Throne of Time [Magical Academy, Time Loop, Mystery]

It had been less than half a month since Suria had previously attempted to eliminate the weevil infestation, but she had learned a great deal in that time. She told herself that she needed to treat this like an emergency, putting together the best plan she could instead of simply kicking things to the next cycle. When she forced herself to think that way, her choices came together quickly.

The crux of her strategy would be the new spell she’d learned in Combat Perception: a pentagonal inscription that gave her an awareness of moving objects in a radius around her. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it should reduce the number of potential ambushes.

Between all her different training methods, she had increased her runic capacity to eight. Suria still had Lirngelf’s potion, unused, but she thought that eight was sufficient for her goals. She set aside her old talismans and inscribed crisp new glyphs using everything she’d learned. With eight runes she could create a spell with two augments, which meant she could change her strategy.

Her shielding spell had already been strong enough against the weevils the first time, so she added augments to increase its range and reduce its mana cost. The result was a shell of blue mana that could easily wrap around her body or form a wall roughly her height, without significantly draining her mana reserves.

Previously she had used a flame spell because she knew the fire inscriptions well and they were easy to control, but Suria realized that had been an ill-considered choice. Instead she used the only force inscription she knew as a base, with augments to increase strength and precision. Those might not be as potent as flame-specific augments had been for her old spell, but she hoped that using the right spell for the job would be more important.

Just in case, Suria did create a new, even more empowered version of her flame spell, but she left it in her satchel. She was running out of hands, so until she could afford a runebook, she needed to be selective about her spells. As she considered the problem, Suria realized that she actually had another option.

Her funds from her scholarship weren’t very much, but she didn’t buy that many supplies, so she could afford to return to the school tailor. The older woman was much less busy now that the initial rush had ended and was happy to take on Suria’s request. She sewed three pouches into the inner shirt of the tunic so that Suria could place talismans within them where they would be touching her body at all times.

Three was actually just a precaution in case Suria came up with more ideas, which didn’t happen as the deadline approached. The main reason she wanted them was to have a healing spell available so that she could heal herself without having to fumble between her other talismans. Unlike her force or shielding spells, which required more directionality, she was confident that she could heal herself without any assistance.

Unfortunately, her actual healing spell wasn’t much improved from what she’d come to Darkmoon University with, since she hadn’t spent any time in the Medicine department. She added universal augments to empower it, and once that would have been amazing to her, but her standards had risen and she knew she’d been able to do much better in the future.

Her second pouch was occupied by a fire spell modified to just produce a small hovering flame for the sake of light, so that she would be able to see. A light-specific spell might be better, and a permanent light effect would be ideal, but she could only learn so many new inscriptions and needed to work with what she had.

After some thought, Suria filled the final pouch with her empowered healing sleep spell, just in case. Because the awareness spell produced a continual effect, there should be no need to have it available at all times, and she’d sewn it into the top of her satchel anyway. This was probably the best she could do.

With everything prepared, Suria gathered her courage and headed back into the supply tunnels via the dormitory entrance. She didn’t get far before she sensed something... except with her new sensory spell, she was fairly sure it was something large, a xenarth instead of a weevil.

Indeed, when she turned the corner, she found herself facing one of the giant sloths, who blinked at her. It wasn’t Bumbledun, because she saw this one had different patches around its eyes.

”Excuse me,” Suria said with a small curtsy. ”You still have a problem with a weevil infestation, don’t you?”

”We do indeed,” the xenarth said in a feminine voice. ”Did the staff send you?”

”I’m a volunteer. I hope that won’t be any trouble.”

”So long as you don’t cause too much disruption. Someone came through a while ago and left burn marks all over the corridors.”

”I’m using a force spell,” Suria said hastily, and moved on before she could flush too much. At least the xenarth didn’t seem particularly upset about the damage she’d done, just mildly annoyed. This time, she resolved that she would do better.

Even though she had cleared these tunnels not long ago, Suria felt something skittering in a nearby room much sooner than she’d expected. Either the weevils crawled their way all through the tunnels or they reproduced faster than she had expected. She took a deep breath and entered the doorway, this time checking carefully for any weevils hiding nearby.

This time there were none, just one monstrous insect chewing on the other side of the room. Suria took a deep breath and cast her force spell, knocking it against the wall.

The impact jarred the weevil, but it landed back on its feet and started to rush straight toward her. She instinctively cast again, then a third time to smash the weevil into the wall. This time she heard its exoskeleton crunch and it collapsed dead.

She was left breathing heavily and wondering if she had made a mistake in her spell design. Perhaps instead of a range augment, she should have used an empowering augment? Then again, she wasn’t very familiar with this glyph and might just need more practice. Practice was the very reason she’d come down here, so she’d keep experimenting until she understood her limitations, then she could improve them.

When she ran into a second weevil, Suria tried to cast her force spell as more of a spike or knife. That had been the reason for the precision augment, and her spell bit deep into the weevil, but it wasn’t enough to kill it. She had to cast again, this time crushing it against the floor.

Most likely she would need more specific inscriptions in order to modify her force spells in such precise ways. What she had was a good enough general spell, so she’d work on her skill with it and learn different inscriptions once she returned to her classes.

After a stretch of empty corridor, Suria felt a sort of tickling from the next room, feedback from her sensory spell that she couldn’t entirely interpret. She headed in extremely cautiously, sweeping her hovering flame around to check every angle, hoping she was ready for anything.

She saw three weevils attached to the ceiling and yelped as they dropped on her.

But even though Suria let out a cry, she also reacted by casting her shield. The weevils struck against it and she instinctively thrust the shield away, sending them across the room. She followed up with her force spell, fear making her use more mana than usual, and squashed two of them instinctively.

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Afterward she finally froze, shocked that the quick actions could have come from her. The third weevil had been out of range and it was crawling toward her rapidly, but she didn’t panic, she just aimed her force talisman and cast, hitting it with a concentrated line of force that crushed it against the opposite wall.

In the silence Suria let out a relieved little laugh. She was under no illusions that she was a true battlemage, but she wasn’t helpless. Her instincts no longer betrayed her and if she kept testing herself, she could improve them further.

This wasn’t insane. Suria smiled and headed into the dark corridors.

~ ~ ~

Numerous encounters later, Suria hadn’t made any terrible mistakes, but she realized that her limitation wasn’t going to be any of the issues she’d focused on: the problem was her mana reserves. Up to this point she’d primarily been limited by runic capacity, so she hadn’t considered it.

Reaching the limits of her mana wasn’t quite like what she expected, since it wasn’t as though she had a container of mana inside her that she could check. It was more like running until she exhausted herself: she could keep going, but her body didn’t want to, and each exertion seemed more difficult. She felt it in her muscles as well, though that could just be the sustained tension of moving through dangerous territory.

When Suria struggled to kill a single weevil, taking three different force spells to finally squish it, she realized that she might have made a strategic error coming this deep without rationing her mana better. She could probably kill any given weevil she encountered, but if there were multiple, she would have a problem. Deciding that caution was the better part of valor, she reversed course to safe tunnels so she could take some time to rest.

The tunnels around her looked more unfamiliar than she expected, however, and she knew there were so many side passages she hadn’t fully explored. Weevils could so easily have crawled in... Suria paid close attention to her perception spell and hoped she didn’t run into any.

Her preparations for the extermination were less relevant now than the general study she had done, since some of the introductory books she’d been assigned discussed mana reserves in detail. She knew that her body would generate mana at a slow rate, depending on how healthy she was, but in practice it didn’t feel like much. Her other options, as far as she could remember them, were specialized mana potions or generally restorative activities like sleep.

When she felt multiple creatures move in the corridors ahead, Suria instinctively raised her mana shield. Seconds later she realized that they weren’t weevils and gladly lowered the shield, which was making her skull ache.

”Oh, there she is,” one of the xenarths said as they approached. Suria barely paid attention to that one or the xenarth in back, because the third...

”We were worried, Suria,” Bumbledun said. ”You rushed ahead of us.”

”Bumbledun!” She took a step closer and embraced his fur before she could think better of it. Suria realized that might be a faux pas, but before she could pull back, a heavy claw patted her on the back.

”You look tired, small one. Perhaps it’s time for a rest?”

The xenarths guided her back down one of the tunnels and revealed that an apparently undifferentiated stone wall could actually slide away. There was a cluster of rounded rooms on the other side, softly lit by mana lanterns. Suria saw a larger area with a table in the center while the surrounding rooms were filled by low beds - she wanted to drop into one of them, but had a feeling it wouldn’t be right to take someone else’s bed.

Bumbledun introduced her to Dinmond and Tibblevon, two of the other xenarths on staff, and they urged her into the main room. They confirmed that these were the xenarths’ private chambers, though one of them got out a pillow for her to sit on so that she could join them at the table.

”I don’t suppose you have any mana potions?” Suria asked.

”I’m afraid not,” Tibblevon said, shaking her great head slowly. ”Terribly expensive, you know.”

”And toxic in more than small quantities,” Dinmond chided.

”But we do have tea,” Bumbledun told her. ”Will that do?”

Suria smiled in relief. ”That will do fine.”

~ ~ ~

Even though Suria told herself she would take a quick rest and get back to work, she ended up spending over an hour sitting and chatting with the xenarths. It was easy to let the time slip away, especially when Dinmond brought out a tray of bread. At first Suria thought it was unbaked dough, yet it melted away in her mouth.

The xenarths suggested that while having human guests wasn’t rare, it wasn’t as common as they’d like. Many of the students treated them as servants or worse, and since Suria had seen how nobles could treat human servants, she could imagine how they’d react to people who looked different from them. On the other hand, the xenarths seemed to be on very good terms with the maintenance staff of the university. They weren’t upset that no one had dealt with the infestation, just understanding that their counterparts were very busy with the start of the term.

It occurred to Suria that the xenarths moved silently through the school and probably saw more than they let on, but she resisted the urge to ask questions. They were so kind, she didn’t want to take advantage of them... and while they were very civil, they were smart enough to know if someone was manipulating them. Perhaps on a later loop she could build up a better relationship earlier.

Eventually she would need to leave, however. Suria felt much restored by her rest and tried to determine her own mana reserves. They felt completely restored, but by her rough calculations based on textbooks, an hour shouldn’t have been enough. Most likely if she pushed herself hard she would begin to run dry sooner than she expected, so she shouldn’t overestimate herself.

”Always so restless,” Tibblevon said. ”Already wanting to run into danger again?”

”I did hope to clear the infestation,” Suria told them, feeling irrationally guilty from Tibblevon’s tone. ”But there are so many tunnels, maybe it’s too much for me.”

”Tell you what,” Bumbledun said, ”why don’t we go with you and clear the nest?”

”Uh, can I?”

The xenarths chuckled good-naturedly and Bumbledun shook his head. ”For some reason students always get nervous about that, imagining that the nest will contain some queen weevil that’s ten times as large as the others. It’s nothing like that, just a damaged room with too many of them. Come along, you can probably do it.”

So Suria headed back into the corridors with three enormous guards around her. Their claws could easily crush a weevil, but when they ran into a swarm of four, Suria understood how the creatures could be pests. The xenarths moved ponderously compared to the skittering weevils and one of them easily leapt onto Bumbledun’s back, trying to bite through the thick fur.

Suria was glad she had practiced her force spell so much, because she was able to pick it off his back with a precise spike of force. With her help, the group was able to push into a damaged tunnel that ended in a mess of weevils swarming over a mass that reminded her of a wasp nest.

Just the sight of it was enough to turn her stomach, even before she imagined so many weevils swarming over her. The group wasn’t smart enough to attack the intruders yet, however, so they paused outside while Bumbledun raised a claw in invitation.

”If you would be so kind?” he suggested. ”A mage is best for this sort of thing.”

”Just need the right glyph...” Suria set aside her force talisman to return to her empowered flame spell. She took a deep breath, held it in front of her, and then cast as forcefully as she could.

A rush of flame swept over the nest, creating a chorus of shrieking and popping as weevils burned into crisps. Some of them began rushing toward her but Suria lowered her hand, catching many of them in the swath of flame. She tried to keep up until Bumbledun put a claw on her shoulder and the xenarths moved forward, flattening the weevils who survived the flames.

Freed up to focus on the nest, Suria roasted the entire thing and scoured the damaged room. She wished that she could have output even more flame and burned everything in an instant, but she felt like she was already at her limits. From her combat class in the previous loop she dimly remembered a lecture about needing to train maximum output in order to keep up with empowering augments - something to work on in future loops.

Despite her limitations, Suria felt a deep sense of satisfaction when the nest was finally cleared. It certainly helped that the xenarths moved in, patting her with their heavy paws and thanking her.

”I’m sorry that we don’t have any reward to offer you,” Bumbledun said, ”but we’ll remember your kindness.”

They wouldn’t, yet that didn’t bother Suria. She had wanted to test herself and as far as she was concerned, she had passed: there was no comparison between her fumbling first attempts and how she had fought today.

As they headed back, Suria tried not to let the success go to her head. She knew that a significant part of her efficacy was that she knew what she was going to face and prepared for it, so if she encountered a different sort of threat she would probably make mistakes again. Clearing out an infestation like this didn’t make her capable of fighting real monsters, much less a battlemage or the thrones atop the academy, and she wouldn’t overestimate herself.

But still, Suria left the tunnels happy. There wasn’t much time left in the loop, but she was satisfied with this one.