Final preparations

I leave the castle and go to the guild. When I entered the hall, everyone became silent. Ms. Maria is giving me a confused look.

I go to her.

"Hello, Ms. Maria."

"Welcome, Mr. Belmont. Were you not away on a family trip to Galdur?" (Maria)

"Yes. But something has come up which needs my attention. Is the guild master in his office?"

"He is. Do you need to see him?" (Maria)

"If he is available. It's nothing that important but I think I should personally tell him."

I am just doing it to avoid any future problems. Because I have seen things going the wrong way due to miscommunication.

Ms. Maria leads me to the office and gets his permission. We enter and find the master on his chair.

"Ah..Clive and Maria, do you two need something? Wait, you're back already, Clive?" (Christopher)

"I had to come back. I am here to tell you that I will be going somewhere so I will be unavailable indefinitely."

His face darkens. Why did he become serious all of a sudden?

"You will be unavailable. Where are you going?" (Christopher)

"I don't know actually. I will find out once I go there."

"Will it take long?" (Christopher)

"I don't know that either. Because it exists in a completely different dimension, I can't say how time flows there."

He looks at me like I am joking but then becomes serious again.

"I see. So your party will be unavailable." (Christopher)

"No. It's just me who will go. My party will be here. If you need them, you can contact them. Only me, Aera and Aegis will go."

"Mr. Belmont, I know Aegis but who is Aera?" (Maria)

"Aegis's older sister. They both will go with me. Aside from them, everyone else will be here."

In the end, the guild master accepted my leave. He had handpicked a bunch of jobs for me but since I will be unavailable, he will push those back.

This concludes my job at the guild. Now, I should head back start my final preparations. I go back to Fiona's house. Everyone is here after all.

"How did it go?" (Fay)

As soon as I entered the lounge, Fay asked me.

"So so. I would say that my preparation is almost complete. Am I forgetting something?"

"Maybe you should talk to Professor Sierra." (Aura)

"Good idea. I'll be back in a jiffy."

I teleport to Galdur. I am right in front of the academy. To me it feels like a while since I visited the academy but it only has been a day.

I enter the premises and find professor walking towards a dome. I speed up to catch her.

"Professor, do you have a moment?"

She stopped at looked behind. Her face lit up when she saw me.

"Mr. Belmont, it's good to see you. Fay came by yesterday to ask if you had dropped by." (Sierra)

"Yes, I was going through some complicated stuff."

It probably won't be good to inform her about my adventures so I'll cut straight to the chase.

"I will be unavailable for a while so I am sorry for the inconvenience."

She stops right in front of the dome and looks at me.

"You will be unavailable?" (Sierra)

"Yes. My mentor is in a trouble so I have to go and save her."

"Your mentor? She must be an exceptionally talented scholar or mage." (Sierra)

"No, she is not. Oh…am I interrupting something?"

She did say that she is heading to the dome. Does she have any field work?

"Yes. My class has practical training today. Would you like to join?" (Sierra)

"Wouldn't I be a nuisance?"

"What are you talking about? Your demonstration the other day opened a lot of new possibilities. I would like to have you in my class." (Sierra)

I can do this much. It won't take long anyway.

"If it's not too much, I can join."

She smiles and leads me inside. The dome is like a colosseum. The ground is encircled and it is a dome.

The students clicked their tongues when they saw me.

"Class, today, Mr. Belmont has joined us again. Be nice to him and try to learn for him." (Sierra)

They started talking about me but professor gave them a cold look and they stopped.

"Today, we will be studying elemental magic. See that dummy over there…"

Everyone looks towards a straw dummy about 10 meters away from them.

"You have to hit it with your elemental magic." (Sierra)

So it's basic elemental magic.

The students started attacking it in order. Some were fairly strong and some were a bit weak. All of them chanted and most were fire. There were some water and earth but air was rare.

"Mr. Belmont, would you like to have a go at it?" (Sierra)

"I think I will. But first.."

I remove the roof and fortify the entire dome. Because I am not too confident in my restraint.

"How did you remove the roof?" (Sierra)

"It's a simple spatial manipulation. I just sent the roof to a pseudo dimension. I will put it back. Ah…"

I call Aegis.

"Put a barrier around everyone. I don't want anyone injured."

Aera put a barrier around everyone. Professor had a question but she stopped.

I think I should hit it with fire as well. I don't think too much of it and visualize a normal fire.

However the fire that appeared in my hand is black. A black fire? It just means that it's absorbing every bit of light. Then it must be extremely high in energy.

I throw the fire at the dummy and whoosh.

The dummy disappeared. Only black fire remained in its place.

I'll get to that later. Now, I put everything back in place and look at professor.

"That would be it."

"I have a mountain of questions but what was that? A black fire? How is that possible?" (Sierra)

"I will look into it later. I think my training has paid off. I will get in touch with you later about this."

"And who was that girl? She appeared out of nowhere and vanished. She put barriers around us. It was incredibly strong." (Sierra)

"She is Aegis. My spirit weapon."

A lot happened after that. I said that would explain everything later. After coming home, I finished my preparations. Everything is done.

"Aera, Aegis, synchronize with me."

They synchronize with me and I open a portal.

"I'll be off then."

They waved their hands at me as I jumped into the portal. Where would I end up? It will be a nice trip to the unknown.