Bookbound Bunny

B2 - Chapter 61 - Busy Prep

The mini dungeon gauntlet test was scheduled for the end of the week, so the students didn't have much time left to prepare.

Lotte had suggested using alchemy, only to realize that it wasn't really an option for her at her current skill level. A remedy or something like that wouldn't help her in a test that she likely wouldn't even get hurt participating in. At best, she could mix her blood into something to make a poisonous concoction, but judging by the enemies they'd encountered so far, it would be entirely useless. You can't poison skeletons and living armor, after all.

As for Lily, a fire had been lit under her, and she wanted to prepare some glyphs for herself to use during the test and then show them to Professor Ollie to validate that she'd made them herself.

If she were still reliant on the Fairymoss ink, she wouldn't have bothered, as it would be too expensive, but being able to imbue the ink directly meant she'd dropped the costs down to a fraction. Of course, she couldn't just use any cheap ink, as it would affect her drawing quality, but compared to needing magical herbs, it was basically a steal.

Lily's plan was to bring a variety of basic elemental glyphs, like the firebolts she'd used to defend herself against Tim on that horrible day when her secret was revealed. If she used Arakil's shield or attack spell, then Lily could clutch a swift and easy victory, but she was reluctant to do so for two reasons: she was concerned about other mages not knowing this kind of magic, and she wanted to prove she could do it with her own creations.

While Lily wouldn't go as far as to say these were her own "original creations," the components and arrangement were picked out by her alone. This was perfectly aligned with Arakil's preferred teaching style; he wanted Lily to experiment on her own without being forced down a specific path while he provided his own evaluation of her results. Of course, if she directly asked for his help, then he'd give it to her; it was a sort of unspoken agreement between the two in their master-apprentice relationship.

Obviously, these preparations meant that Lily's progress with Lunar Radiance, otherwise known as Waxing Wonder, was somewhat halted. Lily didn't mind slowing down with it, as she hadn't planned on using it for this fake test and only wanted to reveal it when the results really mattered.

Outside of preparations, the rest of the week went by as could be expected. Lily and Lotte decided to visit Professor Sylwel's on their last day of the weekend and were surprised to see many senior students present.

The reason was apparent—they wanted access to the alchemy lab. As for the professor himself, he seemed to be jumping from experiment to experiment, occasionally offering helpful advice or asking one of the assistants to do something for him.

When the two asked if there was anything they needed to worry about for the upcoming lessons as assistants, Sylwel brushed it off, saying it was more of the same and instead put both Lily and Lotte to work.

Lily was given an itemized list of glyphs the professor wanted, detailed down to their exact temperature and durations. This was perfect for her, as when she worked with Miss Camilla, Lily had to do most of this herself. Sylwel was evidently using the guise of "testing her abilities" to get some much-needed glyphs for himself.

As for Lotte, he did ask her to donate a bit more blood, which thankfully, he did not ingest this time. After that, he asked her to help handle some toxic plants because he wanted them processed and sealed for safety. Usually, Sylwel would do this himself as he was immune to their effects, but he was hopeful that Lotte could fill in.

Lotte was obviously nervous about such a task. Still, the professor produced numerous potions to alleviate her concern while joking that he could "cure a zombification" with this much alchemy goods. The two students had no idea if he was serious or not, but Lotte decided to take the risk and see if she really was resistant or immune to these ingredients. To her relief, she was, and the professor was delighted to be able to safely hand over a lot of grunt work on the poor girl.

Lily, on the other hand, almost wished her job were as simple. For drawing glyphs, he had given her glyph chalk as the medium and plenty of black tiles as the vessels. Each tile was labeled with a number according to the list, so the professor wouldn't need to understand what glyph she drew.

At first, Lily was happy with the work, but when a few tiles were completed, the professor took them away and promptly used them in his projects. Sylwel was positively delighted by the results, which led him to add more items to the list and drop more tiles at her desk.

At this rate, I'll never finish! Lily began to worry.

The worst part was that each additional request was even more specific than the last. However, eventually Lotte came to Lily's rescue. After she finished her tasks and properly sanitized herself of any hazardous residuals, she suggested calling it a day and getting some grub.

Professor Sylwel looked pained at his loss of workers, but ultimately had to let them go. If they were worked to the bone, he'd potentially lose them for good, so after Lily finished her last in-progress glyph, the two departed.

"I'll notify the headmaster of your excellent work!" he called out as they left, before returning quickly to another experiment that was beginning to boil over.

Lily and Lotte shared a giggle, wondering how much they'd be compensated for their time. Both still had the odd jobs on their mind from each of their original meetings with Pete, with Arthur in particular planning on building his own wind-powered wagon. But, for Lily and Lotte, it looked like they might be able to milk Professor Sylwel's wallet rather than their fellow students.

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As for the rest of their classes, PMC definitely had a focus on getting them ready for the test. Professor Elius was swapping students into different drills and trying his best to offer advice where he could so that everyone had their best fighting chance.

Lily wasn't there to witness what happened in Spellcasting Fundamentals as she opted to swap out both lessons this week for her electives. From what she heard from other students, it was a generalized lesson rather than a focused one, and they used the occasion to suggest what students might choose as their reward if they completed the mini gauntlet. It also helped further motivate the students to ensure they tried their utmost to complete it, even if the top prizes weren't feasible.

For Dungeon Studies, it was mainly just a revision of previous topics, evidently not wanting to injure or tire anyone out before the test. Lily thought of confronting Alice, but opted to instead just silently fume while glaring daggers at the woman.

Arcane Theory and Principles, as usual, was hardly worth mentioning. Lily learnt a few obscure laws regarding lifting magic restrictions in the case of a settlement being raided by invading monsters.

That just left the electives, which were probably Lily's highlight of the week if you ignored the upcoming test.

Lily and Thomas went to Hearthcraft and Household Charms together this time, where she swore the boy had an even bigger crush on Professor Melina than Arakil.

Lily had forgotten to ask Thomas how his first lesson went, but judging by the fact that it looked like he had practiced Melina's spells until his tongue bled, she could only assume he had thoroughly enjoyed it.

The tasks were cleaning activities again, but this time she actively encouraged the students to try out different activities. This meant Lily was forbidden from cleaning cauldrons and was relegated to dusting and tidying up.

Still, Lily gave it her all and was practicing using telekinesis to lift and hold up an object before she used another spell to clean up under it. Using this combination, she targeted the bookshelf, not only fighting the dust but also neatly rearranging the books and ornaments.

While Lily had made it look relatively easy to those watching her, it was actually quite a bit of a challenge for her. If she were using solely Astral magic, she could quite easily keep two or three going at once, especially since Nebula Veil had effectively become a free spell for her. This sadly did not apply to other spells, unless one of them conveniently happened to be an Astral spell.

Thomas didn't appear to have this issue, and Lily swore he might have been using three at once at a stage, adding credence to her earlier assumption. At the end of the lesson, Melina praised them all and mentioned that the next lesson would take place in the kitchen, which caused quite a bit of excitement among most of the students, including Lily.

Alchemy class was more of the same, and both Lily and Lotte had no trouble assisting the students in preparing their ingredients. They also proceeded to a lesson on the basic handling of the flame and signs to watch out for during a boil.

This was actually quite exciting for Lily as she got to see a variety of magical tools for this, as Miss Camilla, being ever the cheapskate, only had a few basic burners. When Lily started providing the old witch with glyphs, she saw no reason to ever change her ways. Lily would likely stick to glyphs herself; she really couldn't see any reason not to, except if she needed a flame that exceeded her current maximum glyph capabilities, but it was still nice to see other options.

As for Applied Enchanting & Glyphwork, the class was less practically involved this time, with Professor Ollie going over more of a theoretical application of glyphs. While it was interesting and Arakil was excited to hear about the world, it all but confirmed their suspicions.

Most glyphs were "registered," and modifying them was highly frowned upon. The general consensus was that you would learn the approved drawings like parrots and strictly repeat them. That was, unless you went into glyph research, which most of the magical community saw as nothing but a gamble and a money sink.

Why spend so much time, effort, and money trying to create new glyphs when you could become certified and take the easy route to just about print money?

Lily couldn't help but recall Miss Camilla's words about how it was just one big money-making scheme, and she found herself readily agreeing with her old mentor.

The only silver lining in this absurdity was that modifications to "registered" glyphs were allowed if it was for personal use. Of course, Arakil spat venom at the idea of someone trying to enforce copyright on something that had existed for eons.

After the class was over, Lily stayed behind and brought out a few of her talismans to show Professor Ollie. Not only was she safe under the "personal use" clause, but she hadn't gone above common or crafted glyphs for her work, so she was doubly secure.

Still, the professor was most curious about her displays until she mentioned wanting to use them for her test. His confusion quickly changed to understanding, and he promptly asked Lily to draw one or two of them in his presence for confirmation.

Lily was all but happy to do so and even suspected it would come to this. She wasted no time pulling out her prepared supplies, causing some excitement from the professor at seeing someone actually using something as old as glyph ink.

After Lily drew the first one, he immediately stopped her and approved her usage, although with a strange caveat she hadn't expected.

"I have no doubt you drew all of these," Professor Ollie replied. "I can't imagine someone going as far as to customize common glyphs to this extent unless they were especially bored or dedicated, and they'd certainly not sell it to a student. However, there's one problem... your glyph ink."

"My ink?" Lily replied in confusion.

The professor nodded. "I can only imagine it cost you a fortune for that ink. To recreate something from the history books is quite an accomplishment, but that's where the issue lies..."

This is just imbued ink, though... Lily thought, but didn't speak up, instead waiting for the professor to continue.

"You'll need to go speak to that mad scientist hiding in the basement and prove that you made the glyph ink," Ollie continued. "As if you bought the glyph ink, something most students wouldn't really have, then you are using an outside resource, I'm afraid."

The professor looked apologetic, as if he'd given her an impossible task. Lily, much to her surprise, giggled to herself and gave a bright smile.

"Is that all?" she asked confidently. "I can brew up a batch of Fairymoss ink right in front of him."

Professor Ollie gaped in surprise before chuckling to himself. "I think I'll even brave the journey into those depths to witness that. It's not every day you get to see a part of glyphwork history firsthand."

"Professor Sylwel isn't that bad."

"If you'd known how many enchanted tools he's singlehandedly destroyed only to reply 'oops,' I think you'd understand my reluctance," Ollie replied with a pained smile.