chance you will get in your life to speak to someone above the nine tiers and all you can think to ask is for a fixed core and mana pathways?” She asked, a note of amused mockery in the familiar’s tone.

If Greg’s whole body wasn’t frozen, his eyes would have gone wide as he finally learned what was wrong with the healer. Greg had no idea how extensive the damage to the healer’s mana pathways was. However, for a seventh-tier mage to be reduced to only being able to sustain magic use for just three minutes before she started struggling, he knew that the damage had to be really bad. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the damage she had suffered seems to have extended to her mana core. Greg could remember how serious Olivia had been when she had been warning him against receiving any damage to his mana core. Her exact words had been, ‘Overload your core and we’ll be looking for pieces of you to bury'. But while she only spoke of overloading, Greg doubted that damage from other sources to his mana core would be any less serious. The healer may have survived the betrayal by her friends, she, however, hadn’t made it out unscathed.

“I pegged you for someone passionate about magic. Someone who’d want to go above and beyond what anyone, man or beast, has ever achieved on this plane,” Olivia, who hadn’t paused in her speech, continued in the same mocking tone. “But I guess it’s a bit unfair for me to expect someone that has always lived on the ground to contemplate what lies beyond the sky,” She stated.

Despite the mocking words from Olivia, Greg could see it in the way the healer’s eyes had gone wide that she was still yet to fully process the fact that she had the chance to transcend the nine tiers. Like a drop of water on a plastic surface, the familiar’s mockery barely even registered to her. Even if Olivia had outright insulted the healer, Greg doubted that she would have noticed or even cared. From the blazing look of desire that burned in the healer’s eyes as she looked at his familiar, Greg could see that the fact that she could help her transcend the nine tiers was the only fact that registered to the healer. The rest was just noise.

“And what would you want in return?” The healer asked.

Greg could feel his respect for the healer rise by several notches when he heard her ask this. Olivia had just dangled a temptation before her that Greg was sure most others in the magic world would be willing to risk everything they had to have. Rather than lose her mind and immediately jump at the bait placed before her, she remained conscious of the hook that was almost certain to be hidden within the bait.

“I only have two requirements,” Olivia didn’t beat about the bush or try to act like her offer came free of any strings attached. “The first requirement is simple,” She declared. “You are going to teach everything! I repeat, everything! That you can to the boy!” She instructed. “I don’t want a half-ass job where you only give him the bare minimum amount of information. Unless you judge that telling him something might limit his outlook or hinder him from growing as a mage, then I expect you to be straight and open with him. Remember, I will put as much effort into teaching you as you do with the boy. Is that clear?” The familiar posed in a tone that relayed that this wasn’t up for negotiation.

Of all the conditions that the healer seemed to have been expecting, this was nowhere near as egregious. It wasn’t even bad, to begin with. It just required that she be a bit more hands-on in her teaching than she would have otherwise been. Seeing no cause for alarm she nodded.

From where he sat, however, Greg could see a trap hidden in the request that the healer had no way of seeing. Unbeknownst to the healer, Greg had the innate title of, AROUSING that he’d bought from the system. Greg didn’t know if her damaged mana core and pathways would make her more susceptible to the title. Or if the fact that they had already crossed the sexual line before while he was still a patient would make it easier for her to fall victim to it. Both those issues were unknowns that he couldn’t give any real answers to. What Greg did know was that, the longer the healer stuck around him, the more that title would work on her. Greg couldn’t be certain but given how crafty he knew the familiar to be, he was almost certain that she didn’t just make the request out of a pure desire to see him learn magic. Even if the healer made a perfunctory effort when teaching him, Olivia could always fill any gaps left by the healer with her own knowledge. The familiar almost certainly had an ulterior motive for making this request and Greg couldn’t help but suspect that the title had something to do with it.

“What’s your second requirement?”

Once again, being completely frozen saved Greg from having to reveal what he truly felt at the moment. As soon as the healer had posed the question, Greg felt what could only be described as a flood of lust wash over him. From her sharp intake of breath that the healer took and the way her nipples started to poke through the fabric of her dress, it was clear that she too was feeling the change in the room as keenly as Greg was. It was almost as if Olivia had released a wave of pheromones in the room that turned their arousal all the way up to eleven. The only reason Greg wasn’t stiff like the mast on a ship was because his whole body had been frozen by the familiar’s spell. If for whatever reason the familiar released the spell she’d put him under at this moment, he’d probably break some world record for the fastest boner ever.

“My second requirement is even simpler than the first,” Olivia relayed. “I am a being with particular tastes. I desire certain… pleasures,” She said. “Part of my arrangement with the boy requires him to… let’s say… indulge in said pleasures,” Olivia stated. A guarded look crossed the healer’s face when she heard this. Greg himself wasn’t sure what to make of what Olivia seemed to be indirectly requesting of the healer. Greg would be lying if he said he didn’t desire the healer. He’d been enchanted by the woman from the very moment he saw her. This fact stayed the same even to the present. But to get her by means of a compelled arrangement, Greg wasn’t sure if he wanted things to go down this way between the two of them. Luckily for the two of them, the familiar put them both at ease with her next words. “No need to give me that look, I don’t really care whether it is with you, or with any other woman in the town or beyond, ” she stated. “Besides, you didn’t seem so objected to indulging in a little risqué behavior when it was just you and the boy while he was in your care,” She added teasingly. Greg watched as a blush brightened the healer’s cheeks as she realized that the one before her was aware of what had gone on between her and Roka while he’d still been in the infirmary. “My only requirement is that you do not interfere with this,” Olivia finally made her condition known.

If Greg could, he would have sighed as he realized that the familiar wasn’t trying to compel the healer to have sex with him. She was just creating a justification for all the lewd behavior that Greg would probably engage in in the future. This way, if the healer picked up on his behavior, she wouldn’t gain a bad impression of Greg, she would just think that he was doing so because of his arrangement with the familiar.

Once the misunderstanding was passed, Greg once again realized that Olivia had only told a technical truth and not an actual one. As his familiar, there were no requirements that Greg had to fulfill for her to serve him. If anything she seemed all too eager to serve him in any way he wished to have her. On the other hand, as the creator of the system, for him to gain items from the Eros shop, he would have to earn lust points. This would require him to engage in certain… behaviors, as the healer had implied. So in some technical way, they did have such an arrangement as Olivia had said just not in the direct way that she had led the healer to believe. The more Greg thought over this conversation, the more keenly aware he became of how careful he’d have to be when dealing with the familiar. Unless he was completely certain of what she meant, then he couldn’t take anything she said at face value.

“If that’s all, then you won’t find any objection from me,” The healer replied, a clear note of relief in her tone of voice.

“Good, I’m glad we can understand each other,” Olivia affirmed.

Greg got the impression that Olivia was about to release the spell that held him in place. Before she could, however, the healer spoke up. “I just have one question,” She said. “If you know enough to help me on to the road to transcend the nine tiers, then surely you know enough to guide the boy to begin his journey as a mage. Why involve me at all?” She asked.

Greg couldn’t help but panic on Olivia’s behalf. This was the biggest hole in the tapestry that Olivia had tried to weave so far. She had made the healer think that she was speaking on behalf of her original. But in reality, this wasn’t the case. She was just an avatar left behind to cater to a mundane human and nothing more. She made it seem like if she wanted to, she could easily help the healer transcend the nine tiers. How then was it that she couldn’t teach a mundane human how to become a first-tier mage?

However, unlike Greg, who, though immobile, was panicking on the inside, the familiar sounded completely relaxed as she replied. “Much to my shame, the answer to that is simple,” She declared. “Ignorance,” She stated simply after a short pause. “Unlike you, I have never at any point in my life been a tier one mage,” She relayed. “I was born above the tiers and above the tiers I remain to this day. “Mana cores and mana pathways are things I only know of in theory seeing as I’ve never had one myself,” She stated. “I might tell the boy of what I’ve read and heard but I wouldn’t be able to guide him through the process the same way one who has gone through it would. Tell me, healer, if you wanted to go somewhere, who would you rather have guide you? Someone who has heard about how to reach the place you want to go? Or someone who has actually been there before” Olivia posed. The silence that followed this question was an answer in itself. “Look back at the boy, I am about to release him from the spell,” The familiar gave a heads up.

The healer quietly nodded as she turned back toward him.

If the familiar hadn’t given the warning to the healer, Greg himself would have fumbled when suddenly released from the spell. Now, however, when he was released from the spell, he smoothly continued to speak. “I am not strong enough to face your enemies, teacher,” He spoke candidly. And I probably won’t be for a very long time,” he added. “However, if you teach me, then I promise to do everything in my power to grow as strong as I can be,” He declared in a resolute tone that relayed that these weren’t just empty words to him. “When I am strong enough, you won’t even have to call me to your side to help you fight your enemies. I will be the hammer of justice. I’ll be the blade of retribution that makes everyone that had even the smallest of parts to play in the betrayal pay for their sins against you,” He stated.

From the look of shock and surprise on the healer’s face, it was clear that she hadn’t been expecting Greg to go this far. He wasn’t just offering to help her in her revenge, he was willing to take it up himself and make it his business to see the people that wronged her were punished. Greg knew that he could potentially be getting himself in a lot of trouble later on. However, unlike the familiar, his promise was straightforward, and most importantly, one that he planned on actually following through on. Just because his familiar had been willing to play word games with the woman, didn’t mean that he was as well. Greg knew that chances are that eventually, there’d be a falling out between the healer and Olivia when it became clear that she’d promised more than she could deliver. When that time came, Greg didn’t want the healer thinking that he too was on the list of people that had taken advantage of her.

“Master, aren’t you promising a bit too much?” Olivia spoke up. Clearly, even she was caught off guard by Greg’s promise and felt compelled to speak.

“If she helps me become a mage, she will have given me much,” Greg countered in a firm tone.

“What happens if you die before you even gain enough power to be able to contend with them?” The healer posed.

Greg couldn’t help but smile as this was a question that he’d asked a deity-level being just the day prior. Greg’s response was the same as that of the being. “Then I probably wasn’t going to be of any use to you anyway,” He resolutely said.

There was a long silence as the healer regarded him. “You do know that you just volunteered to fight eighth and ninth-tier mages, right?” She posed in an amused tone.

Greg was tempted to make a quip about how they’d harmed the most attractive woman he’d ever seen and needed to pay for that. He, however, knew that this was a serious affair and so he just nodded to make it clear that he knew what he was doing. The healer remained silent, but Greg could see that her gaze had become a lot warmer toward him. “You are an ignorant child, Roka,” She said, catching Greg off-guard. Greg was ready to say something to show that he was being completely serious. The healer, however, held up her hand and kept him from speaking. “I appreciate your bravery, Greg, but with all due respect, you’ve never met an eighth or ninth-tier mage. You have no idea just how powerful they can be,” She relayed. “But tell you what,” She continued. “If you get to the same tier as I am at, and you still want to help me fight, I’ll take you up on the offer, okay?” she posed.

Greg couldn’t help but think that here was another powerhouse waiting for him to grow powerful enough to be useful to her. Still, he had to show the right amount of surprise and delight at her words. “Does that mean…”

The healer smiled. “You have an event tomorrow to honor your father, don’t you?” The healer asked. Greg nodded. “Well starting the day after, we’ll start preparing you for the process of making both your core and mana pathways,” She informed him…

***