Bookbound Bunny

B2 - Chapter 75 - Conclusion

Lily and her friends took a trip to Kaeling, where everyone's coin pouches became notably lighter. Problems like weight and transportation became a thing of the past unless the item was truly too large.

Every single one of them had actually underestimated the storage bags, but thankfully, Rose was joining them on this trip, and she easily resolved this misunderstanding. They knew it was "bigger on the inside," but they had thought they were still limited by the bag's mouth.

Rose, however, demonstrated that for particularly large items, you could actually loosen the drawstring and expand it by a considerable amount. Not only that, but as soon as a portion of the item was inside the bag, the rest of it would suddenly be swallowed inside it.

Removing it after that was a bit of a hassle, as if your item was heavy, it could be hard to partially pull it out enough for the bag to release it. Rose had no issue with this as she had draconic strength, but the rest of the gang was not as fortunate.

However, Lily and Thomas both realized a solution—telekinesis! Yes, with their "chore magic," they could lift the items inside the bag and bring them out of the mouth, greatly simplifying the process at the expense of some Mana.

Naturally, they also stopped at the trading house, where Rose began dumping out all sorts of strange trinkets, presumably from the dungeon. Not only were there a small handful of magic items, but also jewels, metal bars, and even some weapons and armor.

To Lily and her peers, this was a shocking display and evidence that when they finally explored the dungeon, they could earn riches of their own if they had the strength to do so.

"I want a storage bag," Rose said to the owner and pointed to her pile of goods.

The owner began appraising the items, then nodded in agreement and brought out a few storage items for selection. Compared to even the worst of her friends' bags, these seemed very poor in quality, causing Lily to frown and Rose to growl.

However, Arakil had other opinions and told Lily to choose the worn satchel. Understanding that Arakil must have an idea, or saw something hidden about it, she quickly calmed Rose down, fearing she might burn the place down.

Rose did calm down, but when Lily chose the satchel, everyone, even the owner, was confused by the choice. Unlike the bags, it couldn't be unfastened to widen the mouth, and if that wasn't already a detriment, it also had far less internal capacity than the other bags.

"Are you sure you want this one?" the owner asked, scratching his head. "The other bags are more than triple the internal size. Even with the unique feature, I don't think it's worth it."

"Unique feature?" Thomas asked in surprise.

The students all stared expectantly at the shopkeeper, waiting for an explanation.

The owner nodded. "It sorts the space inside it. Then, when you put your hand inside, you can think of the item you want, and it brings it out for you."

"Wow, that actually sounds really useful. Imagine needing a potion and you can have it without searching," Rose commented.

"Rightly so. But as I mentioned, the storage space is terrible..." the owner sighed.

Lily gasped, immediately understanding why Arakil wanted her to pick it. "I could use it for my talismans!"

"Oh! That's a brilliant idea," Lotte instantly agreed.

[Quite right. Your wand, talismans, potions, and anything you need would be readily available.]

"Yeah, that sounds perfect for Lily," Rose agreed, now understanding.

The owner, however, sighed and shook his head. "The issue is that the bag is getting worse over time. It has actually lost a quarter of the space it had a few months ago. That's actually the only reason I included it, since it would have been worth much more in prime condition. I'm okay with selling it to you, but you must understand it's at your own risk."

The group looked grim after hearing that.

"Let's rather pick another one then, Lily," Rose suggested.

Lily was about to agree, as even if it was perfect for her, if she lost it, then it would all have been for nothing. But, before she could, Arakil spoke up.

[The owner is right, however, we can mend the pouch. The same inscription we used to revitalize my grimoire should work with a few minor adjustments, and with the wand, you don't need to risk the item to do so.]

Lily was overjoyed and quickly shook her head at Rose before pointing at the pouch.

"No. I still want it. Trust me," Lily said, giving a hidden wink.

Rose was initially frowning, but the wink was enough to make her realize there was far more to this. The owner gave one last warning, but Rose pushed through and selected it.

Lily's friends were shocked, as they had not expected Lily to want such a defective product. They tried to convince her to pick anything else, with Hana even offering to loan her some money to buy something better. But no matter how much they tried, Lily refused to budge, and now even Rose was suddenly on her side.

Lotte, however, hummed in thought. "I'm guessing Arakil picked it."

"That's right," Lily admitted.

"Yeah, that's probably the best bag for you then," Lotte said with a slight smirk.

The rest of the group folded shortly after, although Arthur warned her not to come crying to them later when it broke.

Lily could only giggle in response. She would've told them she might be able to fix it, but she was concerned the shopkeeper would suddenly retract it if she did.

And so Lily now found herself in the possession of a tiny dimensional storage satchel. She fastened it to her waist and even tried placing a few items inside it to see how it would work.

Seeing Lily pull out things so effortlessly drew the attention of her friends, and on their entire trip back to Regarth, they spent time having her put random stuff inside it, while having her pull requested items out on command.

Rose and her friends were impressed by it, while Lily was absolutely in love with it as it was far better than she could have imagined. Her friends had thought she was simply pulling out a talisman, but Lily quickly realized she could pull out the exact one she wanted.

Even if they caught on that she could specify a "fire talisman" or a "water talisman", that was only half the story. In reality, if Lily pictured the talisman hard enough, she could specify it down to the sigils.

For example, Lily always carried two emergency shield talismans with her at all times. One was a full-body shield, while the other was a frontal shield only, but with force reflection. If Lily thought of wanting a "shield talisman," then she would receive one randomly. However, if she had a clear picture of the talisman in her mind, she removed the randomness entirely.

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This didn't just apply to talismans; it also went for potions. If she just imagined a potion, she would get the first one the pouch selected, but if she thought of a healing potion, then she would get that. This was a reliability that couldn't be underestimated, and Lily instantly ignored the drawback of reduced space.

Naturally, when they were back in the safety of her room, Rose confronted her about it, and she revealed that Arakil had said they could repair it. Rose immediately softened up and was delighted, even going as far as to burst out in laughter.

"If the shopkeeper ever finds out you pulled a fast one on him, he might give that witch a run for her money," Rose teased.

"Camilla. And I don't plan on telling him I fixed it," Lily replied.

As for the repair procedure, Arakil gave her an inscription she needed to recreate. It was difficult to replicate using the wand, but thankfully, she could undo her mistakes and try again with ease.

This was something Lily couldn't do before, which meant that she was free to experiment and correct to her heart's content. If she made sure to include an off switch on every glyph, she could even test it out, turn it off, and adjust it after the fact!

This realization practically blew Lily's mind, and she fully realized why Arakil was so excited for her to get this. Her progress with glyphs could potentially skyrocket now, with freedoms like never before.

As for repairing the pouch, Lily eventually completed the inscription, although Arakil had mentioned it would be a gradual process. Each night, she would empty it out and leave it inside the inscription. In the mornings after first turning it off, she would need to replenish its Mana.

[Once it's fully revitalized, we can explore modifying the size if we find the resources. Although that is a future objective, as, unless my analysis was far off, you should be more than happy with its capacity once it's returned to its former glory.]

Lily nodded excitedly, although admittedly, now she didn't care too much about the smaller storage space. As long as her pouch continued delivering the exact tool she needed with a thought, she was more than happy with this.

And if I need someone to bring something big back, I can always rely on Lotte.

***

The next few weeks seemed to pass in a blur, as everyone was not only filled with excitement but also a passionate desire to make progress. The gauntlet, the preliminary rankings, and their prizes had seemingly lit a fire under every student.

Lily and most of her group of friends were now the targets to defeat, with Lily unknowingly gaining quite a few rivals. At the same time, she couldn't help but notice her professors were paying a lot more attention to her, which was certainly saying something as it hadn't been a minor amount beforehand due to her status as the first lagia mage.

She was also invited to a meeting with a previously unknown staff member—Instructor Gerrard. He instantly reminded her of Richardus, and when he asked her to join his class on "Sorcerous Warfare" and serve the future of the kingdom, she understood why.

Lily politely turned him down, citing her three other classes as already taking up too much of her time. While he looked disappointed, he didn't lash out and seemed to accept her reasoning.

Speaking of professors, Alice was also behaving differently. Lily could've sworn the woman was bipolar, as one moment she was praising her while the next she was scowling at her. Lily wasn't sure what to make of it; she had come first in the class after all, but at least she wasn't being picked on anymore.

Professor Sylwel, on the other hand, didn't behave any differently, which was an unexpected relief to her. He simply asked her when she would begin her project of recreating higher-quality glyph ink, or if she could draw some more glyphs for him.

Professor Ollie, on the other hand, was over the moon and even let it slip that he was impressed by her demonstration of the glyphs. This was enough for Lily to realize that Ollie and a few of the other professors must have been behind the floating eye that watched their test.

Ollie also asked her why she didn't pick a storage bag, even going as far as to admit that he had been responsible for evaluating and grading all the magical objects in that room. He outright declared her wand a "fun trinket" and was horrified that she returned the best storage bag for it.

Lily didn't plan on hiding her wand, as she wanted to openly use it during Dungeon Studies. Additionally, she hoped that by showing it to Ollie, he might provide her with more books to study, which she could then donate to Arakil's library.

Ollie was naturally dumbfounded as Lily drew a glyph in the air. In fact, when it was activated, he actually fainted on the spot! Lily was so frightened that she even used a potion to rouse him, causing the professor to splutter at the foul concoction he was forced to drink.

Of course, the professor demanded an explanation as the item was not capable of doing that when he used it previously. He even asked if he could try it now, but the glyph he drew was nothing but pretty lights in the air.

"Why?" Ollie asked, practically pleading for an answer.

"I think it's because my Mana has no affinity," Lily explained. This was partially true and something Arakil had advised her to use. "Because I have no affinities, no biases, my glyphs are nothing but raw Mana. At the same time, because my Mana is raw, I struggle to cast any normal spells."

Lily even demonstrated by making a pitiful flame, going as far as to perfectly enunciate every single syllable. To her relief, Ollie actually accepted this answer. As a Lutrinia, he was biased towards water magic, and this was even evident in his enchanting work.

Yes, the idea of Mana "purity" was a thing in the current world of enchanting, and as such, he would avoid any major tasks that required him to draw fire glyphs. This was one of the reasons why he butted heads with Sylwel so often, as the man wanted fire glyphs almost exclusively.

After that, Ollie was in complete agreement with her choice, and when Lily mentioned using the wand in the dungeon, he was more than willing to entertain the idea. He even went so far as to say he would ask the Headmaster and Alice for permission to provide her with some additional resources. Naturally, Lily was over the moon and thanked him profusely.

This wasn't the end of Lily's strange encounters after the test, as she eventually found herself invited to speak to Headmaster Fabrelis.

Lily would be lying if she said she wasn't a little nervous, and her first thought was that she had either been discovered or that she'd done something wrong. However, the visit was actually the headmaster delivering her some star charts and notes on astrology.

Lily was quite surprised by the turn of events and thanked the headmaster profusely. Although she wasn't sure when she would get around to this, as she still needed to learn Lunar Radiance and Eclipse.

After he delivered those, there was a small awkward moment where the Headmaster seemed to be waiting for Lily to do something, only she had no idea what he wanted. She uncomfortably shifted in her seat, and just as she was about to ask him outright, he finally spoke.

"Also, I've heard you've been looking for a name to classify your bloodline magic," Fabrelis said.

Lily was surprised by this, feeling like the headmaster had suddenly changed the topic, but nodded in confirmation.

"I had a few professors look into whether there were any historic records of star magic, but sadly, we've come up short. However, considering you mentioned being inspired by the stars in the sky, even going as far as to request star charts, then what about astrology? If we take astrology... What about astromancy?"

"Hmm..." Lily mumbled.

Fabrelis gave a pained smile. "You don't like it? Someone also suggested Astrum, which came from a light magic incantation that produces a star-like effect."

Lily tapped her finger against her lip, musing to herself. "What about changing it a little, since it's mine?"

"What do you have in mind?" the headmaster asked curiously.

Lily paused. "How about... Astral?"

"Astral..." Fabrelis repeated before pausing in thought. "That sounds perfectly fine."

Lily smiled. Finally, she was rid of the dreaded "star magic."

***

It was the first morning of a brand-new school week, and everyone was present for their Dungeon Studies class, except for the professor. Alice had been a few minutes late before, but it had almost been half an hour already with no sign of her.

Everyone was staring at the locked door to the dungeon, expecting her to suddenly emerge from there. So, when the other door was suddenly kicked open behind them, almost everyone was caught by the sudden and unexpected surprise.

"Alright, kids, listen up! I've got some good news for all of you!" Alice said energetically, promptly drawing everyone's attention. "Because you all did so well during the mock gauntlet, the Headmaster has decided to speed things up a little."

Excited whispers and murmurs spread about the classroom.

"So, next week, we will be going on a camping trip!" Alice announced.

The energy of the room deflated.

"Camping?" a boy asked, hoping he had misheard.

"Yes, camping," Alice confirmed.

A few grumbles and awkward coughs echoed in the quiet room.

Alice smirked. "On the second floor of the dungeon!"

The room exploded in jubilation. This was the second floor of the dungeon! Finally, they were going to see and experience some of the mysteries of the dungeon firsthand.

Alice cleared her throat, grabbing everyone's attention. "Which means you'll need to stock up on supplies. You'll receive a basic kit from us, but to take full advantage of this experience, I suggest stocking up. Trust me, it'll be worth it!"

Lily and Lotte turned to each other, both sharing gleeful smiles.

I can't wait!