Chương 29: Fully Prepared

Nolotl hated having spent so many days locked in his room forced to only practicing his spear katas or going over the Simulacrum spellware for the umpteenth time. He had long used up all of his ink, meaning that he was forced to convert some of his blood from time to time into ink to continue practicing the complex spellware to create the hylomorphism required for the advanced divination as he couldn't leave his room if he wanted to maintain the script. Some might call him savage. Some might call him deranged.

But his status updates called him something else entirely different. Information assimilation progressed by 2%. Information Alignment increased by 0. 00001%. Level progressed by 1%.

"Okay, the first few days were a fluke. Perhaps progressing on the assimilation of an Alignment isn't as bad as I thought. Still, I only went from decades down to years to complete this first Boon alone," he sighed.

"I fear how long it will take to even progress on the actual Alignment Assimilation Boon, let alone the greater one." He didn't forget about his own alignment increase, but that was negligible. Not that he hated seeing it, but since his youth he knew that every and any increase in Alignment was a single grain of sand mounted over many years. Slowly but surely it would increase, and some Boons would benefit from it, but it was very much something in the background that he shouldn't worry about.

The one change that was by far the most important was his level progression. Nolotl had barely reached level 5, but he was sitting around 4% completion already. It wasn't much at first glance, but with context things changed a lot. This was just practice, he had yet to cast the spell and he had gotten so much experience out of it.

"Still, gotta love that training to perform such a complicated spell is being worth it," he grabbed another paper with failed Simulacrum spellware and scrounged it into a ball.

"The fact that I'm dealing with a spell with a hylomorphism and concentration requirements and it's still that difficult is plenty annoying, however." Both requirements made the spell easier to cast with the caveat of having both a material and mental limitation, and he still had made little progress after nearly four weeks. His non-loop self had attended a handful of Xanax's seminars which allowed him to pester the archmagi's mind with some doubts, but the progress was even still slow with that.

"Ah, I guess it's not that surprising. At level 5 I should be casting what? Two or three tier level spells? Even Dijkstra's Routing is higher than that," he tossed out another sheet of paper, the floor of his room becoming almost occluded by now. His only solace was that all this mess would disappear in two weeks.

"To be casting fifth tier spells I should be around level 10 or 11, but… that's not a hard restriction. Only the usually guideline for ease of casting." Yet again another demonstration that the tiered system was a flawed manmade creation and not something dictated by the Alignment. Though at the same time, that metric of one casting tier every two progression levels was based on the lack of proficiencies, and Nolotl did have two with Simulacrum. Three in the future even.

"Does that explain how Enantyum has managed to create the time loop?" Nolotl mused to himself, writing spellcircle upon spellcircle. The fact that this wasn't one of his side quests—at least not in purpose—lowered his motivation, forcing him to divagate and go on tangents.

"Nah, I doubt it. There's something else in play. I didn't interact much with him beforehand, but Enantyum wasn't like the rest of the empyreans, he was around my level. Yes, a level 1 mage could theoretically cast a ninth tier spell if they spared enough time and effort but… no, this simply doesn't make any sense."

As much as he tried to think about it, Nolotl was incapable of understanding how his fellow Empyrean, someone who was closer to his capabilities rather than the other more prodigal empyreans, managed to put Time itself on a chokehold. It just didn't make sense.

"Ugh, I should stop thinking about it." So he did. As annoying as it was. There was a lot of work to be done. You have resisted Madness.

"… or perhaps I should take a rest," Nolotl admitted defeatedly. The Real-Time Status divination seldomly informed him of stuff he didn't know, and when it did provide information that he shouldn't know, it was because the spell hijacked accessible knowledge from the Cognition like any worthwhile divination did.

Having said so, the terian prince was aware that this monotonous practice whilst deprived of actual passion and interest was slowly killing him, gnawing at his mind, the very thing his current Interlooper self was solely composed of. So he started making preparations. Nolotl went down to Descent a week earlier than planned. It wasn't the best plan of action, but he wanted to give Roxina as much time as possible to complete all the enchantments he had sketched.

Not only was he dealing with the ritual hylomorphism, but also the air barrier, some abjurations, and a spellware that should puff out Light mana constantly, which—in theory—should also make Voidform harder to use. At least around the ritual components.

"Are you planning to kill someone?" Roxina asked him once he went over the schematics.

"Does self defense count as killing someone?" Nolotl questioned innocently.

"I mean, if you end up killing them, then yes," the Empyrean of Light rolled her eyes, but she didn't worry too much about it, interpreting all of this as a joke rather than taking it seriously.

"What I don't understand is why you are taking so many precautions against Void as whole. Like, I'm no enchanter per se, but from what I'm seeing this is an Information enchantment, Void shouldn't affect you."

"Can you hold a secret?" The Empyrean of Information bent his body forward on the reception desk and whispered.

"Of course!" Roxina's white pupils irradiated with glee, clearly the face of someone who could hold a secret.

"I have a Blessing that makes it easier for me to cast magic, especially rituals, but it leaves me vulnerable to the Void Alignment." This was, of course, complete bullshit. Whilst Starguided could help him with rituals as it gave him a sense that could be described as omnidirectional sight and that could absolutely be helpful to manage a ritual of that size, it didn't expose him to any weaknesses.

If anything, the limitation that the Blessing could only be activated under starlight—a category that included sunlight—was his weakness. Even if it wasn't much of one.

"I still believe this is overkill in such case, but sure. This is a bit strong of an enchantment, but still within legal boundaries. Though," the photomancer smiled at him, "if you ever need me to do something that could be classified as… ethically dubious, you can always commission privately if you ever spot me at the academy."

"I will… take that into account." As much as the craftswoman's greed surprised him, it truly was a neat thing to do. Whether he wanted to fill any of his other enchantment slots or find ways to torture the ambushers, he was bound to commission Roxina even more complex and dubious components. Ones that couldn't even start to be considered legal.

"I didn't know that you were so… passionate about crafting."

"Yeah, let's leave it at passionate," she giggled knowingly.

"And as much as this project is interesting, you catch me in a bit of a pickle here. Lots of people, especially wealthy one, are demanding my services. I'll try to put on an express order for you, Nolotl, as you are my cute junior," he unconsciously blushed at that, "but it will be cutting it close. I will have it before the total celestial alignment, though." If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Uhm, that will be enough," the prince said gingerly. He didn't know what it was about Levoti Roxina, but he was always weak to her charms. Perhaps even more after he discovered she was way older than him.

"I will be coming here after the gathering then."

"Wait!" She called out, almost jumping out of the desk.

"You forgot to pay!"

"Ah, right…" The terian blushed again and let out a nervous giggle.

"Here." Not wanting to remain in the workshop for longer lest his status updates showed a weird pop-up, he threw his whole coin-purse on the desk.

"That's more than I need!" She exclaimed.

"Uhm… you can do extra if you have time!" The gnosiamancer rushed out of the workshop as it became flooded with white light, notifying everyone present and on the street that the photomancer's Caretaker of Creation Boon had reached its capstone level once again. Truth be told, Nolotl didn't have anything else to do during these weeks beyond the occasional attendance on Xanax's seminaries, remembering to eat at the canteen, and the visit to the Archives that his original self took.

Perhaps he had deviated from the script by going a bit earlier to commission Roxina, but his Perfect Recollection told him that Xanax's lectures and his short stays at the Archives hadn't deviated in the slightest, all the passerby and students remaining on the same spots with the same motions. He couldn't say the same about the canteen, however.

That was mostly due to the communal nature of the place as it attracted lots of ataxiamancers, who by definition were less susceptible to the rather deterministic nature of people.

"Hmm, wild magic by definition works on chance, so I wonder how's the accident and death census of ataxiamancers in the time loop," Nolotl found himself wondering as he overlooked from the alcove that was reserved to Empyreans. Like most of the time, it was empty.

"The whole schtick of wild magic is sacrificing certainty for greater power, lower cost, reduced casting time and difficulty. So this means that someone is bound to have hit the worst odds possible at any given time and just imploded or something." There was a reason ataxiamancers were usually called gamblers, because by every definition of the word, they didn't cast magic, they just gambled reality itself. Whatever it will be, will be. Or so they said.

Perfect Recollection created a superposed image from what he should be seeing right now, and the changes were great. Perhaps this butterfly effect hadn't summoned a legion of assassins, but it had certainly altered the paths of the ant colony he was watching. The image, however, only lasted a second as his previous self didn't remain looking at the canteen for long, meaning that there was no longer more information to pull from.

"I wonder if I could enchant myself with true omnidirectional vision so Perfect Recollection gathered more data…" He mused to himself, the erratic movement of people proving rather charming to him. Chaos assimilation progressed by 1%.

"Huh, I didn't know even such thoughts could progress assimilation," Nolotl was greatly surprised to see the notification. It was a freebie, after all. Way less work to put on to unlock his future wild magic spell slot. What surprised him even more but pleased him infinitely less was when he turned his face back to his food, only to see another face in front of him.

"So what thoughts were you having?" Paizon, Empyrean of Chaos, said as he peered directly at him whilst being prone at the table and kicking his feet in the air happily like a schoolgirl.

"Pulsars!" Nolotl cursed and jumped out of the bench, nearly tripping on the process.

"What in the actual fuck, man!"

"It's interesting how you opted for a soft curse yet went for a hard one the next instant," the white-haired ataxiamancer commented as he also stood up. At least he had the decency to not put his sandals against the table.

"I think I'm pretty validated on letting out a hard curse after that," the black-haired gnosiamancer with blonde streaks frowned and pouted.

"Oh, I'm not saying you aren't on your right to do so, just that it's curious. Quite the interesting school of thought, you see."

"Right…" Nolotl didn't know what it was with the Empyrean of Chaos, but every time he conversed with Paizon, he ended up utterly mentally exhausted. And he was a nince-damned gnosiamancer! He was resistant to such exhaustion!

"Anyhow… how long have you been there?"

"Since you mentioned the thingy about the omnidirectional sight. Which, yet again, that's a very interesting school of thought," Paizon rested his chin on the back of his palms after he had sat down correctly.

"What would even lead you to such thoughts? Truly bizarre and captivating." Chaos assimilation progressed by 1%. Honestly, I think I'm fine with not getting the wild magic spell slot. It's only been a minute and my mind already hurts more than fighting Luminol's coterie. Huh, déjà vu. For the first time in a while Nolotl experience an actual feeling of déjà vu instead of the superposed information of Perfect Recollection. Paizon's antics tended to be rather…

oppressive, even if the man himself didn't seem to do anything in bad faith.

"I'm just searching ways to abuse my Perfect Recollection Boon," Nolotl explained, already knowing that the open shirt and shorts-wearing man would just continue pestering him if he didn't.

"Abuse… or abuse more?" Paizon grinned, his orange eyes—a chaotic maelstrom of fire—shining along with his smile.

"I mean, Perfect Recollection is already one of the best Boons of the Perfect series."

"I'd say Arcane's one is better by virtue of being able to be switched out but… I guess you are right," the gnosiamancer conceded.

"As of late I've found more limitations out of the Boon, but when I do manage to remember things, I appreciate having perfect clarity on them." The Empyrean of Chaos smiled at him. Nolotl didn't know why, but he felt there were many unspoken thoughts behind that smile.

"Nice, nice! Glad to hear that!" And that was everything he said before vanishing again, leaving the Empyrean of Information alone with a wry smile.

"That sudden teleportation… how does he do it?" Yet as much as he tried to think, no answers came to him.

"Ugh, Celestials I hate teleportation and wild magic. Nah, who am I lying… I just hate ataxiamancers and their Surrender to Chance starter Boon." Technically speaking, it was the strongest starter Boon by far, even more than those of Alignments with non-infinite scaling, but it also was the most dangerous one by even farther. Most of the academy's deaths were from ataxiamancers misfiring their magic, after all.

"Ugh…" Nolotl groaned again as his time for having lunch came to a close due to the original script even if he hadn't finished eating thanks to Paizon's interruption. One that, as a matter of fact, wasn't in the original route.

"I will just continue working on Simulacrum then. Only a couple of weeks more for the promised day." Progress on the Simulacrum's hylomorphism was unbearably slow. It was clear as day that he wasn't meant to cast such a complex spell at his level, even if he was progressing rather fast. Information assimilation progressed by 1%. Level progressed by 1%.

Advancing the assimilation was even more interesting than gaining experience, because that meant that he could slot Simulacrum in his divination Lesser Alignment Assimilation slot to gain a triple proficiency, something that was far from usual.

"Hmm, if I make it to level 10, then I could give Simulacrum a quadruple proficiency… Perhaps this Boon and its series is uncomfortably slow to progress if you aren't proficient with the Alignment but… pulsars, a quadruple proficiency is too big to pass up."

Not only that meant that Simulacrum, a certainly powerful spell for gnosiamancers—though a bit more useless for everyone else—would go from a fifth tier spell to a first tier one, but that it would also become significantly cheaper, which was Nolotl's foremost worry.

"Wait, does Cognition Connection effect on casting spells I'm proficient with using computation instead of mana stack with several proficiencies?" The thought was too juicy to pass up, so Nolotl dropped his pen and cast a series of cantrips. Ones were pure gnosiamancy ones, whilst other only divinations. And finally, a combination of both.

"Ah…" He sighed in defeat.

"I expected as much, but it would have been nice that proficiencies stacked multiplicatively instead of additively with Cognition Connection as a proxy. But I guess if that was the case more people would be taking the Alignment Assimilation series if only to get all those proficiencies to divination, let alone other Alignments." After his failed experiment, the terian priest took a quick shower before going back to drawing hylomorphisms in paper.

Not only was the drawing of the spellcircle pretty hard to get right with all of its complex strokes, but he also needed to be constantly imbuing the ink with mana onto the paper without losing concentration once. And that was only to create the physical component of the spell. It still needed to be cast afterwards. But between the fact that the double proficiency lowered the difficulty and that the hylomorphism—once completed—would permanently lower the difficulty of casting Simulacrum, Nolotl was mostly set.

Perhaps he wouldn't be able to cast it this loop just yet, but he expected to get it done by the next one.

"Hmm…" The gnosiamancer harrumphed.

"Enantyum mentioned that this was my last free loop, but what does he even want me to do? I… I guess it must be dangerous if it's sending me to do it instead of doing it himself but…" He bit his under lip, his mind, body, and spirit remembering that time when the chronomancer forced him into a conscious stasis.

"He could be forcing me, actually forcing me. For better or worse, that was only a warning. He's powerful enough to not even care about me and he did seem… gleeful that I was a second looper in conditions. I can only trust that Enantyum's happier to have me around than the utility he has for me…" The Empyrean of Information knew that those hopes were just that: hopes. But he wanted to believe that there was some hopeful future awaiting him.

Paranoia was useless when he precisely knew how much superior than him the chronomancer was. In this sense, hope prevailed paranoia. Or perhaps, considering his position, faith would have been the more adequate term.

"Ah…" Nolotl exhaled with a feeling he couldn't quite describe and stood from his desk, a gathering waiting for him.

"As much as I wished that I had more time or a more permissive script… time's running out and I'm as prepared as I can be." Fully prepared? Perhaps not. But he was infinitely more than his first time.