[a / b / c / d / e / f / g / gif / h / hr / k / m / o / p / r / s / t / u / v / vg / w / wg] [i / ic] [r9k] [cm / hm / y] [3 / adv / an / cgl / ck / co / diy / fa / fit / hc / int / jp / lit / mlp / mu / n / po / pol / sci / soc / sp / tg / toy / trv / tv / vp / x] [rs] [status / ? / @] [Settings] [Home]
Board:  
Settings   Home
4chan
/qst/ - Quests


File: Ayn.png (710 KB, 901x870)
710 KB
710 KB PNG
Lazari enters the room late, even though 'late' really means 'just in time', it's just that everyone else is always early for the meeting. She scans the room, it's pretty simple for a place that holds what might arguably be some of the strongest magic users in the country. Just a wooden table with dining chairs spread around it, but she notices one empty seat.

"You can't be serious, he's fucking gone?" Lazari sits down on her chair. "What the fuck happened?"

Kit, the summoning teacher, answers, "Ah, well, ya know, he got a better offer somewhere else."

"I will say, it is bound to happen when our hiring standards are so high, we hardly have the resources to keep most of them interested," Nina, the Divination teacher, adds. "Perhaps we should lower them."

"What!? Bullshit! Listen, every time we hire some inexperienced guy fresh out of college, they just recite whatever they find in the book, and the moment they have a problem unique to them, they have no idea what to do because they're used to magic being handed to them!"

"What's the alternative, then? We're already stretched thin as is, we can't sustain this forever, and with everything going on we're already pretty busy."

"This is a meeting about the first year students," Ayn, the material teacher changes the subject. "We can come back to the staff shortage issue later."

"Agreed!" Kit says, "Now, we've got a lot of people with good potential here! Like-"

"Potential to be a massive pain in the ass is what they are," Lazari rolls her eyes. "It's been a while since we had such a handful of unique cases. Are you sure they'll be doing alright, Nina?"

Nina nods. "They all have a pretty high chance of making it, despite their unique issues."

"Yeah? Well I'm not so sure about that, there's... right, that human kid? Sure, the mana cost of the spells are pretty managable right now, but that's not going to stay true at the end of the year, ya know? I've really tried to look into this, but Jack didn't leave us with a lot of substantial research, which sucks."

Nina shakes her head. "That is not what I am worried about, he is dating that forgotten girl, and he believes he can 'fix' the forgotten curse."

Lazari raises an eyebrow. "And? I mean sure, he's just a kid, but he's bound to learn a few things on the way there. I've looked into it myself, it's a little bit of a complicated issue, but-"

"I believe he should put his attention elsewhere. If he was just trying to cure that girl, this would not be a problem, but if he develops a general solution that would work on most forgottens, it could be bad."
>>
>>6096986

For the first time since the meeting began, Suuri, the Intangible teacher, speaks up, "How so? Please tell."

"Sometimes, solving something create more problems," Nina answers without really answering.

"The fuck does that even mean? Listen, I said I'd help them, and if that's bad, then you need to stop beating around the bush and tell us why we shouldn't."

Nina stays silent. This usually happens when she feels saying too much would alter her predictions. Even so, that didn't stop it from being really annoying when it felt like she could only talk about her visions in cryptic riddles.

"I suppose history does have a way of repeating itself," Ayn says. "Let's come back to the point, the first years will have their next exam soon, mind telling us why you chose this dungeon design, Kit?"

"Ah, yes! Well, you see..."

---

You wake up next to Table. Her pleasant warmth makes it quite hard to get out of bed, but you need to prepare breakfast for her. well, okay, you don't need to, but she's always so happy when you do, it's hard to resist. You slip out of the bed, dress up, and leave for the cafeteria, coming back with hot chocolate and bread. You start gently combing her hair, waiting for her to wake up with a smile.

"Mnhhg- d-did you? Come on, I was supposed to wake up before you this time! You didn't even have an alarm set up, too!" Table complains. Of course, that doesn't stop her from gratefully accepting the food you give her.

"First come, first served!" You retort. "Although I guess you're the one being served here, so that doesn't quite work here."

You spend another peaceful morning arguing over this and that. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long as you need to get ready for the exam, which requires the two of you to stay in your respective dorms. It's fine, you'll get to celebrate with Table later.
>>
>>6096987

The exam start as it always does, and you are teleported to your next challenge: a room full of pressure plates. They're not hidden at all, and as a matter of fact, you landed right on one. You don't think the teachers would be so cruel as to make you spawn on something that would make you instantly lose the exam, so you think you're okay. Even so, the rumbling you hear under you makes you panic and move to another pressure plate anyway, and the moment you leave, the pressure plate falls downwards into what looks like a water pit.

"Hello, hello!" You hear the voice of the summoning teacher from the walls. "I thought it'd be a little cruel to not explain to you the gimmick of this one, since it's only obvious when completed. You'll receive the key when each plate of this dungeon has been triggered! That means you need to step on all of them, and then get to the door. Oh, also, you're not alone again! But this one isn't the focus of this dungeon, so don't worry about that too much, good luck!"

Huh, so it's like one of those platformers puzzle where platforms disappear as you walk on them? That sounds...too easy? You're sure they made it impossible to complete without magic, maybe there just isn't a path for you to take that would allow you to step on each pressure plate without backtracking. That means you need to find a way to either get over a water pit, or stop a pressure plate from activating before you need it to. Mana ripping the enchantment is probably not a good idea, since you need it to trigger to get the key.

Well, you'll figure something out. There are other paths north and south, maybe you could find something helpful in the dungeon? They did say you weren't alone again, so maybe rushing isn't a good idea either, but what can you do when the pressure plate seems to be on a timer? Ah, your plate is rumbling again, you need to move.

Mana: 85/85

Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
File: plateDungeon1.png (109 KB, 738x777)
109 KB
109 KB PNG
>>6096988
I forgot to add the dungeon map
>>
>>6096994
Welcome back QM
I know these puzzles. I hope there's a button to reset the tiles because this can be easily unwinnable. Unlike the old games we can go diagonal here as well as relocate or maybe trigger the plates remotely... but we don't have the opposite of lighten. Might be a mob inthe water too
>>
>>6096988
I think we should check out the other places soon. Can we jump into the corridor to either the south or north without triggering the plate?
>>
>>6097012

The tiles are a little bit too far apart to easily make it with a jump. However it doesn't feel like an impossible jump, it'd be possible if you were just a little faster or stronger.
>>
>>6097019
We could use the strength spell. Normally I'd say it wouldn't be worth it...buuut, I'd rather not risk getting stuck without a floor.
>>
>>6097009
It's actually not hard. Once we find the door, we can just go around them. If the door is on the north that'll be very easy. If it's on the south, it'll be harder, but i still have an idea.
>>
>>6096988
Hell yeah, we're back!!!

>>6097023
I support the plan, but with an addendum. If the door is in the south, we should jump out to the square on the right before the strength spell wears out. Otherwise when we go around, we'll have to jump the length of two blocks rather than one.
>>
>>6097023
+1 to this plan.

>>6096988
>>
>>6097023
+1, we need our bearings fast
>>
File: platedungeon2.png (168 KB, 646x804)
168 KB
168 KB PNG
>>6097044
>>6097043

You decide to cast the strength spell, and you can instantly feel the difference. With this, you can jump almost twice as far as you normally would, even if it kind of hurts to push your muscles to the limit like this. The pain isn't unbearable or anything, but it is unpleasant.

You decide to jump past one plate to the north, and sure enough, jumping over it didn't trigger the plate. You look to your right, and it looks like there's another path that just leads right back to the main room, there's also another path upward that you think also goes right. The strength spell allows you to skip a few plates, but it's hard to tell with certainty how you should go about this without a layout of the dungeon, hopefully there's a way to reset the plates, if not... well, you'll get there when you'll get there.

Mana: 65/85

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
>>6097061
We step on the right plate path to trigger it, then slip round that corner to step onto the north one. Then follow the path around the corner up ahead. Sound good?
>>
>>6097061
We should check out that area north.
>>
>>6097065
And by nortn I mean the northwest path right up from where Atlas is standing right now
>>
File: platedungeon3.png (183 KB, 507x740)
183 KB
183 KB PNG
>>6097067
>>6097066
>>6097065

You take the north path, you jump past each plate, and you run into another corner. There isn't a lot of stuff here, this dungeon really feels like nothing but pressure plates. You count the plates of the path forward, and realize that you can't exactly jump and turn the corner at the end of the path at the same time, meaning you'll need to trigger two plates at the end. Then again, you could just trigger all the plates right away by not jumping? The same problem is behind you, that's an issue.

Mana: 65/85

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
File: 1720421468854730.png (196 KB, 628x800)
196 KB
196 KB PNG
>>6097102
Okay, well, I don't think we're supposed to go there right away. I think i'd rather check out the southern portion.

My plan is, we set off those plates, then we jump the last one. This way, when we're going BACK for one reason or another, we only have to jump the distance of one. I assume the strength spell is still active.
>>
>>6097104
I should specify, i want to jump into the SOUTHERN AREA. I want to check the southern area to see if either the door is there or something else.
>>
>>6097104
>>6097107
But turning back clears those tiles so we can't go back to the long path without hitting the water.
>>
>>6097113
Oh, i read the map wrong t we were going to go all the way through those corners, since that's not what i voted for. I just thought we were going to check what was there.

I dunno, go south i guess. My plan was kinda ruined since we decided to go all the way there and trap ourselves for no reason.
>>
>>6097119
I didn't think we were going*

I just voted to check out the area north, not 'let's go around activating plates one after the other and going through several corners to trap ourselves in'
>>
>>6097119
>>6097120
Yeah fuck it GO ALL THE WAY DOWN THE SOUTH PATH
>>
Honestly since we decied to be stupid and just trap ourselves, i would have preferred if we activated all the plates on the way here so we wouldn't be stuck having to find a way to reset the tiles now that we can't actually access them.

We basically already lost unless we can find a way to reset the tile because of that unprompted decision.
>>
>>6097124
These puzzles are super easy to fuck up anyway, and I think we can still pull through if we fall into the water
>>
>>6097126
Sure, but the issue is that it happened because of something we didn't vote for...
>>
>>6097129
Should the QM rewind time back to that vote then? I'm fine either way
>>
>>6097135
I can rewind to just the north west tile if people agree on it, it's true that he moved without player input, everyone okay with that?
>>
>>6097190
also do pick what you'll do once you get there and if you decide to activate all the pressure plates on the way there if you decide on that, might as well.
>>
>>6097190
I would prefer, that, yes. I just wanted to check out the northern region before going south, as planned in >>6097104

Even if we do go back that way eventually, it would be smarter to activate all the plates so we can get the key.
>>
>>6097190
Yeah back to this tile >>6097061 is good. Don't worry man, any QM can fuck up like we players can
>>
>>6097192
I'm backing this guy >>6097104 >>6097193
>>
>>6097194
>>6097195
>>6097193

Alright, so just to make sure I get this right, you're using this path right? unless you want to jump straight south
>>
>>6097218
Sorry I meant THIS (>>6097104) path that you drew here, not sure why it didn't put the reply, maybe I misclicked it
>>
>>6097219
Yeah looks good
>>
>>6097218
Specifically, we're jumping the last one. So we can later jump back.
>>
File: platedungeon4.png (256 KB, 493x825)
256 KB
256 KB PNG
>>6097222
>>6097220

You decide to go back and use the small path under it, weirdly enough the small space doesn't have a plate like everywhere else. You can't find anything peculiar about this space at a glance, maybe it's just here to rest without the floor giving way.

You keep stepping on every plate you see on the way south, however you jump the one that leads to the southwest path, so you have a way to go back. It looks like there's a button at the end of the new revealed corridor, but it's also under a pressure plate. You could easily jump there, but you could also just ignore the button entirely, maybe it's just here to trick you.
>>
It also looks like there's a path east of here, you're not sure you have the time to take a peek for a good look, you'd need to step on the tile in front of you for that.

Mana: 65/85

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
>>6097282
That button doesn't look too far away...could we press it with our shoe as an extension? Or alternatively, if we throw it, and it falls, will that be enough to trigger the plate?
>>
>>6097286
Oh wait, the button itself isn't under a pressure plate, just the one in front of us right? If that's the case we can jump...i think that could be the reset button.
>>
>>6097287
>>6097286

The button has a pressure plate under it, you could try to press it via pocket space, but setting the whole thing up might take just enough time for the plate under you to give way, since you'll need to take off your shoes or whatever else and then use it and that might take a few precious seconds.
>>
>>6097297
Oh, the whole damn thing is plates. Well, fuck it, let's just press it. If it does nothing, we go check out the corridor.
>>
>>6097300
I should specify it, I want us to just jump and go. If it does nothing, go into the corridor.

Honestly, I think I'll just brute force this one. We cleared every other dungeon so far and defeated one guy. We've definitely got a passing grade.
>>
>>6097300
>>6097301
+1
>inb4 the northeast long path is a dead end
>>
>>6094828
>>6095128
Can you explain the process you used a bit better, please?
>>
File: PlateDungeon5.png (432 KB, 1053x866)
432 KB
432 KB PNG
>>6097302
>>6097301
>>6097300
>>6097282

You decide to jump past the middle plate and land next to the button, and with no better idea, you press it. You look back, and see...something crawl out of the water pit you left behind after you jumped. Weirdly enough, the plate actually goes back up after it crawled out of it. It's a weird looking thing, it looks like a humanoid with sharp claws and no eyes. It crawls along the wall to the nearest water pit and crawl into it, ignoring you entirely. After that, the pit he entered lifts up the plate like the one he came from.

You're not sure why it chose the plate north of it, but maybe it picked it because it was closer to it? Is this thing linked to the button? If not, it's going to be annoying if it can crawl out from anywhere, and if it is, you're not sure how to use this to make things easier for yourself. Maybe it crawls out from the nearest open pressure plate closest to the button? Mana analysis hardly gives you any explanation on how the button works.

The good news is that since it crawls along the walls, it doesn't trigger more plates than necessary, so you don't need to worry about an entire room's worth of plates disappearing.

Mana: 65/85

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
File: Platedungeon6.png (484 KB, 1186x846)
484 KB
484 KB PNG
>>6097354
Actually forgot to show you did get a glimpse of the other path while jumping, and since I'm going to sleep, might as well show it now to save time.

If you're wondering, no, you can't see the door anywhere from here, and there doesn't seem to be any more paths that you can see.
>>
>>6097354
>>6097357
So are we meant to, like, trigger all the plates and THEN hit the button? If this isn't the sort of puzzle where you reset it, then I say we just rush around the far right path back up to the north, swim quickly south and trigger that thin passage plate in >>6097282, then haul ass onto the nearest plate and walk normally across them south to the button and then press it.
>>
>>6097363
On mobile so I can't draw, but it's clearly a passage to the north, so we need to find a path that lets us trigger everything without going into the water. That thing will probably take us out if we do.
>>
>>6097369
But look at the pic in >>6097282
We already fucked up not getting that one tile in the middle. The best thing we can do is simply walk north normally to get the tiles on the way plus the one the sea monster raised back up, then try to make that jump from the very left wall edge of the northmost tile to the middle corridor one. Then from the middle corridor one, we have no choice but to get in the water and swim 3 tiles up and crawl onto the northmost tile at the start of the path. Then we just walk normally all the way south around the isolated east corridor triggering all the tiles as we go. Then we arrive near the button as seen in the image >>6097357 has. From there we angle ourselves and short jump to the button's tile and press it.
>>
>>6097354
so the monster is swimming ?
>>
>>6097392
It would seem so. Or lurking wetly, anyway.
>>
>>6097381
I actually have a plan for how to deal with that.

First, we go north, but jump the middle tile in the corridor to be safe. Then, crossing all the way on the central western tiles, we go to the corner, and use our strength to JUMP on that middle tile. Then, we use SEAL to seal our shoe to the wall and use that to basically "wall walk around the corner into the northwest passage. Then we just run all the way around.
>>
>>6097398
Wait we also have Unseal from Table don't we? I don't know if Atlas can rapidfire cast Seal-Unseal-repeat to wallrun or walk. He's still going to be pulled to the water off the wall thanks to gravity.
>>
>>6097402
Why would he? Anyway, I don't think he even needs unseal. He only needs to use it like twice, right? Once around the corner, once to get to the next tile. He has two shoes.

He's basically using them as ledges. We were able to do it before. We can do it again.
>>
>>6097403
Okay I see what you mean. Good plan
>>
Can we seal a pressure plate before stepping on it to prevent it from activating?

If we can, we could make a safe spot to cast more advanced spells at the pressure plates we forgot and activate them from a distance.
>>
>>6097416
Maybe, but there's no point in our situation. We should save up our mana to do the Sealing trick.
>>
File: 1718648734288116.png (283 KB, 494x824)
283 KB
283 KB PNG
This is what i meant by my plan, if you'll ignore the outdated map.

Jump through the middle plate in the lever corridor just in case, then run, through the ones the creature raised, then jump into the middle patth corridor tile. After that, since it's not far from the wall (That is there's no distance) we can easily seal our shoe in the wall as a 'stepping stone', and we can scale it to the other side. If we need to, we can even use 'unseal' to get another step or two. Though i would only use it if necessary. Once we get in the corridor, it's easy, just go activate every single plate on the way until we go back south. Boom, we'll have done every single tile.

Since we haven't found any door anywhere, I must presume that ocne we take out all the tiles that's it.
>>
>>6097809
Yeah I agree, let's do it
>>
>>6097346

so, i usually can use just SingleFile (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/single-file/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search).
the way it works is similar to say how wget behaves when creating a mirror. it finds resource links (e.g. css, images), follows them, saves them (inline in the same document in this case, encoding image bytes to something printable) and rewrites the links to point to these new local copies.
however since OP used rentry links i had to ensure that would show up too. html has this tag called iframe. its used to embed other sites. the most common use would be to display a pdf file while still having control over the rest of the tab, but it was designed with what im doing in mind, since it sandboxes styles and scripts.
anyways, so what i needed is to scan the page and upon every link text insert an iframe with its resource property pointing to the link. for this i threw together these:
https://files.catbox.moe/8tl2y3.js
https://files.catbox.moe/8t79xk.js
the "container" one is really just for organizing purposes.
the "inliner" does the heavy lifting. i used gpt to aid me as i cant fucking stand the browser API, but i had to really break it down it into steps so it would do what i wanted. if you can read it you will notice that i actually iterate twice. first i walk the whole DOM looking for regexes matching a rentry link, this converts them to actual link tags. then for the second run i use a proper query to iterate link tags and create the iframes. this was useful for debugging purposes too and not just for prompting. in my experience js has this shitty quality where the more code you have, the easier it becomes to debug. this has to do with the terrible type system and the batshit crazy abstractions. afterwards i did not have the stomach to clean it up.
now, with links iframed, SingleFile can do its thing like the page has never been tampered with.

any more questions?
>>
File: playerpath.png (268 KB, 490x836)
268 KB
268 KB PNG
>>6097363
>>6097369
>>6097381
>>6097381
>>6097398
>>6097395

Right sorry for the delay, but just to make sure I'm getting this right, that's the plan, right? (assume that the scribbled dot is where you seal the shoes, and that a line going outside the walls is a jump)
>>
>>6097809
Oh wow I didn't update the page in 7 hours, so I didn't see that drawing, it's more or less the same result I guess, but yours is safer since it uses the resting tile.
>>
>>6098175
Yes. There's less risk that way. Then we go all the way around until we end back in the button, triggering all the plates.
>>
File: Almost.png (453 KB, 583x847)
453 KB
453 KB PNG
>>6097809
>>6097398
>>6097381
>>6097363
>>6097381

You decide to jump over the middle tile just in case you need to go back, leaving the floor of the button to fall behind you. You activate as many tiles as you can, and make a diagonal jump towards the 'safe' tile. You almost mess it up, but you manage to hold on to the ledge and climb back up. Now, all you need to do is seal your shoe on the side of the wall to use as support for your following climbing maneuver. You really start to understand why humans are so renowned for their clothes, because your shoes can hold on to your full weight pretty well. Maybe you should learn a spell to summon rocks or something so you don't mess up your shoes every time, since the summoning teacher found a way to just throw the clothes back at you now, but he doesn't fix them. You preferred when he bought you new ones.

Anyway, after that it's only a matter of running down the very linear corridor. You wish you had the time to inspect these walls, there's no way they're all normal walls, there's been some sort of invisible illusion in nearly every exam thus far, no reason to believe there isn't one here too.

Just like that you're back to where you came from, and you're pretty sure you activated every tile, now here comes the problem of the button that you can't reach. You really hope the button leads to the door or you may need to take a dip. You still have a lot of mana left, so if need be you can always throw hands with what's down there, but if you did everything right, it shouldn't come to this.

Mana: 50/85

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
>>6098182
..Are we sure that the button leads to the door? It was said that we would get the key once ALL the tiles were gone. Doesn't that mean we need to wait for the last one too?
>>
>>6098185
I guess I should specify, should we not hang onto something to wait for the last tile to fall before pressing the button? Maybe once the final one falls we'll get the key. The last thing we need is for the button to make the creature lift up a tile we have no way of reaching.
>>
>>6098182
Did we not get the corridor one?

>>6098192
+1
>>
>>6098192
Yeah that sounds about right. We have Seal to use if we need to. Just remember to do it close to the button if we can. In case we need to press it after all.

If nothing happens after the last tile falls, THEN we press the button.
>>
>>6098193
the small corridor in the middle-north is the safe space that doesn't actually have a tile, if you're worried about it having a secret tile, I'll just say that Atlas checked with mana feel or something to make sure and there isn't one, I'm not that cruel.
>>
>>6098198
Okay thanks for clarifying

>>6098192
>>6098194
DO IT
>>
Remember, we were told that we would RECEIVE the key when they were all activated. So if we don't have the key, that means they aren't all activated.
>>
File: Solved.png (344 KB, 1143x463)
344 KB
344 KB PNG
>>6098206
>>6098194
>>6098193

You seal your remaining shoe on the wall close to the button, and wait for the last tile to fall off. At first, nothing happens, but you notice that your pocket feels heavier, and sure enough, the key was materialized in there. Unfortunately, you still have no idea where the door might be, and with no other idea, you press the button, hoping it won't undo all the work you did.

You hear a rumble on the corridor at your right, peeking over the corner, you see that a path opened here, but it's at least two tiles away, and you're sort of out of shoes. Well, you could unseal the one you have right now, but then you'll have nothing holding you to the wall, and you're not sure if you have the dexterity necessary to quickly seal and unseal the shoe to move along the walls.

Mana: 35/85

>What will you do? (Write in)
>>
>>6098232
Okay, first question, I don't know exactly how 'seal' works, but wouldn't it be possible to use our socks? It's not like durability matters when we're magically sealing it, right?
>>
>>6098236

Seal sort of meld part of the item with something else, but that doesn't change the actual texture, if the sock can't support your weight, it'll rip and break.
>>
>>6098261
Okay, well, what if we use our pants? Folded up, our pants should be able to support our weight.

Man, we really do use our clothes a lot.
>>
>>6098267

A little awkward to take off your pants while holding on to one singular shoe, but it is possible, if could also probably use your shirt that way too.
>>
>>6098267
I got a better idea. Why don't we use the pants to...swing around? Fold them up at least twice so they won't tear too fast, seal them into the wall as close to the corner as we can, and then we swing around and jump? Even if we fall into the water it'll be close enough to not matter.

>>6098274
Better yet. Tie the two together to form a sturdy rope. Then it definitely won't tear. Hell, use our socks too if we need to

Atlas is not beating the exhibitionism allegations
>>
>>6098277
Okay, +1ing this.
>>
>>6098277
+1
We didn't take swimming as the workout option because of Table, and now swimming is coming back to haunt us with this dungeon puzzle. As long as we don't drop the key and lose it in the water, we're good to go. Atlas should easily be able to swim while holding it in one hand
>spoiler
How will Table react when Atlas walks into her room soaked and almost completely naked?
>>
>>6098289
You should be worried about getting to our room first. Also, we're still going to have our underwear.
>>
>>6098291
At that point with Table in her room, Atlas might as well drop that entirely.
>inb4 she's already wet from the dungeon challenge
>>
>>6098293
Listen, Atlas might have a burgeoning exhibitionism fetish, but that doesn't mean we're going to walk naked in public.
>>
>>6098289
>>6098277
>>6098267

You take off your pants, trying to not think of the fact that a teacher is probably watching right now, and try to tie it up in a rope. Your pants are rather sturdy, they're the one you used to travel from the human city to the school, which means they can take quite the punishment. You also take off your shirt and seal it with it to further elongate it. With this, you have a pseudo rope you can seal to the wall and swing around in.

You seal it to the corner, and swing from the side. Your heart beats faster as you let go of the 'rope' and launch yourself towards the newly revealed path. Your hand barely grabs on to the ledge, and if it wasn't for your enhanced strength, you're pretty sure the impact would make you lose your grip. You pull yourself up, and spit the key you were holding between your teeth, since you sort of had to abandon your pockets here. Thinking back on it, there was a very real risk of you accidentally choking on the key, but it all worked out.

The door is right there, and with a sigh of relief, you use the key. You don't even think of checking more of this place, you're out of mana, and the strength spell is starting to wear out, it's time to go.

You teleport back to your room with a very surprised Table.

"Hey, how did it- Why are you half naked?" Table asks, flabbergasted. "Did you know I was going to wait for you here? Or did you somehow lose all your clothes in the dungeon?"

"The latter, I guess? Either way, I did it. A little disappointed I only really used two spells, but hey, it works."

"And those two spells needed you to strip? You weren't so brazen that you stripped before going out the door to surprise me, did you? The teachers can see that, you know?"

"What? No! Taking off my clothes was very important, I sealed it to the wall, so I could avoid falling into the water, that's all."

She narrows her eyes at you. "hmm... fine, I'll believe you. Anyway, the reason I was waiting for you is... is... No!" She shakes her head violently. "I see what you're trying to do! Distract me with your vile charms! Well, it won't work!"

You have no idea what she's going on about, but you might as well play into it. "I think you're just imagining things," you pounce on her, your strength spell is barely active, but it's enough to hold her down. You kiss her forehead, and she looks away, embarrassed.

"I wanted to play that game again, okay? I swear for once I wasn't here for sex, and I won't be sidetracked! I even made notes on what I wanted for a new character!"

"You're sure you wouldn't rather be playing with me?"

She groans. "Is this really what I sound like to you?"

"Yes," You let go of her. "Anyway, sure, we can play that to celebrate. What did you have in mind?"

She smiles. "Well! I just picked strength and speed because it makes sense, but there's that sword that scales off of intelligence, do you think strength and intelligence would work?"
>>
(going to sleep so no choice for now, but I guess you can theorize for the duel that will follow, that or you can come up with ways to mess with Table during the gaming session, up to you)
>>
>>6098297
I meant in her room, dumbass

>>6098322
>Atlas teasing her back
The Tables have turned. The bracelet on her has awakened Atlas to how amazing Table really is, and now that that's sunk into his psyche he can never see her another way again (except if she takes the bracelet off, but you get what I mean)

>>6098323
Goodnight QM
>>
>>6098323
>you can come up with ways to mess with Table during the gaming session, up to you)
You remember back when we Atlas and Table were still friends, and she basically forced us to sleep on her lap because we were basically running ourselves ragged? We should do that while we play. Atlas can put her head on his lap while we play. And see how long she can keep her focus.
>>
>>6098323
Looking forward to the next update.
>>6098325
>The bracelet on her has awakened Atlas to how amazing Table really is, and now that that's sunk into his psyche he can never see her another way again
It's honestly nice to see how their relationship has evolved. Though if this is how Atlas has got just from having her curse temporarily shut down, I can only imagine how he'll be once we finally cure it for real. I wouldn't be surprised if he just proposed on the spot.
>>
>>6098327
>eventually it devolves into Table unable to take it and proceeding to pull Atlas' pants down and shoving her face into his crotch and simply staying that way without even blowing him just for max scent nuking herself

>>6098333
I agree. I also like how he has never given up on his magic autism and enthusiasm either, and I hope he never ever does.
>>
>>6098374
>pants
We left our pants in the dungeon, remember?
>>
>>6098378
Oh right. That's even better right now
>>
>>6098322
>Table curious about STR/INT
Finally we have somebody else like us fallen for the lure of magic unga
>>
>>6098378
He still has his underwear on. Not for long...
>>
Yo OP, here you go
aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZvbGRlci9aeE5SMVFaSSM3aEthNFNLOFVvc0lLVTZpV1RxWV9BCgo=
Convert that from base64
>>
>>6098912
Wrong thread...?
>>
>>6098913
No, it's on purpose because the OP is french
>>
>>6098912
thanks, but why ?
>>
>>6099017
See >>6098928
>>
>>6098327
+1

>>6098912
Doesn't work for me.

>>6098323
Sleep well, and thanks for running!
>>
>>6098680
>>6098374
>>6098333
>>6098327

"Alright, get on my lap," you ask, pulling out your laptop from your pocket space. "It's more comfortable than just watching from the side, right?"

"Heh, comforTable- wait, aren't you going to put some pants on, first? I'm not blowing you this time! Video games! If we do anything we'll have to clean everything up, and I'm just not in the mood for that hassle."

You shake your head. "No, I'm still sweaty from all the exercise I had to do in the dungeon, so I don't want to dirty them, you know?"

"Then take a shower!" She says, a tinge of regret in her voice. "Then you can put some clothes on, and we can play!"

You're running out of excuse at this point. "Okay, but I don't want to, too bad. Besides, I already turned on my laptop, and it's wasted energy to go to the shower now, so let's just get started."

She grumbles and rests her head on your lap. You're not even horny right now, you just think it's fun to get back at her sometimes. You start up the game, and create a new character. This time Table makes much better choices, but her build is rather subpar in the early game where she has nothing that really scales off intelligence. Even so, you can tell she thought a lot about this, because she already has a general idea of how to get to the item she need as fast as she can.

You're a little disappointed she isn't distracted at all by the fact her head is so close to your crotch, she's putting all her attention on the game. It looks like she's equally fascinated by the game as the depiction of the city itself. It is pretty detailed, despite the limited graphics, you can recognize a few places you've been in before.

"Man, I wish I was human so I could live there. It sounds nice."

"It has its perks, but it can feel a little cramped sometimes, you know? Then again, it's where I lived all my life, so I never realized until I went outside. I like being able to jog around as much as I want around the school, in the city you'd probably end up accidentally walking on some corporation's area and get fined, most people prefer spending time inside because of that."

"Is it really that bad? No public area to hang out with people?"

"There are. Like you can see in the game, there are cafés, and the workplace, and gyms, it's just that you're expected to spend most time inside a building, it's seen as weird for someone to walk outside for too long."

"Yeah, but video games, though..."

"But no magic! That's the worst part! I mean, technically you can cast magic, but if you use anything too advanced people would assume you're an outsider spy or something. I'm much happier here with you."

"Pfrrt, you're so corny. I'm still not blowing you, go finish that quest already." She sticks out her tongue(s) at you.

"Hey, keep being mean to me, and I'll be mean back." You hover your hand above her head menacingly.

"What? You wouldn't force me to do anything, I know you, come on."
>>
>>6099158

You touch her head and cast tracking scent on her. The effect is immediate, and you can feel her finger dig into your thigh as she tries to regain control of herself. "No fair! Cheating! You can't just DO that!"

"If it bothers you this much, you can just move your head, can't you?"

"You know what? Fuck you." She pokes you and casts tracking scent on you before putting on the wooden bracelet. "Let's see who breaks first! Keep playing the game!"

And so, you keep playing. She does smell nice, but you assume it's a lot harder for her than it is for you, considering her position. At least it stays that way until she finds more creative ways to move her body around while still keeping her head on your lap. It's getting ridiculous at this point, you can barely see the screen here.

"You remember when you slept on me like this? We weren't dating back then," Table suddenly asks, looking up at you. "I remember, I was a little scared you'd think I was being weird, but I guess I was thinking something like 'he'll forget about me sooner rather than later, and I'd rather try than live with regrets', you know?"

"Did you really think I'd forget you?"

"How could I not? That's what always happens. It's hard to believe I can just do stuff like this with you every day, now. Mess around, tease you, get teased back, exercise, and even stuff that's supposed to be for humans only, like play that game! That's stuff I thought was just for other people, and sometimes I wonder, if I didn't take that risk, if I didn't try to be so forward with you, if none of this would've happened. It just makes me wonder how many opportunities I didn't take in my life, I guess."

You've never thought about your life that way, weirdly enough. Sure, you sometimes hesitate, but when you know what you want, you just get right into it. If you want something, you have to do what it takes to get it, even if it means leaving your homeland behind. You can't say you live with a lot of regrets, sure, you do wonder what would've happened if you did this or that, you can get nostalgic, but you wouldn't change a thing if you could start over.

"Damnit, it's gone, I'm losing this, aren't I?"

"What's gone?"

"Your boner, you had that intense look when you think about something deep, and it just went away. Ah, fuck it, whatever, I don't care anymore." She lifts your underwear up and breathes it all in for an abnormal amount of time. She stands there stunned for a while, drooling all over you. "O-Okay, got my dose, let's just k-keep playing... okay one more." She takes another sniff. "Okay, satisfied for real now, let's go." She takes off the bracelet, and dumps a lot of extra mana in her mana space.
>>
>>6099159

Strangely enough, this doesn't lead into sex, not that you mind. She is right that it would get messy very fast and might even wet the laptop if you're not careful. The game is thankfully good enough that you don't feel the need to tease her further, tempting as it may be. She's already pretty good at the game, but she's clearly frustrated she can't play it herself.

"Man, how come no one figured out how to get past your gene lock stuff with material magic yet? It's not like your tech uses runes right?" Table asks.

"Well, my guess is that the goal isn't to outright stop the reverse engineering as much as it is to slow it down. Even if someone manages to disable the genelocks, most machines we have are encrypted to hell and have a bunch of useless stuff specifically meant to be confusing to figure out. Our electronics in particular are often made at such a small level that it'd take ages to figure out what feature does what and why. By the time someone figures out how to make a computer, humanity will already be three steps ahead, and anything outsiders will come up with will be easily hackable."

"Yeah, but I don't care about reverse engineering it! I want to use it! Think you could figure do that? Maybe ask the material teacher?"

"I could always ask someone in the human city if I ever go back here, but removing the gene lock is kind of illegal for obvious reasons. I think the computers in the vault aren't gene locked, but they're pretty old, I don't think they can run that game. I think I could buy some component individually to upgrade them though... hmm, food for thought."

You get pretty far into the game, but it's already night, and you both have to be ready for the duel that comes tomorrow. That's fine, whoever it is, you'll be ready, because this time, mana won't be an issue.

You wake up earlier than Table, but you're too excited to chill in the bed with her. Instead you re-read your notes to make sure the overdrive spell will work properly, along with basic practice of spells you already know. Table groans as your activity wakes her up, but she doesn't complain.

"No breakfast today?" Table grumbles. "Oh! Wait! That means I can get it for you! Stay right here!" She dresses up and leaves. As promised, she comes back with food and a hot chocolate. You start to understand why she was tearing up when you did that for her the first time, because it feels very nice to not have to do anything for once. But alas, the duel is coming, and just like with the dungeon, you both must be in your own dorms for the teleport to work. You do wonder about the logistics of that, would it just teleport everyone inside the room otherwise? Can it differentiate an animal from a student? Surely it can, right, or it'd just teleport every bug in the room with you, assuming you had any.
>>
>>6099160

You find yourself in a similar enclosed room, except this one is made of wooden plans unlike the usual stone blocks that most dungeons use. It's also lit up without any torches, with the lights coming from no discernible source. The person you'll have to fight is... oh no.

"Ha!" Ivy laughs. "Another easy victory for me! Want me to go easy on you? I could, but I don't wanna! That's for accusing me of stealing your food all these months ago!"

"Are you still on that!? And you DID steal my food!"

"Nuh-uh. Don't care, and I'm going to win, and the winner is always right."

Alright, let's stay calm. Just because you have overdrive doesn't mean this fight is already won, and Ivy shouldn't be underestimated either. From what you've seen, she's fast, and worst of all, a very good summoner. The fact she can detach her head isn't great either, it means dismembering her might not give the best results. That doesn't mean she can't be killed however, wraiths can still take physical damage, but things like slashing tends to be less effective.

What to do...

Analysis results:
Name: Ivy
Race: Wraith
Mana: 950/950
Divination: 15
Life: 3
Intangible: 4
Material: 10
Summoning: 25

Mana: 85/85 (not yet under Overdrive)

Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

How will you fight? (Write in)
>>
>>6099161
Alright, let's go.

I'm thinking...we should start slow. Try to use spark + mana flare to see if it works. But the idea is to make her cocky. Make her think she's undefeatable. And when she does, we cast reinforce belief.

Once she's under reinforce belief, we OVERDRIVE.
>>
>>6099196
+1

We really need to learn more offensive spells...we should sign up for Intangible class next month.
>>
>>6099112
Too dumb to read what I said to do, huh

>>6099161
Backing >>6099196
>>
>>6099161
>>6099196+1
>>
>>6099196
>>6099201
>>6099225
>>6099227

Deep breaths, you can do this. First, you open up with a spark to see if her clothes will catch on fire. It...doesn't, and she laughs.

"Poor, predictable Atlas. So simple, so foolish. My clothes are made by a spirit! They can't be put on fire! More resistant to all types of damage in fact!" She gloats.

Don't take the bait, if you lose your cool, you're screwed. That's fine if her clothes can't catch on fire, if you use spark and fire flare fast enough, you don't even need to start a fire, the explosion will happen anyway. Well, that's not entirely true, it wouldn't work under water for example, but here it works just fine. She's taken aback, but it doesn't look like she took a lot of damage. The fire didn't burn anything in the wooden room either, since fire flare automatically extinguishes whatever fire it's linked to.

You did consider burning the entire room, but you're pretty sure that would screw you over more than anything.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a familiar voice. Isn't that your childhood friend's voice? What was her name again? Claire, right? Clearly she's not actually here, but how would Ivy know that you-

You almost get impaled by a rising wooden spike. It was a confusion spell, you knew it was an illusion, but you didn't think that questioning that illusion was the point, it was supposed to distract you from something else. Another wooden spike- seriously? The first one was an illusion from a delayed double? You dodge that one too, but now you're a little paranoid. You can't trust her attacks at all.

You can tell she's not going all out either, she's just messing with you. Your plan is to make her cocky, then bait her into making a mistake, but you're not sure how to do that without dying. It would only take a well-placed spike for you to die, and there's no way she'll let you get close enough for your usual portal cut.

You could activate reinforce belief right now, but you'd rather wait for the right moment to cast it. How should you go about it? Say something to piss her off? Or praise her in some way? She must have some weakness somewhere.

Mana: 49/85 (not yet under Overdrive)

Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>How will you fight? (Write in)
>>
>>6099318
Wait, how df did we go down to 49? We can't even cast reinforce belief anymore.
>>
>>6099323

Hold on I got it wrong, I calculated it as two sparks + two fire flare, but it was two sparks and ONE fire flare. Your actual mana is 64
>>
>>6099323
>>6099325
Reinforce Belief is 50
We pop Overdrive then go in for the kill? With what, just burning her alive?
>>
>>6099325
Okay, well, in that case...

I believe our best bet is to provoke her. If she was still holding a grudge from when we insulted her that long ago, insulting her should work.

How about...we begin telling her that she only knows magic because she was born a spirit? Make it seem like we're "sour grapes" and jealous. Then we pop reinforce belief, AND THEN we go Overdrive.
>>
>>6099327
+1 but should we plan for after? Or just make it to her being caught up in Reinforce Belief and Atlas on Overdrive?
>>
>>6099327
Sure, let's go with this
>>
>>6099341
Oops, it changed. I'm >>6099201
>>
>>6099340
Well, it says that things like slashing doesn't work much...what if were to cast Strength + Juggernaut and then beat the absolute shit out of her while also spamming flare when we can? She's only got Life 3.
>>
>>6099344
Ghost Punching?
>>
>>6099361
Well it says they can still take physical damage, right? So that means we can punch them, i assume. Please correct me if i'm wrong QM.
>>
>>6099363
So Overdrive into Strength+Juggernaut(+Remove Hurt?) and just punch rush her? Or can we punch her, cast Spark as we hit her, then Fire Flare her on melee impact? Flaming fists of fury?
>>
>>6099365
I guess whatever works. I don't know how much we'll get from Overdrive.

But again, that's assuming we can punch her.
>>
>>6099363
Yeah, slashing isn't as effective since they can dislocate limbs, but blunt damage and the likes will still leave damage that can't be fixed by just cutting yourself in half
>>
>>6099375
Alright then. Time to beat a girl.
>>
>>6099375
It's time to recreate the Ghost Puncher of /x/ fame
>>
EVERYBODY HOLD ON, I HAVE A GENIUS IDEA TO DISTRACT IVY

>>6099318
>"Spirit clothes you say? Even after KNOWING there's a spell that let's you SEE SPIRITS?! Oh Ivy, how lewd of you! Aren't sure you're a pervert? My, and to think I have a spell just like the one I described"

Idk if I'm correct, but I do remember this kind of reasoning coming from Atlas on the first thread when he learned Spirit Sight, tho maybe I'm confused a little and he was just theory crafting with that spell
>>
>>6099389
I don't want her stripping or doing something stupid here
>>
>>6099389
>>6099390
I mean if it were outside a duel and if Table was here then I wouldn't say no to messing with Ivy alongside Table
>>
>>6099389
No, that's dumb. We're trying to beat her up. We want her to become overconfident with reinforce belief so she stops trying to shishkebab us and we get enough breathing room to cast overdrive and then beat her to death.
>>
>>6099326
>>6099327
>>6099340

"Well, of course you're winning, you were born as a wraith, you have an innate advantage when it comes to magic."

You use reinforce belief as you say this, hoping it will somehow get her cocky or mad enough to make mistakes you can capitalize on.

"I wasn't born that way," she says with a strangely calm look on her face. "Is that what you think? That my life's easy because I'm like this? I can't even cast a bunch of spells for myself because of the way I am. You think YOU have it bad? You think I don't try? That I don't work hard? Screw you! SCREW YOUSCREWYOUSCREWYOU."

She dissapears. The good news is reinforced belief looks like it worked.

The bad news is that it looks like it worked.

You dodge a spike, but it was an illusion, the second was one too, the third wasn't, but you dodged that too. Strenght allows you to jump further than normal, which makes dodging easier, but the pace at which she's throwing her attack is ridiculous. You're pretty sure there's no specific pattern to take advantage of either, it's like she's randomly spamming spikes and illusions with no regards to her own mana pool. You don't have much of a choice, and decide to use overdrive and add juggernaut so you can survive the occasional spike.

You still have no idea where she even is, is she invisible? There's no way she already knows that spell, but what else could it be? Did she phase through a wall? Is that even allowed? But how can she even see where you are if you're- oh right, the remote view spell.

On a whim, you slam yourself against the wooden wall and sure enough, there's another identical room behind it with Ivy. You're pretty sure it takes some time for a wraith to phase through solid things. They're more like jelly than incorporeal being, they have to push themselves against until they pop right past it. In other words, if she tries that again, she'll give you ample time to punch her to death. Of course, she did cast a spell to hide her escape before, so you'll have to be wary of that.

But she's not running away. As a matter of fact, she doesn't even look mad anymore, she has a serious look in her eyes that doesn't quite feel like her.

"You're smart, and honestly, I'm a little scared of you sometimes, so don't take it personally when I don't want to give you a chance to use your tricks."

You think she has about a quarter of her mana left after everything she did before, she can't have that much more left up her sleeve. You could try to rush her, but something tells you to be careful. She doesn't have any life spells, so it's likely that if you can get one solid hit on her in your buffed up state, she's done for.

Mana: ???/??? (OVERDRIVE)

Available spells: https://rentry.org/carzyq9g

>How will you try to finish the fight? (Write in)
>>
>>6099409
Let's do...a PORTAL PUNCH. Displace a portal so we can use it to punch her, using delay double to trick her first too.
>>
>>6099416
Actually, addition, use a fire flare to distract her first. When we use sit, it took her back, so we fire flare, making it seem like we're going to charge at her, but then we use the portal to give her a big sock.
>>
>>6099416
>>6099422
+1
Let's rock
>>
>>6099409
>You think she has about a quarter of her mana left after everything she did before, she can't have that much more left up her sleeve.
>>6099161
>Name: Ivy
>Race: Wraith
>Mana: 950/950
She burned like 720 fucking mana in less than 10 minutes? What the fuck is she doing?!
>>
>>6099409
>Mana: ???/??? (OVERDRIVE)
why is our mana stats unkown ?
>>6099422
>+1
>>6099516
I mean, most spells are pricy and she just spammed those spikes + illusions, plus the spell she used to hide her escape.
>>
>>6099519
Are most spells truly that expensive? Wow we really do suck at this as a human huh? We don't have much of an idea how expensive spells end up getting yet; all we know are the spells we have access to right now
>why is our mana stats unkown ?
Because my fellow ESL anon, Overdrive jacks up mana regen and the mana cap temporarily. But you're kinda right about one thing

>>6099409
HEY OP
Could you also put in the descriptions of each of the spells into the rentry list?
>>
>>6099521
>Because my fellow ESL anon, Overdrive jacks up mana regen and the mana cap temporarily.
that I know, but I didn't take to mean technically infinite mana for a while
>>
>>6099602
It's ??? because we don't know the cap yet, not because it's infinite. Like, Table's mana is listed "???" because we've never seen her run out.
>>
File: odd.png (20 KB, 677x212)
20 KB
20 KB PNG
>>6099225
Don't be a shit. I converted it to the link, but the link didn't function. I may have done it wrong, maybe.
>>
>>6099416
>>6099422
+1
>>
File: Untitled.png (53 KB, 1906x970)
53 KB
53 KB PNG
>>6099635
Works on my machine, fag. But even then, I've never seen mega links give that error before. If you copypasted it right and converted it properly using the first damn site google gives you when you search "(insert code method here) decoder", then you should get the exact same link I did and that you're meant to get from this.
>>
>>6099684
That's what I do. Not sure why it didn't work. Why are you being so weirdly hostile about it?
>>
>>6099974
>Why are you being so weirdly hostile about it?
We are on 4chan and I'm too used to people being retarded at simple shit. Also I am less hostile in that post than I was initially because I'm starting to realize what you're experiencing with the link might be some other issue I've never experienced before. Is Mega country-blocked or something? Could you try a VPN if you have one to see if that works?
>>
>>6099519
>>6099516
>>6099425

Alright, show time. First, you use a fire flare with spark to distract her, but...nothing happens. She flickers, another illusion? Again? You look around, but by the time you see her, she's already too far away from you. You try it again, but she's prepared and easily dodges it. Fine, whatever, you'll go straight for the kill then. You throw multiple pocket spaces around so that you can punch through them. One wouldn't do much, since she'd just float away from them, but now you just need her to stumble close to one and-

You hear a sickening crunching sound as your fist breaks against your own portal. She was close enough to one of your portal for you to punch her through them, but you didn't account for her putting an embargo on your own portal to stop your fist from going through. Looking back on it, it's not like you can actually make your fist go through portals, maybe you should've bashed her with a plank of wood through the portal or something.

It's fine, you don't feel anything, and you realize the juggernaut effect made it so the damage to the fist wasn't that dire, it's still usable...somewhat. That's what you tell yourself until every single one of your portals reverse course and come rushing at you, hitting you like blunt objects, you manage to disable most of them before it hurts too bad, but she creates portals of her own to use as improvised battering rams, which you can't disable as easily. You try to mana rip one of them to carve a path, but you severely underestimated how great her control over her own portals were, and she uses that opportunity to slowly advance the portals towards you. You try to jump over them, but-

You wake up in your room.

Ha. You think you jumped right into one of her portals. That's fine. You're fine.

No, you know what? You're NOT fine. That was BULLSHIT. She barely had any mana left, and yet she's still capable of pulling THAT off? What were you supposed to do? Even when you tried to hit her, turns out it was a stupid illusion! What do you even have that can- well, okay, you have bright sight, but her illusions looked advanced, so you're sure it wouldn't have worked! Probably!

You gesticulate wildly into your bed to get it out of your system. You should've won. This was your moment to shine, you had overdrive, you had all the mana you could ask for. If you could just get your HANDS on her, she'd be DEAD in an INSTANT. Now she'll think she's better than you! She's not! She got lucky! A rematch! YOU WANT A REMATCH!

You're still mad. You just need to... do something to let it all out. Something nice. You'll bring Table too, you're sure she can help calm you down.

>Jog.
>A trip to the town.
>You've heard Charlotte has some fishing equipment, maybe fishing can help you put your thoughts in order.
>Something else (Write in)
>>
(sorry for the delay, I got distracted by a 3 hour video on romance in games, couldn't miss it.

Also deadlock)
>>
>>6100179
>, it's not like you can actually make your fist go through portals,
...What? Since the hell when is that true? And didn't i specifically vote for using delay double? Why wouldn't the delay double have worked on our portal too?
>>
File: 1725549146713817.jpg (107 KB, 567x800)
107 KB
107 KB JPG
>>6100180
QM, stop playing THAT Deadlock and start playing THIS Deadlock

>>6100184
Fuck, he's right
>Even when you tried to hit her, turns out it was a stupid illusion! What do you even have that can- well, okay, you have bright sight, but her illusions looked advanced, so you're sure it wouldn't have worked!
There's no reason not to pop Bright Sight and other buffs while under Overdrive. I never thought of this
>You're smart, and honestly, I'm a little scared of you sometimes
Bitch also fucking lied about this, I guarantee it
>>
>>6100185
Except that was BEFORE. She was an illusion BEFORE when we tried to use FLARE. When we were hitting her she wasn't. But apparently we just didn't use delay double?

If we had used delay double LIKE THE VOTE SAID, she would have cast embargo on a FAKE PORTAL and we would have got her.
>>
>>6100184
Specifically, you can't make your fist go through TWO portals to attack at a distance. You always needed to use another item as a proxy to interact with things outside the second portal.

If you're wondering about the delay double, I did forget to put it in, not that it would've worked, she would've either dispelled the illusion or noticed the fakeness very fast with how good she is at summoning.
>>
>>6100179
>Jog.

>>6099980
It inexplicably started working today, so I'm going to guess maybe a browser/cache issue.
>>
>>6100190
>Specifically, you can't make your fist go through TWO portals to attack at a distance
We were always able to make a fist go through a portal, we were able to use it to press the lever before.
>she would've either dispelled the illusion or noticed the fakeness very fast
How does that matter when it's a delay double for an portal? Even if she 'noticed', if she went to 'dispel' it in the first place it'd be too late since the punch would already be going.

Well, i guess you just wanted to force a loss to take us down a peg or something.
>>
>>6100191
>It inexplicably started working today
Wait so the link did work?
>browser/cache issue
Figures it'd be something minor like that. Ah well. I hope you enjoy that series though anon
I also hope the QM saw that and knows about it. It's one of the french cartoons known on the internet outside of Dofus/Wakfu
>>
>>6100193
No you weren't, you used your shoe to interact with the lever before,

You can also refer to this >>6097297 where I specify that if you did want to press the button, you'd need to take off your shoes to press it from afar via pocket space
>>
>>6100196

I remember code lyoko, weird show now that I look back on it. Can forcefully come back to the status quo via time travel so they kind of routinely do apocalyptic stuff, kinda neat
>>
>>6100200
That doesn't make any sense. We can put our hand through if we're holding a shoe but not if it's just our hand? That's dumb. You should describe spells better instead of failing people because
>oops you didn't actually understand this description of this spell from 1000 pages ago, sowwy
>>
>>6100209
I admit I'm not the best at explaining, but this quirk of pocket space was explained multiple times. You've also used the spell multiple times, and every single time it was shown you did use the spell via an item. As for how you've used the item through the portal, you were holding the item inside the portal, with the item poking out. Your hand wasn't actually outside, it was holding an item that was.
>>
>>6100215
>was explained multiple times
No, you mentioned it in a single line in the early parts of the first thread, and then never explicitly mentioned it again. You just said we used an item, not 'oh actually you're holding it from outside the portal'

And then despite knowing that, you just didn't say "Actually that's not how the spell works" despite it being something that Atlas SHOULD KNOW, forcing him to apparently act retarded and fail because of a shitty explanation of a spell. What, do i have to check every single mention of a spell in the old thread every time we're going to use it to make it juuust suure you didn't add some random clause that completely ruins our plan which you refuse to say?
>>
>>6100179
>Something else
Go punch something and imagine it's Ivy. Do we have a punching bag somewhere?
>>
>>6100220
>>
>>6100220
Anon, I get you're annoyed, and the explanation could have been better, but it's over, there's no need to be so angry.
>>
>>6100220
I do admit that making him punch the portal was maybe out of character and something he should've known, but as for when it's mentioned
>mentioned by the teacher that pocket space can't be used to transport a whole body, even if you can hold hands through them
>Mentioned when you try to improve the spell with spell displacements
>Mentioned during the lever part, and multiple times out of character I reminded people that's how it worked.

I do agree I should've made it more clear it wasn't going to work before writing, and I'll try to avoid obvious mistakes like this in the future. It's something I usually do, but I got distracted and thought people already knew about that part of the spell since it felt like it came up so often. I'll try to be more clear in the future.
>>
>>6100233
>mentioned by the teacher that pocket space can't be used to transport a whole body, even if you can hold hands through them
So we can hold hands through a portal, but not punch someone through it?
>I'll try to be more clear in the future.
Have you considered adding the descriptions and any changes you add to a spell to the rentry so we aren't forced to go crawling through thousands of posts just to avoid missing because of something you mentioned several dozen updates ago?
>>
>>6100233
Based QM being rational and understanding and not losing his cool.
>>
>>6100233
While I think spell descriptions and known limitations makes sense to add to the pastebin, I don't think it's unreasonable to think anons could double-check those things (even though I didn't) or that our first-year student wizard might fuck up in the heat of the moment.
>>
>>6100239
I understand why he's mad. I personally believe I made the spell's function clear, but also I'm literally the QM and of course I'll remember details better than most players, so I'll take some time to add descriptions of each spell to avoid issues like this.

Mind you, the fight itself wasn't unwinnable, but it was designed to be pretty unfair. Ivy has both good summoning and divination spells, and good mobility. Her erratic mindset also makes her ironically hard to manipulate via reinforce belief because of the way she'll misinterpret what you say. She was for all intents and purposes a counter to your most common tactics, but with bright sight it would've been doable I think.
>>
I guess i should vote for something so we can get past this anyway

>>6100221
+1
>>
>>6100221
+1
>>
>>6100179
>You hear a sickening crunching sound as your fist breaks against your own portal. She was close enough to one of your portal for you to punch her through them, but you didn't account for her putting an embargo on your own portal to stop your fist from going through.
wait, so the embargo makes it work like a wall ? shit

>[...]until every single one of your portals reverse course and come rushing at you, hitting you like blunt objects, you manage to disable most of them before it hurts too bad, but she creates portals of her own to use as improvised battering rams, which you can't disable as easily.
...that's a thing that can be done with portals ? fuck

>Jog.
>>
>>6100221
Can we do this and then jog? I'd like to do both with Table
>>
>>6100289
>I'd like to do both with Table
ryonafags on control, I see
>>
>>6100295
I meant punch something else together with Table also punching alongside us. There is a time and place for ryona and Table is neither
>>
>>6100215
>>6100220
>>6100233
>>6100250
that's was a thing that happened. my only input will be that you should warn us when we choose an action that doesn't work, 'coz ic it's something Atlas would know and we'd just end up looking like trolling for some reason.
>>
https://rentry.org/carzyq9g I updated it to show spell description. Looks like shit and kind of a mess though, might use markdown to make it more readable, but for now just use ctrl F to find a spell.
>>
>>6100297
Yeah that's fair, I think it's something Atlas should've known, and while it's not impossible for him to make mistakes, I don't think it's necessarily fair to the players. Anyway, I think votes are tied between jogging and punching something. I'll lock in both just because I can.
>>
>>6100305
wait actually jog only has 2 votes I miscounted. Well, I'll add it in anyway, too late to go back.
>>
Look on the bright side anons, with this duel finished it's time for summer vacation!

I think.
>>
>>6100313
The promised beach episode... Soon™ my brothers...
>>
>>6100318
Eh...I don't care much for beach episodes, we can already see Table in a bikini, underwear, or naked if we want to. Plus the beach is not very comfortable, the salt water means you can't even really run anything without basically exfoliating the skin.

What I want is to visit the city again. And maybe introduce Table to our parents if we can.
>>
>>6100297
>>6100305
I hope we've all learned a valuable lesson today, friends. To think better, preferably with better portals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bju0gS-YjkU
>>
>>6100191
>>6100221
>>6100258
>>6100277

It's fine! It's fine. You just need to punch something. You don't want to break anything though, so you decide that you want to do that in a secluded area on something no one cares about. A tree! You'll just buff yourself, and punch a tree as hard as you can. It'll take a while to get to the forest, so you'll jog there to get faster, besides, you could use the exercise.

Table greets you the moment you open the door. "Hey, how did it go- are those your running shoes? Are you really going to jog right after a duel?"

"I want to punch a tree," you state, trying to not sound mad.

"Can I join?"

"Sure."

You both jog to the forest until you find a punchable enough tree, which did take more time than you thought. Turns out a bunch of trees either have souls, are protected by some spirits, or contain some wildlife you'd rather not anger, so you had to make absolutely sure the ones you picked were safe.

"So, wanna tell me why you're in a tree punching mood?" Table asks nonchalently.

"BECAUSE I SHOULD'VE WON!" You cast juggernaut and strength on yourself, the duel necklace made sure anything you did in it didn't mess with your body, so it's pretty safe to cast it again like this. "Now, she's going to think she's better than me! I just made ONE mistake, how is that fair? I thought I could punch her through the pocket spaces, I mean, it would've worked if I used something to get out of the other portal, but then she used embargo on it! And she kept using illusions somehow, she was RIGHT here, I was looking at her! How did she cast a body double? There's no way she knows invisiblity already! I should've used delayed double too, why did I forget to use that, I'm such a dumbass, DAMNIT."

She calmly listens to your tantrum. You do expect her to judge you, saying something like 'why didn't you do this?' or 'she was just better than you', but she doesn't. She just listens.

You punch the tree as hard as you can, your fist holds tight this time, and you leave a small hole inside it. You try to imagine it as punching Ivy, but the tree isn't very Ivy like. "This was supposed to be MY time to shine. I had everything, how can I lose with limited mana but win when I have as much as I want? It makes NO sense!"

"Yeah, you're right, it was probably a fluke on her part. I'm sure she got lucky" Table answers. "I'm sure you'll kick her ass when you fight her again."

"What if I don't? What if they never pair me in a duel against her again and she'll just brag for the rest of the year about how she beat me? I hate it! I hate it, I hate it!"

"You could ask her for a rematch?"

"I could but..."

What if you lose again? In public? Could you really live with that? With the shame? What if it wasn't a fluke? What if you really are worse than her? You punch the tree, again and again. Even with that strenght, you can't even destroy a damn tree, this sucks.
>>
>>6100347


The strenght spell runs out, and you collapse on the floor as the drawback sets in. You don't want to move, you don't want to do anything.

"Hey," Table lays down next to you on the leaves. "Does it matter what other thinks?"

"I don't know, I didn't think I'd care, but when it comes to Ivy, it makes my blood boil to imagine people thinking she's better than I am."

"But you know you're better than her, and I know you're better than her, isn't that all that matters? Why should you care about people who are wrong."

You're not sure how to answer. Of course you know your rage is illogical. This duel doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, and yet... it pisses you off so much. Maybe you were never satisfied with just being a mediocre mage, maybe you always strived to be much more than that.

"Hey, Atlas? Vacations are in a month, right? We don't have an exam at the end of this one, still some classes though, any idea on where we should spend that vacation?"

"I don't know. Anywhere with you is fine, I guess?" You reply not so calmly.

"Boooo, corny boring answer! It doesn't have to be realistic, just think of something!"

Well, if anywhere is fine, then...

>The human city
>The beach
>The school
>Wandering around the city.
>>
>>6100349
>The human city
>>
>>6100349
>The human city
Time to introduce the girl and future wife to the parents
>>
>>6100347
>I should've used delayed double too, why did I forget to use that, I'm such a dumbass
A good QM weaves in his players's discussions and his own fuckups into the quest like this
>>
>>6100349
>The human city
If we can meet our parents, let's ask them for our college fund too. If we have actual money, we could probably buy some cool artifacts, right?
>>
>>6100349
>The beach
I bet we've never been to a beach, and the human city sounds lame AND dangerous to Table.
>>
>>6100361
Table doesn't like swimming though, and salt water is probably even worse for a wormgirl like her.
>>
>>6100362
I also do not like swimming. The beach is still pretty, and the first time someone sees the ocean is still magical.
>>
>>6100383
Well, it's a long vacation, two months, and we probably won't be able to spend much time in the city with table IF we even manage to get a visitation.

We could end up doing both.
>>
>>6100349

We should spend most of our time in the bunker, maybe try to get a part-time job in the city and explore there some. There are plenty of side projects we can work on to expand our knowledge of magic with: golem core, spider robot, Table's curse, our limited magic, the original spirit that led us to the bunker.

Take a side trip to the beach for a break after classes end but we are a magic autist and left our entire life behind to study magic so lets study magic.
>>
>>6100347
>I had everything, how can I lose with limited mana but win when I have as much as I want? It makes NO sense!"
I assume you meant the opposite here
>>6100349
>The beach
>>
>>6100349
>Maybe you were never satisfied with just being a mediocre mage, maybe you always strived to be much more than that.
Power and Knowledge like the mystery merchant question was about
>>
>>6100299
hey QM, I saw you mentioning wanting to clean up the formatting for the spell list and took a stab at it, feel free to copy/paste it into the official link
https://rentry.org/wmqys6c2

I noticed a few things while doing this:
1. Delayed Double had an X at the end, meaning we don't know how to mix it, yet the mana cost specifically says "...cost of the spell you're mixing it with..."
2. Spirit link is listed as unlearned, but that's what we used to communicate and follow the spirit to the bunker right?
3. Shouldn't Table know Seal?
>>
>>6100527
Right, so
1. You used spirit sight to communicate with the spirit, not spirit link. Spirit link is a different thing entirely that allows you to essentially have a pseudo familiar.
2. Delayed Double, just like Spell Displacement are spells that are a little special in that being mixed with others is how you use the spell. The spell by itself does nothing, but using it with another spell is considered spell mixing. I put the X because it's a way to say that trying to actively mix the spell will not give any interesting result, if you mix the spell with spark for example, it will just make you cast an illusion of spark. In other words, it's less that X makes them unmixable as much as I'm saying anything with X you shouldn't mix unless you want to waste your time.

3. Table should know seal yeah, I didn't note everything, but I noted everything Atlas should know, so I'll add it.
>>
>>6100452
Also yes, it's supposed to say 'I had everything, how can I win with limited mana but lose when I have as much as I want? It makes NO sense!" my bad
>>
I really wanna learn spirit link so we can go try to fix the vault computers and get another reward from the spirit. Reinforce Belief was great, if we can get another spell like that or even just an upgrade to reinforce belief, we'll be golden.
>>
>>6100452
>>6100361
>>6100359
>>6100351
>>6100352

"The human city sounds nice," you answer. "There's arcade, and movie theaters, I think you'd like those a lot."

"Wooow... I don't know what either of those are. Is a movie theater like, them recreating the movie in a theater?"

"They're the same thing you saw, except the screen is much, much bigger, and they have speakers to make sure the sound surrounds you to make it more immersive. Arcades are a place where you play a bunch of games with friends on blocky looking machines."

"That'd be nice... man, I really want to get in, now. Why did you have to do that? Well, I wanted to check it out ever since I played that game, but now I want it more!"

"You said anything! Of course, I was going to pick something that's unrealistic," You wince as the remove hurt spell runs out too. "Ow, owowow, it hurts all over. Why did I have to punch a tree? It hurts even though I punched it with juggernaut, what's up with that?"

"I think juggernaut IS what's hurting you, idiot. Cast skin heal on yourself."

"Out of mana."

"Alright, let me just- hold on, let me see if I can pull something off." She rolls on top of you, and licks your cheek. You feel some of your mana reserve fill up, but Table doesn't look too pleased. "Owth, therth wood splinth'er thuuck." She painfully pulls out some wood bits that were apparently stuck on your cheek.

"You were finally punished for your thirst, Table. No more sweat licking for you."

"You think that'll stop me? I'll... okay, maybe that will stop me, I'm not eating wood for dinner. Anyway, do you think I could come to the city as a visitor? Surely there's a space outsiders can visit, right?"

"There's a trading space, I think? It's heavily regulated, and it's the type of space where if you make a wrong movement and you don't have the right papers, you'd probably get shot."

"Brutal, didn't you say that some high ranking people could? What if you became, like, the best human mage, would that make them consider it?"

"Officially? Probably not, but high ranking humans are pretty corrupt, I'm sure if you threw enough money or favors their way they'd be willing to look the other way. I'm sure there's one human royal with a harem of outsiders somewhere he keeps secret from the public."
>>
>>6100851

Talking like this makes you forget what you were mad about. It was losing to Ivy, right? It's weird, you don't feel like you care that much anymore. Well, okay, you do care, but it doesn't feel like the infuriating thing it was before, it just feels mildly annoying now.

"Thanks, Table."

"For what?"

"For being here, I guess. Not judging me when I'm freaking out, I don't know."

She laughs, even without the bracelet, it sounds angelic. Maybe she is an angel, what else could she be? Those are cheesy thoughts, and you don't say them out loud, you've embarrassed yourself enough today as is, but you still believe that she's the best thing that ever happened to you.

"Anyway, we got one more month, any idea on what you want to take this month, magic boy?" Table asks, rolling off of you.

"Well, I need one more month to figure out the spirit link spell, so I'll take Divination, as for the rest..."

(You will get two votes this time, the two most popular votes will be picked. Divination is already picked by default as the third choice)
>Summoning
>Intangible
>Life
>Material
>>
>>6100853
>Summoning
>Intangible
Let's try to pick some offensive spells this time. Summoning has also been pretty damn useful so far. Maybe we can find an actual portal spell we can put our hand through?

I gotta say, the formatted archive in >>6100527
is really helpful. You should use it OP, you can copy the whole thing by pressing edit even if you don't own it.
>>
>>6100853
>Life
>Summoning
>>
>>6100851
>the best human mage, would that make them consider it?"
Isn't he technically already us? Unless you mean of all time that is...
>>
>>6100879
is*
>>
>>6100853
Alright, made my decision, I think I'll go with what >>6100859 said and support
>Summoning
>Intangible
>>
>>6100859
+1
>>
>>6100859
Oh wow, you're right, it does look MUCH better, yeah I updated it by copypasting that, it's much more readable, thanks for the work >>6100527 anon.
>>
>>6100853
>Summoning
>Intangible
>>
File: anime-proud.gif (2.71 MB, 498x432)
2.71 MB
2.71 MB GIF
>>6100859
>>6100892
glad i could help
>>
>>6100853
>Summoning
>Intangible
>>
>>6100918
>>6101181
>>6100882
>>6100867

"Summoning and Intangible, I think. I've been neglecting summoning for a little bit too long, and I think I could use some extra offensive options for duels with Intangible, you know?"

"You REALLY want that rematch, huh?"

You try to nod, but it's hard to even move your head with how exhausted you are, you underestimated how big the drawback to strength was. "She won't see it coming. And if she refuses, I'll just say that it's because she's scared she'll lose. Not now though, I have to make absolutely sure I'm ready for it."

"Hmm, I dunno, I think I prefer when you're a little scrawny nerd than a big muscly fightstarter, you know?"

"Isn't this what girls are usually into? You have weird taste, Table."

"I'll let you know I can taste you just fine, thank you very much. Well, I guess you'll always be a nerd at heart, no matter how strong you get."

"Yeah, well in magic the nerds are the one in power, so really I'm cool no matter what way you slice it."

You keep the banter going until the night comes and you have to walk back to your dorm. As expected, you get the paper to pick what classes you want for the month, and you settle with your previous choices. Summoning, Intangible, and Divination. To Table's chagrin, you have to take a shower to remove most of the dirt, leaves and bits of woods from your body after your little tantrum in the woods. You also notice there's a lot of dead skin falling off your body, which you assume is a remnant of using juggernaut. Thankfully it doesn't remove pre-existing skin, juggernaut feels like it just adds additional tougher skin on top of the one you already have.
>>
>>6101381

You wake up to breakfast from Table. Well, not her breakfast, the one from the cafeteria, but she did bring it to you. You've heard the school has a public kitchen students use sometimes, you'll have to check it out. You were never much of a cook, people hardly needed to prepare meals in the human city, most stuff is pre-processed, but there's something romantic about serving something you made yourself.

Wait, isn't there a kitchen in the vault? It's not functional anymore, but you could always look into it later. Later being the keyword here, since you have Summoning class today. The good news is that you've checked your schedule, and you've got more free time than before this month, something about a second year teacher having defected, so the teachers had to spread their classes some more. Surely they don't run the entire school on five people, right? But you've only ever seen your teachers, anyone else was just summons from the summoning teacher. This place really is weird.

Anyway, Summoning class! Turns out you never really had a proper summoning class apart from the one you had at the start of the year before, so you're going to have to learn pretty basic spells, you might as well listen to the teacher while you're at it, this IS a class, after all.

"Hello, hello!" The summoning teacher greets all of you. "Now, a few of you here are new, so I'll just repeat what I said before, alright? I did say summoning worked best when mixed with other spells. That's still true! But what if you still wanted to fully commit to being a summoner? What can you really do that way? Well, the answer is portals, really just portals, and nothing else. The good news is portals are quite versatile! Some of you may have realized you could use them to harm people offensively, or as shields, or to redirect people's attacks. If you use your portals in a smart manner, you'll realize that you can do much more than just summon stuff!

Now, some of you may have realized the inherent limitation of your pocket space, like the fact you can only make items go through multiple portals. The truth is you can actually make your hand go through more than one portal, even with pocket space, but the spell has some inherent safety measure put into it, and for good reasons. Why? A lot of reasons, so many reasons that this type of advanced portal is usually only allowed to be used by third years, very rarely second years. It has to do with the soul exploding into bits, sometimes your hands may get stuck on another dimension because of the way the mana is spread, sometimes the portal moves one millimeter too far, and it starts spinning out of control. Pocket space is notoriously unstable when it comes to dealing with living things that are at three places at once, and it's only recently that it became capable of putting your hand in there at all. Anyway, today's lessons will be on portals, so listen up!"
>>
>>6101382

You check the book, and sure enough, a lot of those spells seem related to portals. You recognize a few of those spells as one that Rath could teach you.

>Unsafe Portal: Disables the inherent safety measures of a portal. For example, pocket space will allow you to put your hand through more than two portals at a time, which can be used for much more destructive results than a simple portal cut.
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.
>Speedy Portal: Enhance the speed at which a portal is created, this also makes moving portals faster. This makes the portal cost 50% more mana however, so it's best to use it sparingly.
>>
>>6101383
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge
I had an idea i stole from JoeJoes, what if, using Magic (so we can take it to a duel) we made some fuckin' acid in a bottle, and then threw it at people through portals?
>>
>>6101383
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.
>>
>>6101383
>>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.
sounds fun.
however, do note that we MUST learn embargo and quite well before facing Ivy
>>
>>6101383
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>>
>>6101383
>Pocket Artillery
Could we line up several pocket artilleries to basically create a coilgun to nuke people with? Like, imagine just putting like, three of these portals really close, then chucking a rock through it.
>>
File: Spoiler Image (445 KB, 474x826)
445 KB
445 KB PNG
>>
>>6101383
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>>
>>6101383
>Pocket Artillery: A slightly modified version of the pocket space. Works similarly, but it will throw anything inside of it at a relatively high speed. While not inherently a mixed spell, better intangible knowledge increases the speed at which it can come out.
>>
>>6101512
>>6101466
>>6101402
>>6101397
>>6101396
>>6101386
>>6101385

Pocket artillery sounds very useful. You're not sure how effective it'll be against Ivy and her stupid embargo, but it still sounds like a very versatile spell. You realize the classroom is equipped with runes that makes any portals cast within it safer. Probably so people don't make themselves explode using unsafe portal spells. From what you understand, summoning really is a dangerous art when used improperly, and you're sure the only reason it isn't used in war more often is because it's just as likely to screw over the user as it is the opponent. It's even worse if your opponent is a good summoner as they can easily turn your own portals against you, it's a pain.

"Atlas? Can I get your attention for a lil' minute?" The teacher snaps his rat fingers to get you to look at him. "We got a new student, new-ish, showed up last month, actually. Now normally I'd take care of her in private lessons to make sure she catches up, but because of err, recent unforeseen events, I'll be a little booked. Think you can help her with a few things?"

You're a little annoyed at this, why should you do HIS job? You're only a first year, and you're already busy enough as is. Even so, it doesn't look good to refuse a teacher, so you'll have to comply. "What do you want me to help her with? I'm still not THAT good."

"Well, she has abnormally low mana, and you've been taught spells specifically so that you could cast them as efficiently as possible. Each spell book here is personalized! Kinda, not really, it's just that we can add notes to the book whenever we want, so we change the content as we go. The one you have is specifically made to help low mana students, and we've been updating it a lot from ever since you got here! Lots and lots of updates. Anyway, I want you to help her with a few spells, sorry to take your time! I'll make it up to you, promise." He points behind you, and you see a beastfolk girl seated at the back of the class, she looks like a humanoid eagle. She stares intently at her book, it seems as if she's out of mana already and has no choice but to rehearse theory for now.

"Table, can you give her some mana?"

She rolls her eyes. "Giving mana is something VERY intimate, I'll let you know. You just want me to touch another girl, you sick fuck."

"Didn't you give me mana the first time we met? Wouldn't that make you a slut, giving mana to the first guy you meet?"

"Alright, ouch, first of all, how do you even remember that? Second of all, yes, but I'm your slut. Anyway, fine, I'll give her mana, I guess"

The teacher clears his throat. "Can still hear you, y'know. Keep it clean with that girl, okay? She's a shy one."
>>
>>6101582

You take your seat and sit down next to her, she's startled, even though she clearly saw you get all the way over here. She's not as startled by Table sitting down next to her for obvious reasons.

You tell her you're going to help her, and she replies with a barely audible 'okay'. You test out a few spells after Table begrudgingly gives her some mana, and...wow, her mana really isn't that high. If your analysis is correct, it sits at about 200. If she was a human it'd be pretty high, but she's not, Rin had about 600 when you fought her if you remember correctly, making this amount about 4 times worse than most beastfolks. Even worse, she apparently already knows the up mana method, so her mana was originally sitting at about 100 at the start; it took her very long to even get to that point.

Even though she doesn't talk much, she still winces every time you mention her low mana, so you avoid bringing attention to it too much. You feel kind of bad for her, you don't think she tried to make any friends, and now that you think about it, you didn't even notice she was even there this past month. There's irony in your forgotten girlfriend being more noticeable than a regular beastfolk, although it's not really comparable considering how important Table is to you.

Anyway, you tell her certain tricks she can pull off even with low mana. Seal is a useful spell, and when in doubt, using your clothes is a good idea to save up mana. You also tell her about the good old pocket space cut, which should help her in a duel when it comes. Of course, now that you've fought about 3 students with it, she'll have to deal with people who are more prepared and wary of portals spawning near them, so that sucks for her.

The class ends, and you realize you barely had time for your own studies. You really hope the teacher was serious about this 'making it back to you' business, because even though you don't mind helping classmates, that's not really what you're here for.

You're about to leave the class, but you realize there's probably more to teach her, is it really fair to just leave her to her own devices just because the class is over? You ask Table, and she agrees she's a little pitiful, so you decide to help her. Her name's Fet, by the way, now that she ever told you, the teacher had to.

>Help her make some friends, it's clearly hard for her to talk to other people.
>If she spent so much time with low mana, maybe she knows a thing or two that you don't? Anything could help.
>Keep teaching her magic, that way it'll be done and she won't be as behind as when she started.
>Something else (Write in)
>>
>>6101584
>If she spent so much time with low mana, maybe she knows a thing or two that you don't? Anything could help
Hmm, how curious. Some random girl with low mana who knows about the up mana method. I don't know why, but I feel like there's something here we don't know.
>>
>>6101589
Anyway, I guess i should specify my vote...my goal would be to try to get to try to "Open her up" a little by having Atlas be "relatable" so to say? The idea being that if we're trying to learn from her too, then we're not teaching her, we're "sharing", being on the same situation.

You know, less "You're an incompetent who is somehow worse than a human at magic." and more "I know how you feel"
>>
>>6101589
Supporting this, but only because Atlas seemed annoyed to be interrupted from his studies. How quickly has Table's affection made us forget this boy studied magic so much he had to buy an hat of wakefulness to avoid just collapsing where he stood from just straight up not sleeping so he could study more.
>>
>>6101584
>Help her make some friends, it's clearly hard for her to talk to other people.
>>6101631
that's a good point, anon.
>>
>>6101599
I like this, and a good segue into helping her make friends too

>>6101582
>Second of all, yes, but I'm your slut.
We love our slutty manabattery
>>
>>6101582
>Giving mana is something VERY intimate, I'll let you know
I like Table ascribing to the Fate/Stay Night version of mana transferring only with Atlas
>how do you even remember that?
I love this character development on Atlas' end in enduring the curse effects
>yes, but I'm your slut
Atlas needs to propose to Table right after he cures her curse

>>6101584
backing >>6101589 >>6101599

>>6101631
>this boy studied magic so much he had to buy an hat of wakefulness to avoid just collapsing where he stood from just straight up not sleeping so he could study more
He's OUR autistic wizard-in-training
>>
>>6101584
>If she spent so much time with low mana, maybe she knows a thing or two that you don't? Anything could help.

>>6101685
>We love our slutty manabattery
Best. Girl.
>>
>>6101584
>If she spent so much time with low mana, maybe she knows a thing or two that you don't? Anything could help.
>>
>>6101780
>>6101764
>>6101743
>>6101685
>>6101589
>>6101631

You all sit down on the lawn of the campus ask her if she picked up any specific habits from casting spells with low mana, since you only started casting real spells a few months ago, barring the lighten rune you spent years learning.

Looking back on it, you feel so stupid for taking so long learning such a simple spell, but you also had to learn a lot of the basics of magic by yourself with outdated and erroneous information, so you wouldn't say it was all wasted time. You also didn't have Table to recharge your mana back then, so there was only so much practice you could do.

Either way, she takes her time to answer your question. She stares at the ground, mumbling something under her breath.

"Speak up, I can't help you if I don't already know what you're capable of." You get closer to her to hear her better, and she makes a weird mix between a mouse squeak and bird chirp as she stumbles backward. You maybe got too close. You raise your hands up in the air to show you're not going to do anything to her, but she flinches as if she thought you were raising your hands to do the opposite of that. Table looks intently, not saying anything; that's a shame, because you wonder if Fet would be a little less jumpy if it was another girl talking to her.

"Fet, if talking is hard for you, that's okay, would you feel more comfortable writing what you want?"

She looks back at you, as if she was trying to see if you were joking or not. Seeing you're serious, she pulls a piece of paper out of her bag and starts to write. You take the piece of paper she offers you and... wow.

"Your handwriting is really pretty, can't be easy with these talons of yours either." It looks like she liked the compliment, you hear Table cough loudly behind you. You turn back to her, but Table just tells you to continue reading. Fet is saying, or writing in this case, that she dealt with her low mana mostly by either asking her family to give her extra mana, or by storing a lot of mana in a rune that she could then use later. "Wait, how do you take back mana from a rune you made? Sounds like it could be helpful to me."

Fet perks up when she realizes she knows something you don't. She writes, 'It's a two step mixed spell. First you have to know the 'Give Mana' spell. Give Mana is a mix between Give Life and Mana Feel. Then you mix Give Mana with a 'Store Spell' Material rune."

"I don't know the store spell thing, did you learn it from someone else?"

She nods.

"Could you teach it to me?" You ask.

"Hey," Table interrupts you. "Aren't you supposed to teach HER things? Don't take advantage of the poor girl."
>>
>>6102435

To your surprise, Fet speaks up for once. "It's- It's okay! Uhm, I'm happy to help, and, uhm...." She trails off, her voice getting quiet again as she notices she's back to being the center of attention.

"How about that, I'll teach you a few things, and you'll teach me that spell, how does that sound?" You offer a compromise.

She nods vigorously. She doesn't look as sad now that she doesn't feel like a hindrance to you anymore, and you have to admit you're happy that you're also getting something out of this too. It's not that you mind helping people or anything, but if you have to choose between learning more magic and helping someone you don't know about their problem, you'd probably choose magic. Of course, if it's someone you know and care about that's something else, but you barely know this girl, so she doesn't quite count as a friend just yet.

You spend a good chunk of the day teaching each other what you know. She's still not very talkaltive and opt to use writing when she can, but you don't mind, since she can accompany the spell instructions with helpful doodles to give you a better idea of what to do. You also relate a lot to her struggle when it comes to living with lower mana, which makes it easier to get along.

When you part way with her at the end of the day, Table starts saying what she thinks of Fet more overtly. "You know, maybe you shouldn't be so nice to her."

"What do you mean? She's nice. You're not jealous, are you?"

"Jealous? Hardly, I've seen your reaction to my shapeshifting, you're not that kind of guy. And if you WERE interested in her, I'd be able to tell. No, I just think it's a little cruel to lead her on, that's all."

"I think you severely overestimate how good I am with women, Table."

"With most women? Maybe. But with a girl that's alone, shy, that shares your woes, one that you make feel special by letting her teach you things. I'm just saying she might get the wrong idea."

"But she knows you're my girlfriend, and even if she does somehow fall in love with me, how is that my fault? What, do you just want me to be mean to her? She doesn't deserve that. I really just think you're overreacting here. Besides, you didn't react that way with Dill, so what's the difference?"

"Dill feels more mature, I guess? Not like she acts like it most of the time, but I don't think she'd be the type to fall for a guy that just gives her a little bit of attention."

"Whatever, we barely know her, I still think you're overthinking it."
>>
>>6102436

Whatever Table thinks of her, it's not like you can ignore such a useful spell. You know Table uses a mana pocket space she can store mana in, but apparently it's different from the version you use to transport mana between you and her. It's a lot more expensive, and worst of all, it can't contain mana for very long without it 'rotting', whatever that means. A rune would be much safer and most importantly, you could bring it into dungeons and duels if you make it inside the school.

So, for the following weeks, you try to learn what you can from her, all while teaching her a few tricks of your own. You don't think you can teach her overdrive, since it was designed for humans, but you do pass her Jack's book the Intangible teacher gave you as long as she promises to give it back. She's very happy that you're willing to trust her with something important to you like this, maybe a little TOO happy.

You can't help but remember what Table said. It's hard for you to think you could make a girl fall in love with you on accident, especially this fast, but surely it can't hurt to be safe, right? You make offhand comments about Table, compliments here and there, and you make sure to empathize the title 'girlfriend' when you can. You can't see much of a reaction from the bird girl, but it's hard to tell when she looks at the floor so often. Table's happy with your attempt at setting boundaries at the very least, and maybe that's all you need.
>>
>>6102437

Anyway, you have more pressing matters, like the Divination class you have today, and you're actually a little bit thankful you're not sharing the class with Fet. You don't want to deal with the unnecessary drama--imagined or otherwise--while you're studying.

Of course, you're still trying to figure out the Spirit Link spell, but you think you might just have time to learn another spell in the meantime too. As much as you love magic, it's very tiring for your brain to try to learn one thing for a long period of time, so you need to diversify a little bit. As for what you can learn...

(Learn a spell from the two previous classes. Spells that take more than one month to learn have been omitted because of the investment required.)

>Extra: A spell that makes a spell seem much MUCH stronger than it actually is. A fireball may look bigger, faster, and more dangerous, and illusion spells will be much more effective. Has no noticeable effect on spells that directly affect the mind.
>A moment in time: Can 'record' a memory and play it back. This spell has multiple stages of mastery, with the first being sound, the second being sight, the third being touch, the fourth being taste, and the fourth being smell. Full mastery makes the playback very hard to differentiate from reality without dispelling the illusion with a spell.
>Body Double: Create an illusion of yourself or someone you know to do something simple. The double is hard to differentiate from you without the use of magic, but a keen observer may be able to notice inconsistencies even without it.
>Confusion: Create an illusion that will confuse the target. The illusion automatically shifts to what would surprise the target the most, but how good the illusion actually looks depends on your Divination profficiency.
>>
>>6102438
>Body Double
Clone Jutsu GO
>Confusion
Imagine how strong this would be with Reinforce Belief

I still don't fully trust this 'Fet' girl.
>>
>>6102438
>Body Double
>Confusion
You know, I'm surprised that the Threesome anons haven't spoken up.
>>
>>6102442
Maybe it's too early to say, but aside from not trusting her, I just don't feel that strongly about Fet for the moment? We've only seen her for one update. Sawyer was a lot more...crucial to the story, and Weaver's relationship was a way bigger focus too. So a threesome with sawyer felt like it could add something? Beyond just a meaningless "more girls good"?

I just don't feel that strongly about Fet right now, and I'm not even sure we're supposed to.
>>
>>6102446
That's fair, I guess Table just makes every other girl look lame compared to her.
>>
>>6102442
I'm the original guy from back then. I agree with >>6102439, this bird girl is suspicious. I also agree with >>6102448 on staying the Table-only route.

>>6102438
Body Double
Confusion
>>
>>6102448
I wouldn't go so far as saying that, though i certainly think Table is the best, I just don't think we know her anywhere near enough to consider something like that.

I'm of the opinion that a threesome route has to mean something, not just be a meanignless waifu collection.
>>
>>6102473
>a threesome route has to mean something
That's exactly what I said about the Sawyer thing in CC
>>
>>6102474
I'm of the opinion that it could have meant something if we hadn't gone so hard on an Etsy purism route. By the time we basically gave up on everything just to marry her and fuck off to Russia with our kid, it was a bit too late.
>>
>>6102475
We were afraid for the family and future due to Sawyer's own unstable power and drug addiction. Leaving that nameless city was the best option with how shitty everything continued to devolve around us. Hunkering down and waiting the contract out to defy all bait was the smart play for survival. I don't regret how we played the quest out
>>
>>6102478
I don't either, but it's not like it was impossible to save Sawyer as we proved like...thirty years later. If we had done *that* more early when we were still new to our relationship with Etsy, I could have seen it happen.

But like i said, it's a different situation, Sawyer adn Etsy were both the 'first girls' so to say, they were the main original options. There were other girls, but they were either evil (Mona) or a hidden path (Leah). That's different from this situation, we just met this Fet like one update ago, but we've been with Table since the start.
>>
>>6102439
I'm in the Extra + Reinforced Belief camp myself, but Confusion could have more interesting mix applications elsewhere

>>6102480
Or the coworker comrade girl
Anyway the biggest suspicious thing about Fet is her knowing about Up Mana Number and her being TOO happy about the Jack book. Is she an anti-human enemy agent or am I paranoid? I think making a private copy of the Jack book should be a wise next step to take for Atlas so he doesn't need to hold onto the library copy forever
>>
>>6102483
>I'm in the Extra + Reinforced Belief camp myself
Anon, read the whole thing. It explicitly has no noticeable effects on spells that affect the mind directly.
>>
>>6102483
>Anyway the biggest suspicious thing about Fet is her knowing about Up Mana Number and her being TOO happy about the Jack book
Also, I wouldn't say that's what's suspicious about her. Jack's up mana method was seemingly distributed far and wide, though most people only used it a little increase their mana. According to the teacher who introduced him to us first, his teaching methods were rather well received even if he wasn't that 'epic' of a mage. And obviously, someone dealing with low magic is going to be happy they found a book that deals with their troubles specifically. We were, too.

No, what makes me suspicious about her is just...a feeling. I just feel like something's missing. It doesn't necessarily have to be malicious.
>>
>>6102438
>Body Double: Create an illusion of yourself or someone you know to do something simple. The double is hard to differentiate from you without the use of magic, but a keen observer may be able to notice inconsistencies even without it.
seems reliable in most cases
>>
>>6102438
It says learn a spell, not two.
So...
>Body Double: Create an illusion of yourself or someone you know to do something simple. The double is hard to differentiate from you without the use of magic, but a keen observer may be able to notice inconsistencies even without it.
Infinite Clone Works in combat sounds viable.
>>
>>6102705
I just assumed it meant 'one spell from each class' since curseqm didn't say anything despite all the votes.
>>
>>6102712
Yeah sorry, it's one, I should've specified. Basically you're already using one 'slot' to finish learning spirit link, and the other to learn a new spell. Right now body double's in the lead, will lock votes in uh, I don't know, one hour.
>>
you, as she was introduces, for a second i was sure it would be Atlas's used-to-be human friend

>>6102480
>>6102478
>>6102474
for everyday im wasting not reading up on OPs previous thread, i suffer one more spoiler

>>6102438
>A moment in time

you know, with spells like this, i wonder if Doom could run on magic
>>
>>6102716
No, it's fine, i'll just change >>6102439 to Double Body.
>>
>>6102719
*you know,
>>
>>6102439
>>6102442
>>6102457
>>6102484
>>6102691
>>6102705

You'll learn body double, even though it's not a perfect illusion spell, you've seen how useful it is to confuse your opponent with Ivy. It does make you wonder, though, how did she use it while you were looking at her? Body double doesn't make you disappear, and you're pretty sure she doesn't know invisibility, if she did, she would've used it right away, and it would've lasted more or less the entire fight. There had to be something else. You skim through the book, and you find a spell that should do it, 'Blink'. Unlike what the name implies, it doesn't teleport you, but it makes you very briefly very invisible. It even bypasses some checks like dispel illusion and bright sight. That means she talked to you, then used body double and blink at the same time to trick you into hitting her fake self.

There is, as far as you know, no obvious way to tell when someone starts to blink. There is however ways to tell when someone is a body double, and if you can find that out, then you'll be able to tell when she blinks, and after that you just need to look around until she reveals herself! Sounds like a plan! Then again, when you fight her again, she might learn a few new tricks, so maybe it won't be so easy. Ugh, you just need to win ONCE and that's it, that's all you need.

Table pokes your cheek. "What are you grumbling about, magic boy? Better not be thinking about another girl."

Well, you were technically thinking about another girl, but not in the way she thinks. "I'm just trying to figure out how to cast Body Double. There's a lot of weird parts to that spell, don't you know how to cast that, actually? I think you used it before."

"Yeah, although I don't use it that often. You have to use it when your opponent's distracted, or blinded, or whatever. Then you make a double and hide somewhere. I thought invisibility would be great, but if someone uses bright sight it'll be very obvious what I'm doing. I dunno, it sounds cool but it's hard to put into practice."

"But you can help me with it, right? I need it to beat up Ivy."

"That does sound like a good use for it, but are you sure it'd work? Pretty sure she'd be able to tell when you're making a fake."

"Is there a way to like, counter bright sight? Or illusion dispels?"

"Not sure about the latter, but you can screw over bright sight pretty easily with flashing lights, basically blinds them."
>>
>>6102809

Now that you think about it, she was very startled by the spark flare you threw at her. Maybe the explosion didn't hurt her, but with it being so close to her eyes, you're sure it at the very least messed with her vision. You remember her life magic being pretty low, so it's likely that bright sight would be the only life spell she knows. That means that if you blinded her, she'd have no real way of fixing it.

Class is over so fast, you wish you had more time to practice it. You have to learn from Fet too, and- and-

"Jogging," Table says, pulling your sleeve. "Gotta get yourself in shape, come on."

"But I want to learn more spells, it can wait, right?"

"You've skipped on your jogging for 3 days now, it's supposed to be a daily thing."

You remember hearing that jogging weekly is just as helpful for your cardio, but you suppose that as long as you don't overexert yourself, it can't hurt. That's what you tell yourself, but you know it DOES hurt, and it DOES suck, and you DON'T want to do it. However, you have no choice, and Table grabs you outside and forces you to run with her. Sure, it became easier, you can run further now, but it hardly got more enjoyable. When does it start to 'click', you wonder. There must be a reason why people take up jogging other than for the health benefit, right?

After your third lap, you notice Fet looking up from her book to watch you run. Every time you look at her, she looks back down though. You feel kind of bad for her, no one's talking to her or anything. You're tempted to ask her to run with you, but with what Table said, is it giving her the wrong idea? Is it being too friendly? You wish Table didn't say anything, you're overthinking it now, so you're just going to stop thinking altogether.

You run headfirst into a signpost.

Maybe you should've thought a tiny little bit. Your nose is bleeding, and since you're not using remove hurt, it's actually pretty painful. You're not going to cry or anything, but it's hard to focus on anything but the pain. Fet runs up to you, and fixes you right up. You didn't really need her help, you know the skin heal spell yourself, but it's still nice of her. She quickly goes back to her spot with her book without a word, she doesn't even let you thank her.
>>
>>6102811

"Weird," Table says. "Did you really not see that signpost? You just kind of... swerved out of your path here."

"I wasn't really paying attention, I guess? It happens."

"Yeah, it happens, but... whatever, it's nothing."

"Table, we're not going to start hiding stuff from each other NOW, are we?"

"Okay, fine! I just think it's a little weird that you just so happened to run headfirst into a signpost and she just so happen to have a spell at the ready to fix you up."

"I didn't feel confused or anything though, I don't think I was under a spell."

"If you say so, but maybe... I don't know, maybe we could ask around about her? She speaks so little, it's hard to get anything out of her, maybe others know more."

It sounds a little paranoid to you, but you'll decide to trust Table as you've always done. You just hope Fet doesn't take it the wrong way.

>Ask the teachers.
>Ask the other students.
>Stalk her in secrets to find out anything weird.
>Just leave her alone. table is just being paranoid.
>>
>>6102813
>Ask the teachers
The teachers won't spread rumors, if we ask under the guise that we're curious about her (we are), they'll probably say some stuff.

Actually, is there anything stopping Table from following her around a little? Being a forgotten, this shouldn't be hard. As long as she doesn't use the bracelet. If she notices it, then that's noteworthy too.

Maybe Table could do that? I feel like that wouldn't be bad.
>>
>>6102815
I like the "send table to snoop around" idea, but we should probably ask the teachers first to make sure we don't misunderstand anything
>>
>>6102719
You have only yourself to blame
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Curse%20Carrier
Here you go anon

>>6102813
Backing >>6102815 and what >>6102818 said
>capcha D00RKG
They sure are dorks, G
>>
>>6102442
I don't get that vibe from our boy Atlas, and Table transparently isn't into that.

>>6102813
>Suggest Table follow her and see what's going on if she's worried, or ask around, since folks won't remember or hold it against her and you don't want to make Fet feel bad if it's nothing
It's cool if she doesn't want to, but that's sort of an implicit admission that's he's being paranoid.
>>
>>6102813
Fuck it changing vote from >>6102825 to backing >>6102841
>>
>>6102813
>Ask the teachers.
>>
>>6103048
>>6102843
>>6102841
>>6102815

"You could always stalk her if it bothers you this much, it's not like she'll be able to tell you're here since you're a forgotten," you reply.

"Stalking is a bit much, but it wouldn't be the first time... I guess as long as she doesn't know, it's okay?"

"We should inform the teachers first, though, shouldn't we?"

"I'm not sure how you're planning to justify that to them," Table disagrees. "I'll just tail her a little bit, no need to tell the teachers."

"Table, we could get in trouble for stuff like this, come on." You pull her closer before she protests. "We'll just tell a teacher we're curious about her, alright?"

"Fiiine, if you say so, but only if you make it up for me tonight, alright? Video games, I mean video games this time, not sex. Maybe sex after video games, or during video games, but not before video games," she somehow says the words 'video games' slightly wrong each time.

You'll absolutely tease her during your gaming session like before, but that's for later. Right now you'll have to inform the teachers of what you're trying to do. You think Kit, the summoning teacher, is the least likely to mind, and since he's the one who put you in charge of Fet, you think it's only appropriate to ask him too.

Thankfully, he doesn't mind, but he does say that he won't allow you or Table to tail her in her dorm, or in any private spaces, for obvious reasons. He'll also step in if you share any sensitive info about her that could make her life worse, but otherwise you're free to follow her around if you feel like it.

You won't be following her around, Table will be, but it's nice that you got the approval of a teacher first. Actually, it's even a little irresponsible of him to allow this, but it's working in your favor this time so you don't mind.
>>
>>6103340

And so, Table starts stalking...

---

Table carefully stepped around any spots that could make her visible. She might be a forgotten, but that doesn't mean she can't get caught, if someone like Dill sees her sneaking around she might start asking questions, and that's just asking for trouble.

Fet's routine wasn't really interesting, she'd read her book, practice spells, and most notably, follow her boyfriend. She wasn't jealous, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel a little threatened by her presence. A non forgotten has an inherent edge when it comes to love, and she shared a lot in common with Atlas. As a matter of fact, if Fet was here at the start of the year and got paired up with Atlas then...

She doesn't want to think about it. Atlas is hers, and hers alone. She has no reason to believe he'd betray her now out of nowhere. All she needs to do is see if her suspicion of this girl is warranted. She talks to Atlas sometimes, but only in brief bursts, unless he actively seeks her out, usually to learn spells together, she almost never keeps the conversation going. It drives Table a little insane to see the two of them together with her being so far away, but she has to control herself for now. Atlas is allowed to have friends, that are also girls, that may or may not be interested in him, that's fine! That's fine.

The night comes, and Atlas comes back to his dorm. Fet however, does not, she instead sits on a bench, and looks around as if waiting for something. Soon enough, a presence reveals itself, the only other person that'd be up this late would be... Rin? No, not Rin, it's that parasite. Rin's eyes are too closed for her to be awake.

The parasite sits down next to her with Rin's body. Fet doesn't flinch like she usually does from being close to someone she doesn't know, which means it's not the first time they talked.

Fet speaks first, "I think- I think I messed up."

"It can't have been that bad, surely. It would be pretty hard to get Atlas of all people mad," the parasite answers in a monotone voice.

"I made him run headfirst into a signpost- I just wanted him to stumble over or something, I- I didn't think he'd get seriously hurt!"

The parasite slowly turns to look at her. "Did you get him during his jogging session? He might have been following a rhythm. Did he know it was you?"

"I don't know, I cast it from pretty far away, but the way he looked at me, I'm not sure..." She answers guiltily.

Table's secretly a little happy to hear this. She knew it, she was right! Is it bad to hope for someone to be bad?
>>
>>6103345

The parasite leans back against the bench, thoughtful. "You managed to cast that spell on a moving target from afar? That's strangely impressive from someone who allegedly has very little mana to practice with."

Fet looks away, and remains silent.

"No matter," the parasite continues. "I did say I would help you make him like you more, but unfortunately, I cannot give advice beyond friendship. If you wish to take things further, I have nothing to say."

"I'm- I'm fine being friends with him! I just don't want to be a burden..."

"I said you should try to help him when he is in trouble, not for you to cause the trouble yourself. You make yourself more of a burden using these backhanded tactics. No matter, you have to uphold your end of the bargain, do you not?"

"B-But it still doesn't feel like he likes me that much."

"You said he appreciated the help you gave him with your spells, as far as I know, he'll like anyone that helps him with his magic, platonically at least. You did say you wanted to be friends with him, right? You are friends enough, as such, I have done my job. Do yours. The graveyard is far, so let's get going already."

Fet still doesn't look satisfied, but she still begrudgingly follow the parasite outside school grounds. Table now knows for a fact that Fet was behind Atlas's tumble, but she did say she only wanted him as a friend. Her methods to make friends may be a little extreme, but it's hardly damning evidence.

What to do...

>Table will keep following them, the graveyard is not that close to the town, and anything could happen during the night...
>Table will keep following them, but bring Atlas. The two of you won't be as stealthy, but she might need him.
>Table has seen enough, it's time to report back to Atlas, besides, he promised a gaming session.
>>
>>6103347
>Table will keep following them, the graveyard is not that close to the town, and anything could happen during the night...
Let's keep seeing this.
>>
>>6103347
>Table will keep following them, the graveyard is not that close to the town, and anything could happen during the night...
I think I know what's happening, the Parasite wants a body of their own. And it might not necessarily be a corpse...
>>
>>6103347
>Table will keep following them, the graveyard is not that close to the town, and anything could happen during the night...
The plot thickens! Oo, this plot thicc.
>>
>>6103347
>Table will keep following them, the graveyard is not that close to the town, and anything could happen during the night...
>>
It sucks to miss out on more videogame teasing between the two, but this parasite is obviously up to no good. Table might end up having to save Fet herself...
>>
>>6103427
Table's time to be the hero just like playing Dark Souls on Atlas' laptop
>>
>>6103459
I wouldn't mind if Table and Fet became friends, assuming she's innocent. I like Table and Atlas, but she doesn't need spend *all* her time with her boyfriend. They're already effectively all but married, they've got their whole lives to be together and they still spend most of their time doing stuff.
>>
>>6103467
I agree. Atlas has Aroth but Table has nobody else right now. I'd say Charlotte (Char+Lotte) counts as being both their friend but by association to Aroth instead.
>>
>>6103467
>>6103470
To be fair, even this would be Fet being friends with Table by way of heing friends with Atlas. That's sort of the problem with being a Forgotten: nobody can focus on you or remember that you're friends. Though Fet like swirting stuff down and saving her life would be a big deal, so maybe that would be enough.
>>
>>6103479
Well, I guess it'd probably hard for her to do it...but it's better than nothing. I don't think that people other than Atlas could get used to her curse like he did, since he's basically spent half the year spending every day with her, but I don't think it'd be impossible for Table to hang out with someone else if they tried.
>>
>>6103479
*Fet likes writing stuff down

>>6103481
True. One can hope... poor Table.
>>
>>6103347
>Table will keep following them, the graveyard is not that close to the town, and anything could happen during the night...
>>
>>6103347
>Table will keep following them, but bring Atlas. The two of you won't be as stealthy, but she might need him.
>>
>>6103646
>>6103507
>>6103384
>>6103365
>>6103359
>>6103349

It's better to follow them alone, Table thinks. Atlas isn't as good when it comes to stealth, and worst case scenario, she gets caught and takes the blame. She doesn't need to involve him in all this.

Fet and the parasite leave the school, not talking much on the way to the graveyard. It's pretty far from the town, at least ten miles away, which doesn't sound like much until you realize you also have to walk those ten miles back to the school before the sun sets. Table already regrets this, she wanted to play video games, snuggle in bed with Atlas, or read a book, anything but this long walk following someone in secret.

They're not the only one travelling this late into the night, but most people seem busy with their own troubles. It's not that surprising, there are plenty of things that cannot be done during the day, some plants required for alchemy only reveal themselves in the dark, some spells won't work if not cast under the glowing moon, it goes on and on. It doesn't make any stranger you pass by any less scary, especially now that Table is out of the school away from the teacher's protection.

Despite her worries, everyone makes it to the graveyard, and that's when the parasite reveals her plan. "The gravekeeper is on a break for about an hour, so we'll need to be fast. Find the grave of someone that died in their twenties, if you can't find that, go for someone younger. Anyone that died older than this will be harder to deal with."

"Sorry but... isn't that a little bit immoral? To dig up a grave like this? A-And illegal, if someone finds out we did this then-"

"That's really all you care about Fet, how people perceive you. I wish I had your problems, I really do. I wish I could care if the boy I liked didn't like me back, or about my grades, or about not having friends. No, what I have to worry about is making a wrong step and being ripped out and discarded like trash, everyone looks at me like I'm some kind of monster for being born the way I am."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, you're not really sorry, are you? You're using me, just like the rest. You apologize because it makes you look better, but your actions are just selfish. You know what I think? If you could get away with it, you'd be the type of person to just use a mind spell to make everyone like you. That's the type of person I think you are."
>>
>>6103759

Ouch, even though Table isn't too fond of Fet, it still seems a little harsh, doesn't it? Fet is unsuccessfully holding back tears, a result even Table could've predicted.

"I'm- I'm sorry, I just- I don't want to hurt anyone, I- I-" Her cries resonate through the empty graveyard, and the parasite is forced to calm her down.

"Okay. Sorry, I didn't mean it, I'm just on edge, and frustrated by a lot of things. I didn't want to take it out on you, it's not your fault, let's just get going, alright?" She says that, but with the parasite's emotionless tone, it doesn't do much to appease Fet. Out of options, she hugs Fet in an awkward hug, wrapping her arms around her body, but not quite holding her tight enough to be considered a full hug. "Fet. I need you, you're the only one I can trust, favor or not. Please."

Fet wipes away her tears. She's still distraught, but she's at the very least helping the parasite doing...whatever she's doing. They find a suitable grave from a young woman, and start digging. Table is a little disgusted by this, but she's not sure if she should stop them or not. She might not need to, as this whole crying fiasco has wasted enough of their time that the gravekeeper is already back from their break. It's a towering, hooded figure, holding a lantern that emits an eerie green glow. If these two get found out, they'll be in big trouble, but maybe they deserve what's coming to them? Do they, though? It's not the parasite's fault it was born that way, but does that make it right for them to desecrate a random woman's grave?

What to do...

>Distract the gravekeeper until these two are done, but how? (Write in)
>Just let them get caught, it's their problem now.
>>
>>6103761
Hm...I guess the Parasite isn't going to try to hijack Fet's body after all. Well, we already did all this stuff, might as well help them.
>Distract the gravekeeper until these two are done, but how?
Use Gravity to make something fall over so that it takes up the Gravekeeper's attention. Like tipping over a tree or whatever else.
>>
>>6103766
Oh yes, obviously we skedaddle outta there once it happens. Can't get caught ourselves.
>>
>>6103766
+1
>>
>>6103766
Missed the update, supportin' this.
>>
>>6103766
>>6103768
+1

>>6103761
I'm >>6102841
>>
>>6103798
>>6103768
>>6103766

Table has an idea, not a great one, but an idea nonetheless. She can use a gravity spell to tip a tree over. It will take an absurd amount of mana to power up the rune enough for it to move a tree, but if there's anything Table has plenty of, it's mana.

She sets up a gravity rune near a tree she knows will be in the gravekeeper's path. She's not trying to kill him or anything, it should fall on the side and hopefully make him investigate. She activates the rune, it slowly and not so subtly titls the tree down until it collapses under its own weight. The gravekeeper was already looking at the tree before it went down, and he takes notice of the rune that somehow went unharmed by the falling tree.

"Peculiar. A student from that school, no doubt, practicing all the way out here," he says, looking around him. "No respect for life, no respect for the dead, would they like it if I bent their back for practice? Shameful." The Gravekeeper modifies the rune, and the tree is lifted back up...only to fall on the other side into the road. The gravekeeper is not pleased. "That is a lot more mana than I expected, just a safety hazard waiting to happen."

The gravekeeper keeps complaining as he tries to set the tree back to its original state. Table goes back to the graveyard, and it looks like they're both already gone, and they even covered their tracks by filling the grave they dug up back with dirt. Table is pretty sure the gravekeeper has other way of knowing who messed with his place, but maybe these two can get away with it if they feign ignorance.

---

You're woken up by the sound of water running. Table is back, and she looks very, very tired. "How did your stalking session go?" You ask her.

"Fet might have done something pretty illegal and arguably immoral."

"That bad?"

"I'm only mildly exaggerating, technically it's not as bad as what we're doing in the vault." She frowns. "Sorry, didn't mean to bring that up again. To make a long story short, she's the one that caused you do get hurt back then, but it's just because she wanted to be helpful to you or something, also she's helping Rin's parasite dig up corpses in the graveyard away from town."

You blink twice, trying to process that last bit of information. "That went from a zero to a hundred real quick, what was that last part?"
>>
>>6103838

She shakes her head. "I know as much as I told you. I don't want to be involved in whatever they're doing, that's their problem." She falls headfirst into the bed, the upper half of her body colliding with your head. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she's pretty flat today, you assume that it's easier to walk long distance with a smaller chest.

"You smell like dirt," you blurt out. "I didn't even know dirt had a smell."

"Yeah I had to dig around to make a rune in the ground, took more elbow grease than I thought. Anyway, what do you think we should do about Fet?"

"What do you mean?" You push her away from your head so you can breathe.

"Like, we know she's doing something illegal, we know she's the one who made you stumble. Even if she allegedly didn't have any ill intention, shouldn't we confront her about it?"

You should, but should you? You'll have to explain to her why you were so suspicious of her that you stalked her in the middle of the night... then again, you could just say that Table just so happened to listen in on her, you don't have to tell the whole truth. You could also just let it slide, you're sure Fet feels bad enough as is.

>Bring up the accident that Fet caused, but not the graveyard stuff.
>Bring up the accident and the graveyard stuff with Fet, even if that might make her uncomfortable.
>Just let it slide for now, everyone makes mistakes.
>Talk to Rin's parasite first to learn more, you might get involved in something dangerous if you're not careful, though.
>>
>>6103840
>Bring up the accident that Fet caused, but not the graveyard stuff.
There's no point in hiding it. Just be sure to tell her we're not going to tell on her or that we hate her or anything, and specifically mention that Table saved her ass.
>>
>>6103840
>Talk to Rin's parasite first to learn more, you might get involved in something dangerous if you're not careful, though.
Seems pretty clear to me what's happening. I imagine if anyone would be sympathetic to a persecuted parasite, it's our beloved colonial worm-monster GF.
>>
>>6103845
I feel like it might be better if we talk to Fet first, we don't exactly know much about how Rin's parasite works, and we could accidentally screw up the situation and get them killed.
>>
>>6103843
+1
>>
>>6103840
>Bring up the accident that Fet caused, but not the graveyard stuff.
>>
>>6103843
Wait. I'm retarded. I was trying to vote for
>Bring up the accident and the graveyard stuff with Fet, even if that might make her uncomfortable.
There's no point in mentioning Table saved her while also not talking aobut the graveyard.

>>6103851
Sorry.
>>
>>6103896
Don't you think that'll just scare her off? She seems a bit...fragile.
>>
>>6103906
Better telling her now than hiding it from her and having her feel worse later.
>>
>>6103907
Yeah, but that also means we'd have to admit Table was specifically stalking her, as opposed to just overhearing her by accident.
>>
>>6103909
Not necessarily.
>Hey Fet, so, while Table was outside, she overheard you and Dill talking about how you made me hit my head on the thing. Then you went to a graveyard and were almost caught until Table distracted the gravekeeper because she was worried and followed you.
>>
>>6103911
Alright, you've convinced me. I'll change >>6103893 to supporting >>6103896
>>
>>6103840
Changing vote from >>6103851 to backing >>6103911
It's not Dill (the mermaid), it's Rin (the catgirl)'s parasite
>>
>>6103911
>+1
>>
>>6103923
>>6103914
>>6103911
>>6103896
>>6103851
>>6103893
>>6103845
>>6103843

"Fine, we'll confront her about everything," you drag the blanket over her. "The graveyard, and the accident. It's better to just let her know early instead of keeping secrets later."

"Don't you think she might take it the wrong way? I'm the one being thrown under the bus, here."

"It's fine, we'll just say you overheard them talk about the accident she caused, and then when you heard that they were going to the graveyard, you followed them because you didn't want them to get into trouble, trouble that you helped avoid, right? It's not stalking if we phrase it that way, kind of."

"Fine, I guess. Speaking of how I just saved them, where's my reward? Do I get another favor? Pretty please?"

"You get a free gaming session at a time of your choice, how does that sound?"

You wait for an answer, but she's already asleep, somehow. You wonder if tiredness hits her all at once like a bag of bricks if she stays awake for too long, or if it works the same as you where you get progressively more tired. Her biology is too strange for you to know for sure. You give her a goodnight kiss, and follow her into the realm of dreams.
>>
>>6104032

You wake up before Table, and prepare the usual for her. Breakfast, brush, the works. She's still not waking up though, you underestimated how tired yesterday's ordeal made her. You leave her with a note with a lot of hearts, and decide to see if you can find Fet outside. You find her in the library, and decide that even though Table's not here, it might be a good idea to break the news early anyway.

"Hey, Fet? Can I talk to you for a second? In private."

She gasps, and closes her book, her talons trembling slightly as she puts the book back into the pocket space. You feel like she might have gotten the wrong idea, so you elaborate.

"I mean, I know of some stuff that you've done, I want to talk about that," you add.

Her expression quickly becomes that of fear, and she shakes her head violently. "N-No, but I didn't- I didn't do anything, I didn't mean it! I swear!" Despite her panic, she's still so soft-spoken that you can barely hear what she's saying.

"I'm not mad, I just want to talk about it, okay? Let's just talk about it in my dorm, Table is also there."

"Table? Table is... she's- I know her, she's- she's uhm, I-"

"My girlfriend, it's normal if you don't remember her, she has a little bit of a condition, don't worry about it."

She says it's not okay at all to forget someone she's supposed to know, and you're forced to grab her hand-talon to drag her back to your dorm. She freezes up when you do, and you realize you are once again giving the wrong idea, and grab her feathery arm instead. You tell her to stay outside as you make sure Table is in fact awake and knows you're letting her in, before the meeting finally begins.

You let her know about everything Table learned and what she did, although you omit the stalking and suspicion part. This unfortunately does not help calm Fet down at all. She apologizes a lot, she cries, and curls up in a ball as she says very bad things about herself. It's becoming really hard to calm her down, and you're not sure Table would like it if you gave her a hug, you've worked so hard to set those boundaries, you'd like to keep them where they are if possible.

"Hey, listen, I get it," Table says. "You messed up, and you feel bad about it, and you feel like you're never going to get over it, that people will hate you forever, but if you want to know the truth, we really don't care about those things you did."
>>
>>6104035

"Don't you? I-I hurt him! And if it wasn't for you- We- We would've been c-caught. I always mess up everything, always! I just- I just want things to go right for once, I just- I just-"

"Our problem is that you didn't tell us what was going on, and friends tell each other when they have problems, okay? That's why we're mad, because you did something dangerous, and if you just told us, we could've helped."

"B-But I promised her that I wouldn't tell anyone... please don't tell her you know! Please! She- She just want to make a wraith body, but she needs a corpse first, we made doubly sure the corpse was soulless and everything, she's not hurting anyone!"

"A wraith body?" You say, confused. "Why specifically a wraith? Why not just use the corpse as is?"

"I- I don't know? She said that making a wraith was easier than resurrecting a body as is, or something, I don't know! Please, I'm not lying this time! I- I know I did before but I usually don't, I swearIswearIswear."

It is getting a little irritating how she just doesn't believe either of you when you're telling her she's forgiven, but maybe it's to be expected when two of her secrets were revealed at once. There has to be a way to calm her down.

>Tell Table to give her a hug, you certainly can't.
>Tell Fet she can make it up to you by teaching you more spells she knows. It's a way of making her feel useful.
>Say you won't let Rin's parasite know and you won't say anything to anyone, her secret is safe with you.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6104036
Well, a hug certainly helped last time...how about
>Table hugs her first
>Tell Fet she can make it up to you by teaching you more spells she knows. It's a way of making her feel useful.
>>
>>6104039
I can support this. I guess I'd prefer if table hugged her of her own volition but she's probably still a bit jealous.

Man, this situation ain't easy. The more we help her the more she's going to have a crush on us.
>>
>>6104050
Oops, ID changed. I'm >>6103914
>>
>>6104039
+1

>>6104050
But what if we help her get a boyfriend...?
>>
>>6104057
Yeaaaah...no. Even if we know someone to set her up with like with Charlotte and Aroth, she's way too agreeable and soft. We don't wanna just push her into a relationship with a rando just because we don't want to make our girlfriend jealous.
>>
>>6104050
>>6104057
I have to admit i feel bad for Fet, she certainly has a lot in common with Atlas. Of course, the only reason he is like this right now is because of Table...she's certainly done a lot of work on her side of the relationship. They both have.


>>6104059
>Even if we know
I don't think we do.
>>
>>6104072
Oh yeah, I meant knew. If we knew. We don't. But that's not the point.
>>
>>6104036
>Tell Table to give her a hug, you certainly can't.
>>
>>6104036
>Kiss her, that will shut her up for sure
But seriously
>Tell Table to give her a hug, you certainly can't.
>>
>>6104036
changing my vote from >>6104057 to
>Tell Table to give her a hug, you certainly can't.
>>
File: 1720711600293403.png (187 KB, 389x391)
187 KB
187 KB PNG
>>6104471
>Changed my vote from "Tell table to give her a hug"
to
>"Tell table to give her a hug"
>>
>>6104474
That vote I backed has ">Table hugs her first" in it bro
>>
>>6104476
That's literally the same thing, anon.
>>
File: cryfet.png (77 KB, 431x533)
77 KB
77 KB PNG
>>6104404
>>6104099
>>6104039
>>6104057

Fet isn't even looking at you anymore, curled up into a feather ball as she is, which is perfect to make some silent communication with Table. You open your arms wide, and point to Fet. She makes an annoyed face, and you make a pleading one. She raises a finger, then another. Honestly, you've lost track of the amount of favor she owes you, so what's two more.

She begrudgingly mimics you and opens her arms, and wraps them around her. She gently tightens her embrace, as to make sure to not startle her. She doesn't resist, but it takes a few minutes for her crying to slow down. At first Table looks bothered, but she eventually settles for a fuller, more earnest hug.

Once the crying has fully stopped, you speak again. "Fet, listen, you can always make it up to me in other ways if you feel that guilty about it."

Table turns her head around, narrowing her eyes at you.

"I mean spells! You can make it up to me by teaching me more spells, is what I meant," you correct yourself. You don't think Fet's mind is dirty enough to misinterpret what you said, but it can't hurt to make sure. After all, just because someone's shy doesn't mean they don't have dirty thoughts, although you doubt someone in the middle of a mental breakdown would be thinking about that.

"O-Okay, I-I can do that. I'm sorry for being so annoying, I just-"

"Yes, it's fine, forgiven! Don't worry about it!" Table asserts. "Just don't do that stuff again, and we'll be fine, okay?"

"You..you promise not to tell her? If she finds out that I said everything, she- she might get mad. I don't want to lose another friend, please."

"Yes, promise. We promise, right Atlas?"

You feel like it's a little too late to argue now, so you promise to not tell her either. You'd still like it if Fet managed to convince Rin's parasite to tell you directly, but it might be hard for someone as shy as her.

"Atlas, that's cool and all, but we have our Intangible class soon, so we're going to need to go."

Fet gets up and wipes away the last of her tears. "I'll- I'll be fine, sorry for the trouble, I swear I won't-"

"Yes you won't do it again, we know. Let's go."
>>
>>6104499

You escort Fet back to her dorm, and get prepared for your next class. Table says she already knows how she's going to use her favor, but she's not telling what it will involve, so you have that to look forward to.

You sit down for the Intangible class, and Suuri starts with the usual speech that most teachers like having when a class begins. "As you all know, Intangible magic is dangerous and at times, unpredictable, however there is a branch of Intangible magic that is safer albeit more time-consuming and costly to practice: Alchemy. Do note that alchemy benefits from all kinds of magic type. Life magic for living ingredients, material for solid ones, but Intangible is necessary to make the final product a potion that you can drink. While it is possible to make food with similar results, potions can also be used offensively, so potions are more reliable and versatile."
>>
>>6104502

You flip to the alchemy page, and unlike before, these aren't spells as much as they are recipes. This is where the 'you can only bring into dungeon things you've made in the school' becomes relevant, you suppose. What if you export the ingredients from outside, though? What if you buy all the components for a gun, and assemble it in school, would that count? You'll have to ask the teachers for clarifications later.

As for what you can learn today...

Pick one spell from the previous class:

>Fire Spread: A pre-existing fire will now spread much faster than normal. However it will also do everything else faster, including using fuel and consuming oxygen. It can also cause a fire to go out faster if it was already dying. The spell's cost depends on how long you try to speed up the fire.
>Mana Rip: Can cause an enchantment or a spell to stop working by disturbing the mana that they use. This spell is incredibly hard to use at a distance even with Spell Displacement, and often requires a good understanding of the enchantment or spell used to make the most of it.
>Fog: Create a strong thick fog from pre-existing water. While the fog itself is nothing special, the caster has more or less full control of it as long as they can see the fog, making it a rather versatile spell. The fog can also be turned back into its liquid form, making it pretty efficient at transporting large bodies of water.
>(Cannot be used safely unless you also learn Yellow Gloves) Thunder Beast: Causes your entire body to be insulated while emitting bursts of electricity to anyone and anything that touches you. However, the insulation and the electricity are technically separate spells, which makes it possible for someone to disrupt the insulation and make you electrocute yourself. Dangerous and powerful, often learned by the slightly unhinged.

Additionally, pick one new spell/recipe:
>Fire in a Bottle: The equivalent of a magic molotov cocktail. You can however infuse the potion with your own mana to make the fire controllable by you and you alone.
>Stone Eater: An acid like liquid that chews through stone pretty efficiently, but nothing else. Works on most types of rocks and stone, unless they are magically protected.
>Liquid Battery: A liquid that can store electricity for about 5 hours. If splashed on something, it will redirect any electricity flowing through it back to the liquid, making it useful to disrupt electric machinery and spells. More advanced version of the potion can distribute the stored electricity at the caster's command.
>>
(also I haven't drawn in a while, so I'll probably draw more lower effort colorless stuff until I find back my groove, even if it might look a little weird.)
>>
>>6104499
>when the bird girl is sad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXltSks6UjU
>you doubt someone in the middle of a mental breakdown would be thinking about that
I have, at least once in my past breakdowns over the many years I've lived. Don't underestimate me

>>6104503
Do we not already have Mana Rip?
>Fog
>Fire in a Bottle
>>
>>6104508
(You're right, I'm stupid and you already know mana rip, I usually take spells you already know out but I forgot this time and just copy pasted the whole thing)
>>
>>6104510
That's OK OP
>>
>>6104503
>Fire Spread
>Fire in a Bottle
Imagine if we mix Fire Spread with Fire Flare. That'll let us do a gigantic explosion.
>>
>>6104499
Man, Fet really makes you want to protect her and make her stop crying. I still believe we can make her and Table become friends.

>>6104503
>Fire Spread
I like the idea of mixing it with flare.
>Fire in a Bottle
Synergy and stuff.

I'm >>6104080
>>
>>6104503
>Fog
>Fire in a Bottle
>>
>>6104508
>>6104533
Why Fog? We specifically too Intangible so we could have more offensive options.
>>
>>6104539
Yeah but I don't think Fire Spread can work that well with Fire Flare unless we case it on the Spark or synergize it with Wind Guide/Tornado first. Do you think we could exhaust all oxygen in a room or cause severe smoke inhalation to the opponent with all this fire stuff we have at our disposal? How can Atlas prevent that for himself though while damaging the opponent?
>>
>>6104543
>Yeah but I don't think Fire Spread can work that well with Fire Flare unless we case it on the Spark or synergize it with Wind Guide/Tornado first. Do you think we could exhaust all oxygen in a room or
Why? It makes fire consume oxygen faster. Mixing it beforehand with flare, it would create a way bigger explosion.
>>
>>6104546
Ah I see. My mistake

>>6104503
Changing my vote from >>6104508 to
>Fire Spread
>Fire in a Bottle
>>
Hey, I just remembered - weren't we gonna go help the spirit fix the computers in the cave vault?

If not for the literal corpse in a jar, that place seems like it would be a comfy home.
>>
>>6104599
Weren't we waiting for Spirit Link to do that? I figured that was the plan
>spoiler
Weren't we supposed to give that corpse in a jar a proper burial? Did Table and Atlas just forget about that? And the problem with Atlas and Table living there together is that they can be easily traced and followed back to there if anybody bothered to try though they could simply have the ultra dank secret parts closed off to guests or others
>>
>>6104600
>Weren't we waiting for Spirit Link to do that? I
Yes, and now we have it.
>Weren't we supposed to give that corpse in a jar a proper burial?
We were still researching it. We were waiting for it to 'heal' after the first experiment.
>>
>>6104503
>Fire Spread
>Fire in a Bottle
I was going for fog and battery or FiaB, but anons >>6104543 >>6104546 made me see the true potential ofspread.
>>6104524
>Man, Fet really makes you want to protect her and make her stop crying. I still believe we can make her and Table become friends.
Indeed I also wanna protect her, although I gotta admit that the spoiler reminded me of 3some anon from Curse Carrier. Sorry.
>>
>>6104725
>3some anon from Curse Carrier
That's ME you nigger!
>>
>>6104503
>Fog
>Liquid Battery
C-c-c-combo.
>>
>>6104768
Would it even work? It specifically says pre-existing water, not pre-existing liquid.
>>
>>6104503
>(Cannot be used safely unless you also learn Yellow Gloves) Thunder Beast: Causes your entire body to be insulated while emitting bursts of electricity to anyone and anything that touches you. However, the insulation and the electricity are technically separate spells, which makes it possible for someone to disrupt the insulation and make you electrocute yourself. Dangerous and powerful, often learned by the slightly unhinged.
>Stone Eater: An acid like liquid that chews through stone pretty efficiently, but nothing else. Works on most types of rocks and stone, unless they are magically protected.
>>
>>6104854
>often learned by the slightly unhinged.
If Atlas was pro-humanity and had no gigastealth wormbag wife to help him, then he might have taken a darker route where this could go with his gadget inclination
>>
>>6104859
Pretty sure that's just his female friend.

I have to say though, if it wasn't for Table being basically an endless spring of mana, I imagine Atlas would have probably gotten a *lot* more pissed about his limitations as a human, and by extension, gotten a lot more envious of the other students born with a fuckton of mana.
>>
>>6104866
And from that envy can be born many things both high and low
>>
>>6104876
Yeah but i mean like, bitter envy. Obviously Atlas is already kinda 'envious', but because of Table allowing him to practice a *lot* more, he can put that to good use.

If he was alone, he'd have no choice but to sit on his ass time and time again, *waiting* for his mana to recharge unable to do anything while his fellows get to study all they want just because they were born under a luckier star. Atlas already gets mad when he loses even though he's put the most effort out of anyone, imagine what it would be like if he wasn't even allowed to put in effort because of his low mana.
>>
>>6104803
>Would it even work? It specifically says pre-existing water, not pre-existing liquid.
I was thinking like using the fog and then throwing the battery at it. dunno if that anon is thinking about the same.
>>
(just taking a small break, will update tomorrow, thank you for your patience.)
>>
>>6105691
Good. Soon, we'll be off to vacation time, and then we'll get to have some real fun with Table. Maybe meet our parents.
>>
>>6104803
>>6104885
There's probably a way to get them to work together with mixed magic, like how Give Life + Mana Feel can become Give Mana. Combos can be more than he sum of their parts, it seems.
>>
>>6104854
>>6104768
>>6104725
>>6104574
>>6104524
>>6104533
>>6104512
>>6104508

You'll learn fire spread with fire in a bottle. Fire isn't just good for duels, it can light up paths, or destroy flammable materials that may be in your way. From what you can read, even if the fire grows, you'll only be able to control the 'original flames' the potion created. Basically, the mana you have will attach itself to those flames, but your mana won't attach itself to 'new' flames. It can sound counterintuitive, since technically a fire continuously creates new flame as it goes through fuel, but sometimes magic is just like that. Now, while it does mean you won't be able to control a massive fire easily just because you used fire spread, it doesn't make the combo worthless, far from it; You can still make the fire last much longer than normal by using 'key flames' set at specific spot according to the book. The idea is to have those flames act as flame leaders, that will help the entire fire last longer and move to places you want it to. It requires a lot of practice, but it sounds cool.

Unlike most spells, this doesn't just demand mana, but ingredients. Ingredients like... oh, it's seeds from that one plant that Lazari made you grow, that's convenient. You hear Table curse under her breath, she forgot to water the plant since she spent so much time in your dorm, so hers withered a while ago. Yours is just fine though, so that's great. Apart from that, you'll need... crystallized fear? Condensed boredom? You knew emotions could be used for recipes, but how are you supposed to use that? You ask the teacher, and he tells you that these are feelings you're supposed to add to the potion as you feel them, and that the feelings can't be too artificial. Genuine feelings tend to create more potent results, which is what makes mass-producing quality potion nearly impossible. It's actually not uncommon for people to 'sell' their feelings to alchemists for pocket change. It doesn't actually take away your emotions either, it's more like it mold the potion itself.

Case in point, fear and boredom. Boredom's easy enough to get, but true fear could be more annoying to get, since you'd be aware that you're trying to makes yourself scared, which will make you not scared because you know it's not real. You discuss it with Table, and she says that she can't think of anything that wouldn't be a little too much, she won't say what it is, though.

Something scary but safe, what could that be...

>Explore the forest at night.
>Maybe someone knows a fear spell? It's artificial, so it'll be of lesser quality.
>It's cheap, but maybe Table could jumpscare you when you least expect it, she is pretty good at taking you by surprise, after all.
>Write in.
>>
>>6106203
I have a plan.
>Ask Table to jumpscare us when we're out in the forest at night, BUT to also wait for us to FORGET that we asked her, so our fear will be EXTRA GENUINE
>>
>>6106204
+1
>fearboner ensues after
>>
>>6106207
Fearboners don't really work on jumpscares.
>>
>>6106203
>>6106204
Is not a bad idea but forgetting we asked might take a long time
so instead do we have any horror games/movies? If so we could do another marathon with everyone after asking if they're okay with us harvesting their fear, of course share it with them if the need it as well
>>
>>6106213
> forgetting we asked might take a long time
Is it? I mean, if we don't write it down...
>>
>>6106204
Spooky Scary Girlfriend, +1
>>
>>6106207
>>6106204
>>6106214
>>6106244

"Table, I'm going to need you to scare me, and to make it extra scary, you'll need to do it in the forest, in the middle of the night. Can you do that for me?"

"I can try, but what do you want me to do? Just... jump you when you least expect it? Is that the plan?" She checks the book to make extra sure that would work, but theoretically any kind of fear would be enough, even if things like dread and terror is considered better quality than what a jumpscare would cause.

"Surprise me! By the way, do you want my seed?"

"The plant seed? Yeah thanks, I really should've looked after mine, but I forgot about it." She looks back at you, with an innocent look that you're not used to witnessing.

"I meant- I mean, yes I was talking about the plant seed, but..."

She facepalms. "Right! The innuendo, I was just so focused on the recipe, it went right over my head." She pokes your cheek to give you some extra mana. "It might be the first time I think about studying magic more than you, don't forget to write that one down!"

You grumble as you jot down another one of her small victories. The teacher points to the door, which you assume means the class is over. You continue your studies with Fet until the night comes. Fet asks if she can go with you, but you tell her it'll be less scary with someone else by your side. She takes it as a compliment that you'd feel safer with her, even though you didn't mean it exactly like that, it's less about feeling safe and more so about loneliness in a dark place being inherently more scary.

You march on to the forest, and once you're deep enough, you rip off the paper note reminding you why you're even here. Table should've followed you out of sight, so now all you have to do is wait, and see what she comes up with.

You wait, and you wait, and you wait some more. At some point, it becomes harder to remember why you came here, it was to gather ingredients, wasn't it? You don't remember what kind though. One of those was-

You hear a branch crack, and you flinch. You check your pockets for a note, and it says that Table couldn't accompany you in the forest since she was busy, so it can't be her. This note doesn't feel right, but you don't see why you'd lie to yourself with your own note, which means that anyone or anything could've cracked this branch.

From the corner of your eye, something moves, floating leaves the only trace of its passage. You use Bright Sight to get a better look, but it's already gone. You're afraid of moving, and that seals your fate. Two hands get a hold of you, one on your mouth and the other on your hand. The hands are burly and masculine, and you can't think of anyone you know it could belong to, your panic makes you fumble the spell for your pocket space, you underestimated how much focus these spells required, the difference between a 'safe' duel and a true life or death situation like this is like night and day.
>>
>>6106350

"Boo!" The hands let go of you, and wave a purple crystal in front of you. The hand quickly morph into something you recognize. "I figured making more masculine hands would work better, but I didn't expect it to make you THIS scared. Either way, high quality stuff! I think you can make more than one potion with this, too."

You're out of breath, and can't answer her. It's coming back to you now, you asked her to do this, so you can't even be mad at her. If it really was some bandit that caught you, you'd be dead. This wasn't like the turret, where you at least got to cast spells, this truly made you feel powerless.

"Atlas? I didn't overdo it, did I? I just thought saying 'boo' wouldn't be enough, but I'm sorry if I went too far."

"It's fine, don't worry about it. What matters is we got the ingredient now."

The school is a little far, and you're closer to the vault, so you'll sleep here for now. The forest might not be that dangerous, but that doesn't mean nothing roams around in the night. You look behind you at every sound on the way there, and Table laughs every time you do.

Once in the vault, you feel a little bit more safe, but you're not sure if you can sleep soundly. You're not sure why you're still scared, it's like you just unlocked a brand new fear, being killed alone in the wood. You're sure you'll get over it, but in the meantime, you might as well do something useful.

You check up on the spirit, and it's still there. It's been casting random divination and material spells on the broken computers, with no success. As a matter of fact, this might have destroyed whatever workable components were still around. You try to make a spirit link with it, but it's pretty clear that it wants to know what's inside those computers, and maybe it assumes that just because you're human you can wave your hands and fix it.

As for what you can do, well...

>Don't touch the computers for now, you'll try to buy parts when you make a trip to the human city again.
>Try to see if there are replacement parts around the vault somewhere, it's pretty unlikely though.
>You could dissassemble the one working computer to see if you can use its parts to fix the other computers. It's doubtful you'll be able to fix all of them that way, though.
>>
>>6106353
>Try to see if there are replacement parts around the vault somewhere, it's pretty unlikely though.
It's unlikely, but if there aren't, we should try to talk to the spirit so it doesn't break anything more until we bring back the parts from the city.
>>
>>6106350
I really like how Atlas has developed from feeling basically no sexual attraction to actively making innuendos to table. True Character development.

>>6106362
+1
>>
>>6106353
>You're not sure why you're still scared, it's like you just unlocked a brand new fear, being killed alone in the wood.
It's because of THIS realization
>your panic makes you fumble the spell for your pocket space, you underestimated how much focus these spells required, the difference between a 'safe' duel and a true life or death situation like this is like night and day.
Even with magic, no being is immune to being ganked and murdered
>>
>>6106362
+1

>>6106383
Way more active than Weaver ever was
>>
>>6106350
>The hands are burly and masculine, and you can't think of anyone you know it could belong to, your panic makes you fumble the spell for your pocket space, you underestimated how much focus these spells required, the difference between a 'safe' duel and a true life or death situation like this is like night and day.
What's the matter, Atlas ? Life flashing before your eyes ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVbyQkn6GWg
>>6106353
>Try to see if there are replacement parts around the vault somewhere, it's pretty unlikely though.
>>6106404
basially this
>>
>>6106353
>You could dissassemble the one working computer to see if you can use its parts to fix the other computers. It's doubtful you'll be able to fix all of them that way, though.
>>
>>6106353
>>6106362 +1
>>
>>6106362
>we should try to talk to the spirit so it doesn't break anything more until we bring back the parts from the city.
With how paranoid humans are, it wouldn't be impossible for them to make some hardware that have a virus inside that could reconnect the old computers with some database from the human city. I wouldn't risk it, like AT ALL, I would prefer it if we get that magitech book and use it to make ourselves our own PC hardware to make these machines work.

Hell, even more believable would be the possibility that one of those pieces would act like some USB Killer and fucking up the whole place electronics.

Also anons, we NEED to checkout and possibly dismantle that weird ass robot that's in the same room as the Forgotten heart. If it really is the same killer robot that is a urban legend for humans in our fucking basement, the best is if we destroy it or just dissansamble it before there's a fucking carnage. Who knows? Maybe it has some if not most of the components that the computers needs, we just purge the AI/program that kills people and were done.
>>
>>6106772
>>6106659
>>6106603
>>6106423
>>6106406
>>6106404
>>6106383

You look around for replacement parts. Surely they had a few lying around just in case things went wrong, right? And you'd be right, there were replacement parts, but turns out a lot of them either rusted away or had so much dust inside them you'd need special cleaning equipment to bring them back to their former glory, cleaning equipment you cannot find anywhere here. You thought of deconstructing the turret for parts, but it's likely the turret has electronics custom-made for it that won't be compatible with the computers in the slightest.

"What are you searching for? Can't sleep with all the sound you're making," Table asks from the one bed in the vault.

"I'm searching for computer parts, the spirit really wants to know what's in there for some reason. I want to see if I can make a spirit link with it."

"Can't you just make more?"

You throw a piece of plastic at her from the other room, bullseye. "Just because I'm human doesn't mean I know how to make every single piece of tech we've ever come up with. Even if I knew how, I'd need special equipment for it. Since you're awake, want to help me search for something useful? This place is a mess."

"I don't know what I should look for, but sure," she leaves the bed still in her underwear and helps you search. It's pretty hot outside, so you understand why she wouldn't bother dressing up just to look for a few things. "Wow, okay, hey, look what I found!" She points to an open drawer.

You come closer, and you see... two maid dresses? The colors are not the standard black and white that you'd expect, one is blue-purple while the other is red-orange. Even so, those are still unmistakably maid dresses. "Table, I know what you're thinking, but I don't think those-"

She sizes up the dress, pushing it against your body. "Ugh, you're right. It's a tiny bit too big. I suppose it doesn't matter for me, since I can shapeshift a little bit, but for you, it's an issue."

"Why do you even want me to wear this? Do you have a thing for girls? Or crossdressing guys?" You ask, not sure if you actually want the answer.

"It's not about the dress, it's about you being all embarrassed. You've become too thick-skinned, magic boy, I gotta knock you down a peg or two." She throws the clothes in her pocket space, no doubt planning on using them for her devious deeds in the near future.

"Yeah, yeah. Get back to work."
>>
>>6106835


"Yes master~" She says with a smirk as she gets back to work. Unfortunately, neither of you find anything worthwhile. As far as you know, you've discovered everything the vault has to offer, even if you don't understand all of it. Since you barely slept tonight, it became pretty hard to pay attention in class, but you still managed. You even almost fell asleep in front of Fet, which would've been a disaster and a half if it actually happened. The last thing you want is waking up on Fet's lap.

You still make it through the day, and your sleep schedule was thankfully not too altered by this. The fear of being killed in the wood isn't gone, but it's not keeping you up at night anymore, at least. You get the rest of the ingredients pretty easily, boredom just requires you to sit there alone doing nothing for a while, and then casting the appropriate spell to give the feeling a physical form. You can make a lot of potions with the amount of fear you got but... isn't this kind of high quality? Couldn't you sell some to the local alchemist? Money is always useful, and even though humans use a different local currency, you know it's very possible to convert outsider money into human money without losing too much. If you want to replace those computer parts, it might be a good idea to save up.

>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.
>Sell all your fear. Won't be able to make the potions that way, but money is pretty important too, isn't it?
>You can make money in other ways, but you'd rather stock up on potions so you don't run out of them when you need it. You can make more, but finding new ways of scaring yourself will only get harder as time goes on.
>>
>>6106836
>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.
Am i the only one who thinks it's pretty gross to wear an used maid dress from the wife of the guy who lived in the house you're in?

I mean, that seems pretty weird and gross to me. If Table wants a maid dress that much, she should buy a new one...
>>
>>6106835
There's only 2 options for the maid uniforms. Table wears the red-orange and Atlas wears the blue-purple and they put the clothes to use... or we give both to Char/Lotte and tell her to have fun with Aroth using them.
We should note all the parts for later buying when we go to the human city

>>6106836
>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.
Wait couldn't we use Reinforce Belief to get stronger emotions?
>>
>>6106838
Buying a new one sounds better yeah, but those two still need to be thrown in the washer
>>
>>6106840
It's not just about washing. The knowledge that these two dresses were already used by a man we know throw books - Jack - it just makes it weird and gross.
>>
>>6106836
>Atlas in a maid dress
No thanks, teasing is one thing, feminization and crossdressing is another.
>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.

>>6106839
Wouldn't that be artificial fear, and thus of lower quality as previously mentioned?
>>
>>6106842
Fair enough. Probably not a good idea then you're right

>>6106844
I figured Reinforce Belief is more of a spell that uses preexisting emotion or idea already there on cast. I don't know if that counts as artificial or not
>>
>>6106845
Sounds like we should experiment with that, then.
>>
>>6106835
>You come closer, and you see... two maid dresses?
the guy knew how to have fun

>"It's not about the dress, it's about you being all embarrassed. You've become too thick-skinned, magic boy, I gotta knock you down a peg or two."
while I like femboys from time to time, I don't wanna make a regular guy into one. now that last part could be arranged.
>>6106836
>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.
some money and potions, a good compromise
>>6106842
>It's not just about washing. The knowledge that these two dresses were already used by a man we know throw books - Jack - it just makes it weird and gross.
anon, I think you're forgetting his wife was an anbee like charlotte so she used both dresses. Now if you wanna go into more degen territory, it's possible that he could switch places with one of them and a random half of his wife would be the dom from time to time.
>>
>>6106884
>anon, I think you're forgetting his wife was an anbee like charlotte so she used both dresses
I'm pretty sure that's what was being implied.
>>
>>6106836
>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.

>>6106838
Just wash them. It's fine. Anytime you buy clothes from a thrift store, there's a decent chance someone wore them while they fucked.
>>
>>6106998
>Anytime you buy clothes from a thrift store, there's a decent chance someone wore them while they fucked.
I'd say it's different when you know specifically who did, read through their diary, and are basically living in their house.
>>
>>6107005
>Atlas and Table stumble upon Jack's reports regarding things he did with his wife
>all extremely degenerate of course
>Table gets the idea to tell some to Charlotte to do with Aroth
Victory?
>>
>>6107005
That's just buying celebrity memorabilia, I guess.
>>
>>6106836
>Sell half of your crystalized fear. It should give a decent amount of money, and leave you enough for about 3 fire potions.
>>
>>6106838
>>6106839
>>6106844
>>6107257
>>6106998

You'll sell half of your crystals, money is good, but so are potions. As long as you don't throw the fire in a bottle at every single thing that bothers you, 3 is plenty. Assuming you use one per duel, that would last you 3 months, maybe less if you decided to use them in a dungeon for whatever reason.

You go to the local alchemist with Table, and they gladly accept them. You get about 120 coins out of them, which may not sound like much, but considering a fire in a bottle of standard quality is worth about 20 coins, it's more than enough. The alchemist says that pure fear is a very annoying emotion to get, especially since most people don't think of crystallizing it when they're in a panic, and those that do aren't as scared as they could be, so it's generally speaking one of the most expensive emotions on the market. Generally speaking, it's not allowed to sell emotions that don't originally belong to you, the main reason for it being that there was a huge problem of emotion farms where people were forcefully put into awful situations to get as much ingredients as possible from them. These still exist in the black market, but shopping here is dangerous for obvious reasons. It reminds you of organ harvesting back in the human city. Because of healing magic, malfunctioning organs are hardly an issue, but in the human city it's a lot more important with how expensive surgery and artificial organs can be.

You wonder if some humans leave the city for medical problems that are more affordable to fix outside. You've never heard of something like this, but the city really likes hiding those things from the public.

Either way, 120 coins can buy you a lot of things, and it makes you wonder if you could use reinforce belief to create more potent emotions? Does this count as artificial if it enhances a previously existing feeling?

After a little bit of experimentation, it turns out that it does still count as artificial. As a matter of fact, it seemingly makes the result even worse than if you didn't use a spell at all. You try to find loopholes, but it really does look like that any emotion enhanced or created by mind-like magic doesn't work too well. What a shame, this could have been a real money printer.

You feel like you might be able to buy some computer parts with that money, as a matter of fact, these machines are so old that they must be dirt cheap on the human market. You hope your second class citizen status won't be too much of an issue to find what you need, but worst case scenario, you can rip off their hard drive and find a way to make it work on modern machines.
>>
>>6107413

The month's going to be over pretty soon, and since you have neither duel nor exam to worry about this time, you have all the time in the world to study what you want. You're also finally getting the hang of Fet's spells. You can cast give mana easily enough, but the store spell part is trickier. It's a rune that can store another spell, and you can trigger the spell on command. It's often used with spells that have a long cast time so you can use them in a hurry, although the rune often get damaged after the first cast, so it's hardly a perfect replacement to regular casting. Once you're done with that spell, you'll just have to mix it with give mana to finally store mana in a rune.

You feel so very close to removing mana as a barrier, but there's no need to rush or jump to conclusions. Humans in general process mana very differently from most races, so you'll keep the celebrations for when you actually learn the spell.

As for what you're going to do in the last week...

>The Forgotten tendrils in the vault have recovered, maybe you could start experimenting again?
>You might as well focus on finishing your studies with Fet, storing mana is too useful to leave for later.
>You want to learn what's up with that weird spider like machine in the vault.
>Something else (Write in)
>>
>>6107414
>You might as well focus on finishing your studies with Fet, storing mana is too useful to leave for later.
We'll have plenty of time to study the tendrils and the machine in the vault. It's not going anywhere.
>>
>>6107422
+1
Finally some good progress
Atlas should still use Overdrive to experiment with high-cost spell mixing like once a week, if he isn't going to be dueling or fighting
>>
>>6107430
I'd rather avoid overusing Overdrive, for all we know that shit is taking off our lifespan.
>>
>>6107430
Wait could we pop Overdrive and then dump excess mana into runes? And then just do that once a week to bring them into dungeons and duels?
>>
>>6107433
How's that any different from using Table to do it?
>>
>>6107438
Yeah you're right I just got excited at cool magic experimenting
>>
>>6107414
>You might as well focus on finishing your studies with Fet, storing mana is too useful to leave for later.
>>
>>6107414
>You might as well focus on finishing your studies with Fet, storing mana is too useful to leave for later.
>>
>>6107466
>>6107616
>>6107422
>>6107430

You spend more time with Fet, so you can finally figure out how to store mana in runes. You spend nearly every single bit of free time you have with Fet to make sure you can cast the spell before the summer vacation. It does make Table a little jealous, and she says she's going to hang out with Aroth in the meantime. You're not sure if she was also trying to make you jealous, but if Charlotte and Aroth really are out together, you don't think Table could make him cheat even if she tried. Not that you think she's actually going to cheat on you or anything, it's just a 'this is how it feels' situation.

Love drama aside, the week goes smoothly and you make steady progress until you can cast the store mana spell... very inefficiently. It can store about 25 mana, a somewhat pathetic amount. You'd be better off using the store spell rune in most cases. You'll get better with it in time, but for now your only way to use it is to make a lot of those runes. It's a rune that requires some depth to work too, so simply drawing it on a thin paper sheet won't work, it needs to be on something that's a little thick. There are many other restrictions, like the fact you can't let two store mana runes be too close to each other without it going wrong, among other things; what you're trying to say is you realistically can't hold more than 4 of those runes on your person without things going wrong, and not more than one in your relatively small pocket space.

Mind you, 4 store mana rune is still 100 extra mana at your disposal, which is nothing to scoff at, but it is incredibly impractical, and you hope you'll get better at it before the next exam.

You come back to your room to Table writing one of her book. "How was your day?" You ask, taking off your shoes as you step closer to the bed.

"Oh, you know, stuff, with Aroth." She underlines something on a notebook.

"And Charlotte, was it fun?"

"Very," she answers dryly.

"You're not mad I decided to spend that much time with Fet, are you?" You cut straight to the point.

"I- I'm not jealous, I think? I shouldn't be. Aren't you? Aren't you a little jealous that I'm spending time with Aroth without you?"

"No offense, but if you wanted to make me jealous, wouldn't it have made more sense to pick someone like Rath instead of someone that's already taken? Besides, I know you're not that kind of person, why would I be worried?"
>>
>>6107672

She shuffles under the blanket nervously. "You're right, I wouldn't, but what about you? I just- I feel like we're reaching that point, in that relationship, you know? When things aren't as... flowery and ecstatic as they used to be. And I still love you, of course I do! It's just, I feel like that if I don't up myself every time, if I don't keep that love train going, then I'm slowly going to fade away in the back of your mind, you know? And when you spend time with Fet, you'll be reminded every time of what it's like to be with someone that's just... not as much trouble. Is it really insecure to think that?"

You clear your throat. " 'I must sound really insecure'." You dig out the note of the relevant event. "That's what you said when I proposed learning mana portal, and you were worried that meant we'd have no reason to see each other anymore."

"...it's not the same, though."

"It is, because if I ever forget about you, I gave you explicit permission to be as annoying as you wanted to be to remind me of you. You can still do that, you know? But you stopped after a week, and why was that?"

She sighs. "Because I knew it was unnecessary, and you wouldn't forget about me. But- Forgetting and love are two different things, so-"

"As long as I remember you, I'll love you, it's that simple. Besides, you have that secret weapon of yours now, don't you? The bracelet."

"Maybe, but it feels like cheating to use it. As if you're loving me for something I'm not, I guess?"

"It's not cheating, it's your true self. The fact I love you more when you wear it just enhances what's already there."

She leans back against the backside of the bed, and sighs again. "I know I'm being stupid, but it's hard to just... control how I feel, you know? Even though I know you love me, even though I know you won't forget about me, there's just this part of me that won't listen, and it just makes me feel bad for no reason. I kind of... I guess I would have felt a little less stupid if you got jealous? Just a little bit?"

"If that makes you feel better, imagining you with another guy makes me feel very, very bad. It's not that I can't get jealous, you're just very bad at picking people to make me jealous of."
>>
>>6107673

She giggles, and puts her notebook away. "It does make me feel a little less stupid, yeah." She pulls one of the maid dress out of the pocket space. "Maybe I have to make extra sure you stay mine, know what I'm saying?"

"Table, you do realize Jack might have worn that, right? Potentially had sex in it?"

"What? No, there were two dresses, one for each of his Anbee wives, that means the girls wore it. So he fucked them in that outfit and-" She suddenly throws the dress to the other side of the room, and dumps the other dress in her pocket space on the floor. "I did not think of that. Why did you have to put that image into my mind? He probably came all over it, I know I cleaned it and everything, but now I just can't get the image out of my head. I was looking forward to it, too!"

You flick her forehead, and you sense one of her tendril lightly slap your finger. "I don't really enjoy cross-dressing much, so I wouldn't have worn it. Sorry to disappoint."

"Guess it wouldn't have been fun if you didn't enjoy it a little anyway. I'm still running out of things to embarrass you with, though. I want to see the blushing mess again! I want to see you crumble under my words! And no acting, it has to be real!"

All she has to do is put the bracelet again, but she did say she saw it as cheating, so you'll have to come up with something else yourself, as to what that is...
>>
(No choice for this update, but next one will be the trip to the human city, so you can make plans for that in advance if you want)
>>
>>6107676
Time to see our parents again, hopefully?
>>
>>6107675
>"Table, you do realize Jack might have worn that, right? Potentially had sex in it?"
>"What? No, there were two dresses, one for each of his Anbee wives, that means the girls wore it. So he fucked them in that outfit and-" She suddenly throws the dress to the other side of the room, and dumps the other dress in her pocket space on the floor. "I did not think of that. Why did you have to put that image into my mind? He probably came all over it, I know I cleaned it and everything, but now I just can't get the image out of my head. I was looking forward to it, too!"
It always makes me gigle to see you include our discussions as dialogues.

>"[...]I'm still running out of things to embarrass you with, though. I want to see the blushing mess again! I want to see you crumble under my words! And no acting, it has to be real!"
while not exactly embarassing, she can still have us blushing with some basic things
>>
>>6107685
>>6107685
>include our discussions as dialogues
A good QM always does this to an extent as appropriate
Also Table seeing the bracelet as cheating is hilarious. I want to see what she'll say about that once Atlas cures her curse.
>>6098333
>if this is how Atlas has got just from having her curse temporarily shut down, I can only imagine how he'll be once we finally cure it for real. I wouldn't be surprised if he just proposed on the spot.
My money says this WILL happen
>>
>>6107700
>A good QM always does this to an extent as appropriate
True, but you can't do it too much or else it feels cheap.
>My money says this WILL happen
Wasn't the "No makeup" Table we saw still not truly her real no illusion form? She could very well look like a meat blob. Not that I think that'd stop Atlas.
>>
>>6107732
She can control her form, but she's clearly more comfortable being roughly human-shaped, and has eyes and a mouth and such. She's at least under the impression her mom WAS a humanoid. I think it's a safe bet our beloved worm hivemind thinks of herself as 'person-shaped' when she imagines the 'real' her.
>>
Also...
>>6107413
>adrenochrome farming was a thing
Yikes.
>>
>>6107736
True, but even if she's human shaped, her last look is basically a brown girl with a bunch of weird fissures in her skin, as opposed to a walking worm blob.

The question is whether she actually has normal skin that keeps all the worms inside her.
>>
>>6107739
There's cracks in it where Atlas could see a bit of the inside and the worms were mobile within. I think she has to have some sort of inner containment too
>>
>>6107737
>adrenochrome farming was a thing
>Yikes.
it still is, just more limited now
>>
>>6107675

You think she already knows what your weakpoint is, but maybe she's keeping it as a secret weapon. You fear what would happen if she pulled this with the bracelet on, you might just die. You change the subject before things get too steamy since it seems she's not in the mood ever since you brought up the critical flaw in using the maid dresses. "Hey, so, I was thinking, would you like to travel with me to the human city? You won't be able to really get inside, but there's a hotel nearby you can stay in until I'm done."

She perks up. "Don't they shoot any outsider that get too close? Are you sure that's safe?"

"As long as you're near me, they'll at least consider your case, since I'm human and all. Of course, they might think I've been brainwashed or whatever, so I'm sure they'll send some anti-magic guy to check if I'm okay, but apart from that, there's no reason to believe they'll do anything wrong. You'll be under heavy surveillance, though, so keep that in mind before undressing in your room."

"Sure then! That sounds fun, sorta. Shame I won't be able to really get inside, but I'll take what I can get. Is the hotel inside the human city, or...?"

"It's on the edge of it. Technically part of the city, but not inside the walls. I think you can actually use some of the computers there, but they're very limited, doubt you can play any games on them."

She looks pretty disappointed, but it's a miracle they let outsiders interact with the city at all, so maybe you should be thankful for that. Having agreed on your plans for the holidays, you use the weekend to prepare the supplies you'll need for the trip to the city. It shouldn't take too long, especially since you've already done it before, and the supplies aren't that expensive either. It only costs you 10 coins to get the food you'll need, as everything else like the tent among other things are already accounted for.

A lot of the other students are staying in the school, but not all of them. Rath says he's going back to his family, Ivy and the crystal guy are up for a mountain trip, you have no idea what Charlotte and Aroth are planning. You assume Rin's parasite and Fet are going to continue their illegal corpse operation in the meantime. Busy time for everyone, including yourself.
>>
File: HelloAgain.png (240 KB, 735x701)
240 KB
240 KB PNG
>>6107982

With all the spells at your disposal, making it back to the human city feels so, SO much easier. Shortcut, your increased pocket space, and of course, the extra mana you get from Table. It makes you realize how far you've come, the idea of taking years to learning a half-assed version of the Lighten rune feel so far away from you now, even if it wasn't that long ago. When you see the vague shape of the human city in the distance, you're hit by a weird sense of nostalgia. You pick up the pace and walk faster. Table shares your enthusiasm, but she still stays behind you, just in case some human gets suspicious of her. You can see the hotel on the left side of the walls, it's connected to the city, but from what you heard, it's actually just as hard to go from the hotel to the city as it is to get past the gate. The hotel isn't exactly pretty too look at from the outside, it's a big square chunk of metal with a reinforced door that might be even tougher than the one you had in the vault. There are multiple ways of entering it, you may have an ID, use your fingerprint, or knock and hope for the best, the latter rarely ever works unless you're someone very important. In your case, you still have your old human ID, and your finger is still intact, so you can use both.

The door doesn't open yet though. Even though she's a forgotten, thermals can still detect her presence, and it's those people's job to make sure nothing weird gets through. You explain to them the situation, and that she's with you, but then they ask you why she should be let in the first place, and you have this feeling saying 'she's my girlfriend' won't fly. After more arguing over the intercom, they say they'll discuss it with someone from the anti-magic division. After an hour of silence, they finally let you in, but say you'll need to talk to someone first with Table staying in the waiting room in the meantime.

They lead you to an office where- oh for fuck sake.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" A woman in a heavy mechanical suit says, with only her helmet missing. Claire, your childhood 'friend'. Even after all those years, it's not hard to recognize her. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not here to argue, the opposite, in fact. I'll tell you outright, your laptop? Bugged. Your phone? Bugged also. Your gun? Same thing. Every gene locked tech you have we used to spy on you."

You're not surprised, but that doesn't make this breach of privacy any less bad. Thankfully, you left your laptop, phone and gun in your pocket space most of the time, and you don't think you've mentioned the vault while they were out... you think? You sure hope not, Nina made clear she didn't want you to let humans know about it. "So? I didn't do anything that I wasn't told to do. And if I did, you wouldn't have let me inside, right? Or did you just come here to gloat?"
>>
>>6107983

She frowns. "Is that what you think of me? I know we disagreed in the past but we're both adults now, aren't we? Can't we agree to disagree? Besides, I've changed my stance a little since then. Maybe using all outsiders would be a bad idea, but criminals-"

You facepalm. "I can't believe you're saying this."

"Why? They're paying for their crimes, and we're getting something in return, what's the issue?"

"What do you think will happen when we run out of criminals? Do you think the government will just go 'haha, oops, guess we'll just give up on our biggest magical asset'. No! What they'll do is they'll just arrest more outsiders for more and more bullshit reasons, just so they can keep their mana farm going!"

"I think you have too little faith in your own government. But if you find my idea so deplorable, then maybe you'll find our proposal more interesting." She clears her throat, and a hologram of text shows up in front of her. "As the only living human that was both born in the city and obtained access to a magic school, you will obtain knowledge that could be of great use to us. As a matter of fact, we know that for a human, your performance is exceptional when it comes to magic, if you were to work with us and share parts of your finding with us, we could... rearrange first class citizenship for you. We could even let your friend in, even if we'll keep an eye on her, of course."

"...wait, you'll just let her in? Like that? What will the other human think?"

She waves her hand in a dismissing fashion. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge fan of letting outsiders inside, and she'll be a second class citizen in most ways, but her race means we conveniently won't have much trouble keeping her away from the public eye. Even if somehow, someone finds out about it, any story including her will be seen as boring and not worth caring about, isn't that nice? As for why we'd allow something like that, we see you as enough of a potential asset to be worth the risk. They sent me here to negotiate since I was the closest person to you, even though I explained to them we had a bit of a falling out. "

That's... a really good deal, isn't it? A fantastic deal, in fact. Table would be elated to get to explore the human city, and you don't think sharing your knowledge of magic with humanity is inherently bad but... Nina did say you shouldn't share what you found out in the vault, but if you share anything else, it should be fine, right? Would the school truly be okay with this? Wouldn't they know? You can't shake off the feeling that working with them could be dangerous, but the perks are too good to ignore. What to do...

>I accept your deal.
>I refuse.
>Can I make that choice later?
>Ask more questions before making a choice (Write in what kind of questions)
>Write in
>>
>>6107983
And we see her yet again. And damn. Either that suit is really bulky, or she's got some real Joestar genes.

>>6107984
>Ask more questions before making a choice
Ask what exactly are the details of this knowledge sharing entail. If we can simply share stuff mean stuff like Up Mana or Overdrive or Store Mana - then that's fine right? Nina said we shouldn't share the stuff that was in the vault, but she was speaking about the whole 'use dead forgotten as mana generators' stuff, no? As long as we don't share with that, it should be fine. We got Overdrive through Jack's NORMAL teachings. Overdrive in specific was a THEORY he hadn't yet finished. It's both valuable, and harmless.

I mean, what else are we gonna do? Say no? You know they're going to do something like arrest Table on bullshit charges and demand we give them the answer anyway.

Please do remind me, we DID learn it from his normal teachings rather than the Corpse, right? Also, do we remember if we brought any of our items into the vault, like the phone or our laptop? I doubt they could have bugged us while it was in pocket space, anyway, but i do not remember there being any point where we used them in the vault unless it happened off-screen.
>>
>>6107987
You learned overdrive from his theories that were partly based on the corpse, but he used the corpse more to further his understanding of how mana functionned rather than needing the corpse to cast the spell. You could teach someone overdrive without ever bringing up the parallels to Forgottens, as they're not inherently linked. However, his theory was in fact in a book inside the vault, now if Nina would consider this forbidden knowledge or not, you don't know.
>>
File: 1698918130477745.png (14 KB, 548x144)
14 KB
14 KB PNG
>>6107989
I should specify, we obviously shouldn't even imply that we know stuff we're not letting on. We should ask what exactly they want us to share.

My logic is simple - if we say no, then they'll get suspicious. There's no reason for us to say no here, if we were just a standard student who didn't find anything.

So sharing concepts like 'Up Mana' that need to be taught from a young age to truly take effect, as well as our normal spell stuff we learned, that shouldn't be an issue. Overdrive, too - if we steered clear of mentioning the place we found the book - should be easy, because book where we learned Overdrive were just THEORIES. He didn't make the actual overdrive spell, WE did.

Nina just wanted us to not tell about *the location* - so if they ask us about how we learned Overdrive, we can just say we made it ourselves. Because it's true.
>>
>>6107987
>>6107990
+1

I just realized something. If they were actually had been able to hear and see everything we did with their bugs, why would they have told us about them? Now even if we accept the deal we'll suspect our stuff.

The fact that they asked means they probably don't know much.
>>
>>6108001
That's a good point, anon. I'd still like to know whether we took out our tech in out of the pocket in the vault, but the fact that they told us they were bugging us means they probably didn't have much use more for it.

Well, we're probably playing with fire...but damn if it won't be worth it to see Table get to experience the city. Hell, since she'll be given the same access of a second class citizen, we could even bring her to our home and bang her in our old bed and introduce her to our parents personally.
>>
>>6107987
>>6107990
+1

>>6108009
I love this plan, let's try to make it happen
>>
>>6107984
>>6107987 +1

I think we should also discus the bugs with our teachers and look for spells to deal with them
>>
>>6108001
>>6108010
>>6108012
Just to save Curse QM some time, we're all good for accepting, it, right? So we dont need to have another voting period for a 'yes' to the deal unless they add some really extremely different demands.
>>
>>6107984
>Can I make that choice later?

Things like Up Mana and Overdrive we should definitely share. Up Mana is widely shared knowledge in magic circles and Overdrive helps humans actually have some use with magic.
We should also correct some misconceptions humans have on the magic basics we were raised on.

However, we should consult our teachers about sharing material we learn from our classes. They are a school, they may have issue with us effectively reselling their knowledge. Sharing what's mentioned before, and anything we learn really, will probably increase the school's human attendance down the line, so should be fine.

We should also see if we can get a controller or other peripheral she can touch without triggering the gene lock, or some cut down console she can use to play games with.
>>
>>6108018
>However, we should consult our teachers about sharing material we learn from our classes.
What material? Some beginner level spells? It's not like they've really taught us anything special, and they didn't say anything about 'sharing our knowledge' either.
>>
>>6108018
>correct some misconceptions humans have on the magic basics we were raised on.
Now THIS is worth doing
>>
>>6108023
My thought is what we know at the moment may not be an issue right now, but this deal is dependent on everything we'll know in the future.
It depends on what sort of school this is. Is it like Harvard, where all their classes are effectively open to the public and students try to attend for the prestige and the talent of the teachers, or is this more private, where knowledge and lesson plans are horded?

Based on the story so far, it sounds like the former, and it's just human isolationism that's keeping them from really branching into magic like we have. Sharing what's mentioned now and then asking if doing so in the future is cool is probably all that we'll really need. Just heading off some potential problems while still setting up a foundation for human magic progress.
>>
>>6108037
We're going to be hiding stuff from them anyways, like the forgotten stuff. No reason to not agree with them now.

It's not like they even have any way to use high level spells, anyway, so they'd have no interest in them. We're the only living human who even seems capable of magic. And Jack seemeed to be the only one going in on the mana expansion stuff, so we'll probably be the one who has to make the spells to do that anyway, and we can share those all we want.
>>
>>6108017
I'm good for it, yeah
>>6108018
Actually since we learned overdrive in the vault I was thinking it might be better to teach mana up, mana share and mana store
>>
>>6108063
We didn't learn overdrive in the vault. We read the theories that Jack had on mana increase, which could have been used in multiple ways like improved up mana, and then we developed overdrive all by ourselves.

If they ask how we learned that spell we can just tell them we made it. Because we did.
>>
>>6108024
>>6108023
>>6108012
>>6108010
>>6108001
>>6107987

"How much do you want me to share, exactly?" You ask, glancing at the holographic text. it's not hidden, but it is written backward from your point of view, which makes it pretty hard to read.

"Ideally, everything. However, as I've said, you're a valuable asset, and since I assume you may not trust us, we'll reward you on a... usefulness basis. The more you tell us that we don't know, the more you'll get in return. You'll still keep the original terms of the contract no matter what, as long as you don't betray our trust of course. It'd be nice if you didn't mention to anyone of our contract, and if someone finds out through a divination spell, tell us."

"Okay, so, what do you know? Are you aware of the Up Mana method, for example?"

She nods. "Yes, but I'm sure you understand that within our ranks it can be hard to use this method to its fullest extent. We need to keep our mana at a certain level for a few days, mana that we need to do our job. It doesn't help that the method becomes harder and harder to make use of in the long term. Did you find a better way?"

"I've recently found a way to store mana in runes, along with spells, does that count?"

"We've seen that spell before, but the one we use isn't the best. They can't hold a lot of mana, and we can't put them within 1 yard of each other without it going wrong."

"The version I have allows me to hold about 4 on my person, so it might be better?"

"There's only one way to know, isn't there?" She leans forward, her imposing figure exaggerated by the bulk of her armor. "Do you accept? You'll make your life way harder if you don't."

She's right. It's not like you can just teleport away with Table, and even if you could, is it really worth it to make yourself an enemy of the city? You still need to buy parts from there, and you're sure Table would appreciate it. Besides, humans were bound to learn magic one day, you'd rather have some control over how they learn it. "Alright, but first, while I do know you want to keep Table under heavy surveillance-"

"Table? That's her name? What-"

"Yes, anyway. I'd like it if you could stop watching us when we're alone in our room, for privacy reasons."

"No offense, but we're watching everyone in the city, losing sight of an outsider is a lot to ask."

"I'm valuable, you said it yourself." You stand your ground, hoping that your nervousness doesn't show. You're planning on accepting the deal either way, but you might as well get as much out of it as you can. She passes a call, and after a long discussion, she gives a thumbs up.

"One hour per day of privacy is what you'll get, and only in your room specifically. Say, you're not planning mating with her, right?" She narrows her eyes at you.

"Is it illegal to do so? Also please, don't call it mating, makes it sound like she's an animal."
>>
>>6108072

"Thought you were better than that, that's all." She groans. "The only thing is that you're not allowed to have a child here, unless you're planning on kicking them out and put them in an outsider's orphanage. Your... 'friend', might get special privilege, but any of her spawn won't."

"I suppose I'm fine with that."

It's not like you're planning on having a kid any time soon, you still have school to worry about, and it makes practicing life spells very dangerous. She's clearly disgusted by the idea of you 'mating' with an outsider as she puts it, but that was to be expected. You can tell she wants to question your relationship with Table further, but she needs to be professional, her superiors won't like it if she fumbles your contract, after all. After much consideration, you offer your hand to her, and she shakes it with her mechanical hands. You take one last look at the contract terms, and apart from some legal jargon, there isn't anything too suspicious, and you sign with your fingerprint.

"And stay out of trouble, just because we have your back doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want." She gives you a pin, an ID, and two pairs of gloves. "She'll use that ID and the pin, which should protect her against most basic scans. The gloves she'll have to use every time she needs to use her fingerprint, if someone asks her why she's using gloves for a fingerprint auth, just tell them she had an accident. If she still gets caught somehow, just let them call the police, we'll arrange something. Again, that doesn't mean you should get in trouble, but we'll help if she did an honest mistake."

They bring Table in the same room, and they quickly explain to you what transpired. They do leave out some bits and pieces, but not that much. She's very confused, but also very happy. After she's checked by like, 4 different people from the anti-magic force. They even had a spell to forcefully open her pocket space, which was embarrassing since it did contain your underwear. For some reason they didn't check your pocket space, maybe because they want to treat you nicely to garner trust, not that you're complaining.
>>
>>6108073


After even more paperwork, you bypass the gate altogether and use another path that goes from the hotel to the city. It takes one reinforced door, then two, then three, then an elevator that goes up, then 5 reinforced doors, then another elevator that goes down and you're finally, FINALLY in the city. Table squees in awe of all the human building and tech you took for granted.

"I can't believe it! Is this real? This is so cool! You're so cool!" Table embraces you and showers you with small kisses.

"Yeah, yeah. Table, try to avoid attracting attention. Also, let's avoid talking about anything magic related outside, okay?" You lower your voice when saying the words 'magic'. It's not an illegal word or anything, but someone casually talking about magic could get you some looks.

She nods vigorously. "Okay! What do we do? I love this place! There are so many lights! All of this without- I mean, incredible!"

"We should talk to my parents first, since we're going to need to sleep in my room, it's better if they know about you sooner rather than later, but..."

You try to think, is it a good idea to tell your parents that she's an outsider? Since she's a forgotten, it's unlikely for them to suspect she's not human unless they pay close attention to her, which they have no reason to do considering her forgotten status. Your parents aren't that against outsiders, but they're still not super fond of them, the city's propaganda runs pretty deep, after all. If you told them, there's also always the chance they could tell other people about it, which would be a pain.

>Tell your parents about Table being an outsider.
>Don't say anything about Table not being human, lying by omission isn't really lying, is it?
>Imply Table is human to get them off your back.
>Write in.
>>
>>6108074
>Tell your parents about Table being an outsider
They're probably going to figure it out anyway, no? Atlas said that even talking to Table just feels wrong. And even so, how would we even explain meeting Table? We were outside the city. We didn't have a girlfriend before.

Claire was totally jelly of Table.
>>
Also, to answer some things:
>>6108037
While magic knowledge is technically widely available, it's something that's very hard to master without proper guidance. Even if Atlas learned a lot by himself, he still had to get a lot of pointers from his teachers and other students before getting a general idea of what to do, and a lot of stuff with magic is also less 'rigid' than the hard science humans are used to. Attending a school is both used for getting a proper diploma 'the paper says I can do this' which helps with jobs, but in your case, it also helps you get over the specific hurdle you have, in your case, low mana. It's not shown that much, but you do get a lot of pointers and help from teachers that would've been really hard to figure out through books alone.

>>6108040
Other humans in the anti-magic force can cast spells, and they can seem impressive at first glance, but in practice most of them try to 'brute force' their way through magic. Most members only learn one or two spells and try to perfect them so they can cast it for as low a mana cost as possible. So while forcefully opening a pocket space may sound impressive, you have to realize this might be one of the few spells those people know, and it might have taken years and years for them to learn it. Especially when you yourself know plenty of other spells with a moderate level of mastery.

Some humans outsiders also know magic, but none of them were born in the human city, and they usually only use magic for basic quality of life stuff rather than anything advanced. Usually they don't go past spells like spark or pocket space.
>>
>>6108072
>Claire didn't know about us being a thing
Called it! If they could see and hear us, they would have known this. Table literally shoved her head inside our underwear not even that long ago, and right infront of the laptop when we were playing. So either they didn't tell her - or their bugs aren't aren't that great.

>>6108074
>Tell your parents about Table being an outsider.
The other anon said it best.
>>
>>6108074
>Tell your parents about Table being an outsider.
>>
File: Spoiler Image (62 KB, 508x724)
62 KB
62 KB PNG
>>6108079
>>
>>6108133
(I forgot to draw muscle because it was a half assed doodles but she's actually pretty fit.)
>>
>>6108133
>>6108138
She's cute. Too bad she wants to turn people into batteries.
>>
>>6107982
>You think she already knows what your weakpoint is, but maybe she's keeping it as a secret weapon. You fear what would happen if she pulled this with the bracelet on, you might just die.
is it the multi tongue thing or was there something else ?
>>6108074
>Don't say anything about Table not being human, lying by omission isn't really lying, is it?
>>6108133
demon boy you say ?
>>
>>6108074
>Tell your parents about Table being an outsider
>>
>>6108074
>Tell your parents about Table being an outsider.
They will literally forget she exists whenever she isn't around.
>>
>>6108230
>demon boy you say ?
Too late for Aroth route, anon.
>>
>>6108336
Based on his issues and trauma, I think Aroth would not like Claire even if he wasn't taken
>>
>>6108361
I meant for us.
>>
>>6108375
If it wasn't for Table, I think I'd have preferred a Fet route. She's just too huggable. Plus they'd relate a lot.
>>
>>6108379
She got introduced after firstgirl already won. As mcuh as I like a shy fluffy bird-girl, though, Table is just a really great character with a cool hook and a lot of unique stuff going on. I'm glad we went this route.
>>
>>6108384
The quest probably wouldn't be the same without her, no. Still, Fet is just extremely fluffy. I'm jealous that only Table got to hug her.
>>
Aroth this, Feth that...what i want is to grab some hardware parts so we can make a computer table can play with and then have a proper "redo" of that teasing we did last time.
>>
>>6107675
This is probably a late comment, you know, but I was re-reading the update and thought, if Table wants to tease Atlas, there's really a very easy way...extemely cringe teasing. Stuff like when she said she was his slut, or what she said when they did it in the forest. "Human men" meme phrases would also work.
>>
>>6108230
>>6108100
>>6108084
>>6108233
>>6108332

You'll have to tell your parents about her, all of it. They're bound to find out one day, and you're sure your parents will understand. If they don't well... they'll forget about her soon enough, you suppose.

You take the elevator to your parent's apartment. The human city really likes to build tall, and you wonder how people lived their lives before elevators. You had to take the stairs down once, and it took you half an hour, and you didn't even live in the highest place. The elevator has a reinforced glass exterior that allows you to get a good view of the city. Table is pressing her face against the glass, fascinated by all of it.

You're nervous, you don't know how your parents will react, but you've already made your choice. The elevator opens, you step to your apartment, and ring the door. You hear steps, and your dad opens the door, a tired smile on his face.

"Come in, I got a call telling me you'd be back," he says nonchalantly. It's true that he doesn't look surprise, but he still looks happy to see you at least.

"I'm bringing someone else with me, is that okay?" You reply, pointing to Table who preferred to stay silent.

He looks at her for no more than a second, and shrugs. "Didn't see you here. Sure, she can come in."

You wait to be inside before breaking the news. Your mom is making modifications to her augmented arm. You've never been one much for augments, but you certainly see the appeal. Your mom tries to wave to you, but she uses her augmented arm on accident, and since she was still making modifications to it, it spins around uncontrollably.

Your dad laughs, and so does Table. Now's as good a time as any to break the news, since the mood is still light.

"Dad, I have to tell you something about her, she's an outsider."

You hear your mom slam the arm back into place, "What do you mean? Like an outsider human? I- I mean, that's fine, better than-"

"No, mom, she's not human."

She grips her arm tighter. "What do you mean 'she's not human', she's here, isn't she? Unless you're talking about another girl?"

"Let him explain himself," your dad tries to calm your mom down. "I'm sure there's a rational explanation."
>>
>>6108600

"Thanks dad. So maybe you already know, but I got a deal with the anti-magic force to get back my first class citizenship, but in exchange I have to share magic knowledge I find with them. I managed to negotiate a deal where I can let my... girlfriend inside as a second class citizen too." You try to be as succint as possible with as little room for misunderstanding as possible, but...

"Oh, that's great. Listen, I don't mind outsiders, I would've been fine if you even dated one, but this is a human city! For humans!" Your mother dislocates her arms and leaves it on the counter so she can lecture you from up close. "We let one? Then what's next? We let two, three? All of them? This is all we have!"

"Mom, it's an exception, and she probably won't live here, might just show up here on vacations. Can't you be happy for me, for once? That I've achieved something so special that they're willing to make an exception for me" You're a lot more angry than you thought. You wanted to be civil, but sometimes your pride takes over.

"Yes, sure! That's impressive, but you're a smart kid, you could've done that while staying inside the city, took up a normal job. I'm telling you, if you just joined the anti-magic force from the get go-"

"But it's not what I WANT mom! The fact they're relying on ME, a student of only half a year shows how bad the anti-magic force is at magic. I would've learned- what? Two spells, three spells max? You know how many spells I learned back there? I can't even count them! That's how many I learned!"

"Wait." Your dad takes back control of the conversation again. "Weren't we talking about something else before? Someone?"

"Yes, my girlfriend, and no, she didn't use any mind spells to control me or whatever you may think."

Your dad looks at her in silence. "Looks human enough, even if I can tell something's off. Listen, honey?" He turns back to your mom. "You know how kids are when they're in love. The more you oppose them, the tighter their bond becomes. We should be thankful he's back at all, right? If he gets dumped, then you can say 'I told you so', how does that sound?"

Your mom rolls her eyes. "Not like anyone cares about what I think in this house."

Table does a quick bow. "Thank you for your support. I'll do my best to live up to prove I'm worthy of your son."

You almost choke hearing her say this. It's rare to hear her being so formal when it's not a role-play scenario or talking to a teacher.
>>
>>6108601

They don't react as strongly as you thought they would, with your dad just answering 'good luck with that'. You tell them that her outsider status should be kept a secret before dragging Table to your room ;you're sure your dad has the situation handled. You didn't remember him being this supportive, since he was pretty against you leaving the city, but maybe having you away for so long made him realize how important staying in good terms with his child was. You're sure your mom will come around too, even if it might take her longer than your dad.

"You can talk now," you tell Table, who is still shaken by the recent events. "It could've been worse, I think. The room is soundproof, so you can say whatever- well, not WHATEVER you want, the room is still being listened in on by the government, not much we can do about that.

"I'm fine with that. I didn't overdo it back there, did I? i'm not sure how human culture works, but-"

"Table you made it sound like we were going to get married. Not that I- I mean, whatever. What matters is this is behind us now, so we can finally start having fun. Did you know you can use those gloves to ignore the gene-locked tech? You also need to wear the pin with it too, but that way you can play games by yourself!"

She lights up. "I CAN!? ANY GAMES?" She shouts, elated.

You nod. "Any games I can afford, that is. We could also see movies, there are arcades too. I also want to get those parts..."

"I- I don't know, it's so much, all at once. I didn't think that would ever happen. You choose! You know better, right?"

Do you? Well, if you have to pick...

>You're going to buy those computer parts either way, but you might as well use that opportunity to shop around with Table for various things.
>The arcades are fun, even if they're not exactly private.
>You could let her play games inside your room. You were given an hour of privacy too.
>She has to experience movie theaters at least once in her life, right?
>>
>>6108603
Hmmm, this is really a hard one...i'm not sure whether i want us to go shop for stuff, or to go for the arcade. I'd rather save the hour of privacy for us, and we can already watch movies so cinema isn't the first thing i'd think of doing...fine
>You're going to buy those computer parts either way, but you might as well use that opportunity to shop around with Table for various things.
I'm curious about what Table will buy. I'd like to go to the arcade too, but we'll probably be able to let her play anyway if we get those components, right?
>>
>>6108605
+1, and definitely +1 on spending their privacy time together trying to be quiet enough to not be heard by his parents.
>>
>>6108605
>>6108618
+1, all good
>>
You know, we should really ask for some college money from our parents. Surely they understand why we'd need it, right? Now that we're working with the city, we have the excuse that we can absolutely find success if we manage to learn a lot...and some money would be good...they can't simply say "Oh, we don't want to support you because there's no future and you'll just come back broke"

Plus, if normal money is exchanged at a loss for human currency (as was implied when we sold our fear) then that means that they don't need to give that much to let us have some spending money.

I mean, c'mon, there's all those cool magical items...we deserve to use'em.
>>
>>6108603
>She has to experience movie theaters at least once in her life, right?
>>
>>6108656
>>6108651
>>6108618
>>6108605

"Hey Table, I have to buy some things, want to go shopping with me? No stealing, by the way, and no magic."

Table isn't listening, she's staring at all the runes you've drawn on the walls, floor, and sheets of paper. You remember even trying to draw runes in a digital software to see if it would lighten the computer, but of course that didn't work. "What are those runes supposed to be? Seriously, I have no idea."

"Lighten runes. I don't think I even knew it was supposed to be a lighten rune when I drew half of those, I just read somewhere online that they were 'magic runes' with no elaboration." You kneel down to get a better look at some of them. They really were bad, and you start to wonder if the original rune you saw online wasn't, in fact, a lighten rune, and you just accidentally stumbled into another spell entirely by experimenting.

She opens a drawer, and she picks up one of your underwear. "Man, I have a KNACK for finding those things, like a sixth sense! Those look washed though, shame."

"You're such a creep."

"Oh, I'm sorry. When I beg for you to cum in my mouth, it's 'hot' and 'sexy', but when I want to smell your dirty underwear, it's 'creepy' and 'degenerate behavior'." She says, staring at the door as to make sure she's not spouting nonsense when your parents barge in.

"You're so lucky this place is soundproof. It's not 'magic' soundproof, by the way, so don't scream too loud, they might still hear you. Anyway, as I was saying, I need to buy something, want to go shopping with me?"

"Sure! That sounds fun, I don't have much money, though."

"It's fine, I can buy you something if it's affordable. I've looked up a few places that might have what we need. Normally I'd just buy it online, but it can take a few days to get there, it's faster to do it in person, and cheaper."
>>
>>6108789

>>6108789

She gets prepared, and you both leave the apartment without attracting the attention of your mom who still look annoyed about the previous argument. You wonder if she remembers Table at all, or if she just remembers the part where you dated an outsider. Table did say people can remember her by proxy, like if someone had a crush on you, they'd remember that you had a girlfriend because it's directly related to what they are thinking of.

You go exchange your money (at a loss), and get 90 General Purpose Currency, or GPC for short. Despite its name, it doesn't work outside the human city, and there aren't a lot of different money types inside the city anymore.

Now is the fun part, wandering the city and finding fun shops for Table to gawk at. You already know what store you want to go in, but you purposefully take the long way around to give her more opportunity for her to have fun. You never paid attention to a lot of the stores here, but Table sure is. She's looking at the clothes, the gadgets, the fast food restaurants, and everything else with awe.

"What's that?" She asks, pointing at a small, round device behind a glass window.

"It's a virtual pet, it's like uh, a video game that keeps playing when you're not looking. It has a small virtual thing you have to feed sometimes, and a bunch of other things. It's mostly used by kids because the creature inside is unique, so sometimes they make them interact in school."

"That's so cool... can I get one? Please? Pretty please?" She gives you puppy eyes, clapping her hands together like a seal.

"Not this one, it's a limited edition and overpriced. Could get you a cheap one though. Don't forget to use your gloves to interact with it, don't want me to buy you something only for it to explode."

You enter the store, and manage to find an old version for about 10 GPC. Table is easily swayed by advertising, and say she really wanted the colorful one for 20, but you know there isn't that much of a difference. You go to multiple stores and make sure to keep her under control. She really wants to steal some of that stuff, but even as a forgotten, most stuff here will react to being taken out of the store without paying. You think it's possible to shove it in a pocket space, but even if you do think the lingerie would look really good on her, you don't think it's worth the risk of being caught.
>>
>>6108791

Once the shopping spree is over, you end up with one comic book, a virtual pet, a digital watch, and...massage oil. You're pretty sure you could've gotten something similar outside, but it's true it's cheaper in the human city. All in all, this cost you about 30 GPC, which isn't that much since you only bought things that were heavily discounted due to their age, the oil is actually the most expensive thing on this list. This only leaves you with 60 GPC, but it should hopefully be enough for what you need, as you said, old things cost less, and what you're searching for is so old the hard part is finding someone that would still sell it.

You enter an old computer store, the owner typing away on a bulky PC. "If you're here, I'm guessing you need something very specific, we don't really have the newest stuff."

"I want something that's the opposite of the newest stuff, actually." You show him an edited photo of the old machines you want parts for. You just cropped the rest of the vault out of the picture just in case. You also have a few photos that show the inside of the PC to see what's missing and the general state of it all.

"Damn, that's... I don't think i've ever had something like this, but it's still familiar... hold on." He types something else on his computer behind the counter. Each key makes a loud yet satisfying sound whenever it's pressed. Sometimes, he stops to press the same key multiple. The keyboard is pluggable, so you wonder why he didn't just buy a new one, those really aren't expensive. "Okay, yeah, I see what this is. Old model, used by the military a looong time ago, then by the time it became widely accessible to the public another company made something better, so it never took off. Now, those use very specific processors and hard drive. The idea was to have those computers where even if someone stole their hard drive, it could only be used by that type of computer and nothing else. We got something better now, with genelocks and everything, but back then that was a big deal."

"Interesting history lesson, but do you know where I could find parts to fix those up?"

"Those pictures tell me that baby is in a sorry state, you'll need an air duster, and then install what you need, which you might find in those places." He passes you a piece of paper with terrible handwriting. Multiple addresses are written on here, along with estimates of the price it might cost. That's... about 150 GPC to fix all the computers. It's not outrageously expensive, but you expected it to be much MUCH cheaper with how old those machines are. You forgot that when something's old enough, it becomes rare, which spikes up the price.
>>
>>6108792

Table apologizes for wasting your money, but it's your fault for thinking you could afford to waste any of it. Besides, you didn't have the money to fix all the computers to begin with, so you were going to need to find another source of money later on anyway.

Now the question is, where will you get that money?

>You can ask the anti-magic force for money in exchange for extra spells.
>You could ask your dad to give you some of the money they initially saved up from your college fund, assuming they didn't spend it all already.
>Maybe you could sell some items you enchant with runes? You're usually only allowed to sell those without a license, but...
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6108794
>You could ask your dad to give you some of the money they initially saved up from your college fund, assuming they didn't spend it all already.
Why not? If we can't use it...
>>
>>6108794
>You could ask your dad to give you some of the money they initially saved up from your college fund, assuming they didn't spend it all already.
Even if they spent it, they probably have enough for us to buy the computer parts, right?

Isn't it a bit unwise to buy table a tamagotchi when she's not going to be able to use it after we leave the city? Shoulda spent that monet on lingerie...
>>
>>6108794
>You could ask your dad to give you some of the money they initially saved up from your college fund, assuming they didn't spend it all already.

>>6108804
She can use it as long as she has the gloves, right? And it was only $10.
>>
>>6108804
She gets to keep the gloves.
>>
>>6108804
+1
we need those parts
>>
>>6108794
>You could ask your dad to give you some of the money they initially saved up from your college fund, assuming they didn't spend it all already
we can use the rest for magic college later on
>>
>>6108792
>Each key makes a loud yet satisfying sound whenever it's pressed. Sometimes, he stops to press the same key multiple. The keyboard is pluggable, so you wonder why he didn't just buy a new one, those really aren't expensive
mechanical keyboards just FEEL cool and good
>>
We do need to bring table to a movie theater, not the same as a laptop screen.

Should we ask the anti magic force about Jack? Is he general knowledge in the human city? (I don't think Atlas knew about him until reaching the school) Avoid anything that might hint at the bunker but he wrote the book we were given by the school so just act like that's how we know of him.
>>
>>6108794
>You could ask your dad to give you some of the money they initially saved up from your college fund, assuming they didn't spend it all already.
>>
>>6109164
>>6108894
>>6108884
>>6108804
>>6108795
>>6108824

You'll try to ask your dad for some money, surely they have some money left from your college fund, right? You remember them giving you an ultimatum where if you went to the magic school, you wouldn't get any of that money. That didn't work, of course, and you still went for the magic school paying for the admission fee out of your own very light pocket. Thankfully, the school wasn't that expensive, since it seems they mostly work on either donations or independent work the teachers do on the side. You've heard it's pretty standard for the graduated students to give money back to the school if they hit it big too, although it's not strictly necessary.

Back to the topic of your college fund money, you wait the next day for your mom to go to work so you can talk to your dad alone. You find him typing away on his computer, he works remotely, so most of your memories of him are of a man looking at his computer doing who knows what. You know he works in 'analytics', but in practice you have no idea what that exactly mean, and he says he's not allowed to elaborate, even to his son.

"Hey, dad? Could I get some money from my college fund? I need it for something important."

He stops typing, and turns his office chair around to face you. "Is that the only reason you came back? To beg for money?"

"No, that's not-"

"I'm kidding, you're not that type of kid. You're lucky your mom isn't here though, she'd give you an earful. I know she can feel like a lot sometimes, but she does it because she loves you, you know?"

You nod, but you still feel bad about what she said before. You expected her to be more proud of you. You could be one of the best human mage in the world, and it feels like she barely cares about that at all.

"Alright, listen, I can't really take too much from the college fund without your mom noticing, but I can give you some pocket change out of my own account. How much do you need?"

"I'd say about 300?" You exaggerate your needs a little bit. It's not unlikely that you'll have to pay a little more than usual for those computer parts, so it can't hurt to be safe.

"I can do that. Why do you need that amount specifically? The school pays for most stuff you need, doesn't it?" He turns back to his computer to access his bank account.

"Well, most of it. But there's some stuff like magic items that would make my life easier for studying, since I'm a human and all."
>>
>>6109263

He shrugs. "I don't know much about that magic stuff, so who am I to question it. To be honest, I might not have given you that money if not for the anti-magic force's call, but it's clear you're serving humanity in your own way. Besides, we could certainly use more magic knowledge with the recent tensions."

"Recent tensions?" Lazari did mention there was a war brewing, but would humans really get involved?

"An outsider sneaked in with magic. They got caught pretty fast, but it made everyone very paranoid, even started a few riots. So now we have people who go 'it's us or them', with no regards to what a war would actually mean for humanity. Our tech's good, but we hardly have enough of it to fight all the mages outside, unless our military has some sort of secret weapon we don't know about."

"You don't think humanity will actually start a war over something so trivial, right?"

"Couldn't tell you, I sure hope not."

You get a ding from your phone, and your bank account is now a little bigger. You feel like you should've asked for more, but you wanted to test what was acceptable first. You're sure that if you prove yourself enough you'll be able to convince even mom to dig into your college funds. Now what 'proving yourself' means, you're not sure, but you'll think of something.

You go to the places the computer store guy told you to buy the parts from. Most of it goes smoothly, but then comes the last store, and it's in a place that doesn't even have a name on your GPS. You've heard of places like that, they're commonly referred to as 'zero zones'. You're not sure why they're called that, but basically they're places in the city where the government has no real way to track you, and where they rarely enforce the law in. There's multiple reasons for it, sometimes it's a crimelord bribing the government, sometimes it's because some madman installed something that disables most tech in its vicinity. You don't have a lot of info on this one, but from what you can gather, it's a place where a lot of D.I.Y prosthetics and machines are made, none of them sanctioned by the government, and most of them probably full of viruses.

This sucks, this really, really sucks. You don't want to go here, but you can't find anywhere that would have the processors you need. What to do...

>Avoid the place entirely. It might make them suspicious, but since it was originally made by the military, surely the anti-magic force have some lying around, right?
>Take the risk, the good news is you can probably use magic in a place like this and get away with it.
>Screw it, even if it takes you most of your vacations, you'll try to find a processor somewhere else. Surely SOMEONE has one somewhere.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6109266
>Take the risk, the good news is you can probably use magic in a place like this and get away with it.
We have Slippy, Body Double, and more. We can easily fuck with any human trying to mess with us.
>the government has no real way to track you, and where they rarely enforce the law in
This means doing it in public without being detected is possible there because the chances of anybody being able to pierce illusions is zero unlike back in the magic school's town... though anybody using thermals might get a surprise :^)
>>
>>6109266
>Take the risk, the good news is you can probably use magic in a place like this and get away with it.
Ain't no thang, dawg. If someone tries to fuck with us, we can set them on fire. What are they gonna do say, "He used magic on me while i was trying to mug him?"

>>6109268
>spoiler
No, this is like, the bad part of town. It wouldn't be romantic at all. It'd be pretty gross and unhygienic.
>>
>>6109272
Okay good point, thanks for correcting my brainrot
>>
>>6109263
>Thankfully, the school wasn't that expensive, since it seems they mostly work on either donations or independent work the teachers do on the side. You've heard it's pretty standard for the graduated students to give money back to the school if they hit it big too, although it's not strictly necessary.
Much later in the quest we should totally do this too
>>
>>6109266
>Take the risk, the good news is you can probably use magic in a place like this and get away with it.
>>
>>6109266
>Take the risk, the good news is you can probably use magic in a place like this and get away with it.
>>
>>6109266
>Take the risk, the good news is you can probably use magic in a place like this and get away with it.
our ace in the hole, specially since it's basically unique to us in this situation
>>
>>6109268
>spoiler
I see some still wanna do it
>>6109272
>No, this is like, the bad part of town. It wouldn't be romantic at all. It'd be pretty gross and unhygienic.
I doubt there's much places for public sex that are romantic except lone fields, forests and beaches, specially when table's idea was doing it somewhere with other people. ngl public gooning/sex in a scenario where you're basically invisible to other people is something ingrained in my mind
>>
>>6109381
> specially when table's idea was doing it somewhere with other people.
Well, tehey could do it on Atlas' bedroom. Unless the 'privacy hour' they gave them is like, 3 AM, his parents would be awake.

That seems more romantic than doing it in a gross dirty alley.
>>
>>6109381
There's no way in hell Atlas won't be corrupted by Table. Doing it in one of the only places in the human city not under constant surveillance, with magic explicitly forbidden in the human city, with a nonhuman girl anathema to the human society's rigid laws, in a place where other humans could easily come across them but won't due to illusion magic, and as the only good human mage currently alive... all of it combined might mindbreak Atlas.
>>
>>6109391
Okay, but like, you're still doing it in a dirty alley. That's gross, man, You're gonna end up cutting yourself on a rusty piece of metal or a dirty needle.
>>
>>6109397
Could be one that isn't like that. The human city is advanced enough there must be some clean or decent enough ones even in the zero zones
>>
>>6109403
The humans are ridiculously authoritarian to the point where there are areas of the city where you can get shot just by accidentally walking into them, if there's a place completely free of government overview i really doubt they'd still have cleaning services.
>>
>>6109408
My dismay is immeasurable
>>
>>6109418
I don't think Table actually knows invisibility spell either, she just said she casted it during the forest scene but she wasn't actually doing it.
>>
>>6109397
>Okay, but like, you're still doing it in a dirty alley.
unless it's pajeet tier, we can overlook it for the horniness
>>
>>6109309
>>6109291
>>6109274
>>6109272
>>6109268

You warn Table about the dangerous trip you'll have to take. You tell her it'll probably be fine, but that you should still stay on your guard just in case. You may be downplaying the danger a little bit, but as long as you make it quick you should be able to get out without too much trouble. Unfortunately, because your GPS doesn't work here, you have to follow a regular map and find your general location via landmark, which wouldn't be so hard if most of those landmarks weren't either blown up or rebuilt into something else. Thankfully, shortcut allows you to find your way pretty easily--or it would have if not for the barricade in front of you. You hide with Table behind a corner to get a better look at it without standing in the middle of the street. It has a bunch of thugs guarding the passage, they're all equipped with less than stellar augments, you don't see any of those people make it past 30. Conveniently, a dark skinned man is walking towards the barricade to show you what it would take to get past.

"Let me pass," the dark skinned man says. "I've got business here."

One of the thugs jumps over the barricade. "And what the fuck's that business, huh? Any business here is the copper beetle's business." He points a gun directly at the man's head, but he looks unfazed.

"I have R.I, you're not scaring me with that. And what kind of name's copper beetles? Is it because you're as easy to crush as the bug itself?"

A woman behind the barricade shouts, "Because beetles are cool! If you were their size, they'd be the one crushing you! Did you know a beetle can lift up to 1141 times their own wei-"

The thug bangs on the barricade twice, and the woman stops talking. "Even if your broke ass was able to afford R.I, it still means I can beat you up within an inch of your life, dumbass."

The dark skinned man raises his hand, and shakes his head. "You people aren't even worth the battery life it'd take to wipe you out, I'll just find another way," he leaves to another dark alley. Whoever he is, he must be a big deal if he was almost willing to take an entire gang by himself, or maybe it's all a bluff.
>>
>>6110011


"There's about 10 of them behind the barricade," Table says. "Used remote view to take a look at them. It's going to be hard sneaking past them, unless you can come up with a good distraction. By the way, what's an R.I?"

"R.I is short for Revenge Insurance, in short, it's an insurance you pay for private investigators on your death. Because the punishment for murder is so high here, having a bunch of professional investigators on your tail if you kill a guy means you're almost guaranteed to get caught. They're also willing to take corporations to court over your death if they can."

"Isn't investigating someone's murder the police's job, though?" She asks, unaware of how corrupt the system truly is.

"Yeah, but even with all the surveillance going around, they're not great at their job, and easily bribed. Point is, if you have a Revenge Insurance, people aren't going to kill you, doesn't mean they won't do worse though."

"Even if someone kills you on the outside?"

"Of course it wouldn't work on the outside. I should still have an R.I on me though, I remember my parents buying one. Hopefully me leaving didn't make the entire thing null and void."

R.I aside, you still have to worry about getting past these fucks. You've got a lot of options, but none of them sound really safe.

>Find a way to distract them (Write in how)
>Try to find someone that could guide you through the dark alleys.
>Follow the dark skinned man, he doesn't sound that bad.
>Fuck it, fight them all. There's a lot of them, but nothing says you need to fight them fairly.
>>
>>6110013
>Find a way to distract them
Walk right up
"I THINK BEETLES ARE HELLA COOL! YOU SHOULD TOTALLY LET ME PASS"
(Silently cast Reinforce Belief)
>>
>>6110027
Actually, that sounds like a great idea, +1. We should be ready to fight if we need to, though.
>>
>>6110013
>Find a way to distract them
Have table cast body double, make the illusion run up flip them off, and run away.
We could use a slippy rune to trap the direction they run and take them out.
If any are left use the reinforce belief idea
>>
>>6110027
>+1
>>
I just realized Atlas could 4D chess somebody with Reinforce Belief
>tell somebody X and that he's telling the truth
>Reinforce Belief
>person sees Atlas as super trustworthy
>reversal
>person sees Atlas as a backstabbing liar
>immediately tests what he said
>turns out to be true
>person now looks bad in the eyes of others
>person now doubting himself and starts to trust Atlas for real
>>
>>6110117
>>6110085
>>6110048
>>6110027
>>6110031

Okay, you've got a plan. First, you have Table cast body double. With the help of shapeshift and her bracelet (since her curse extends to her own doubles apparently) Table can have her body double flip off the gangs to get them to follow her. Table tries to make the double run away, but one of the thugs manages to hit it with a net thrower.

"Got em- Wait, that shit's a hologram? Who would bother with a realistic ass hologram here of all places? Fuckin' hell."

He orders two of the thugs to check the net, but with nothing under it, the trail's run cold. You're not sure if making her shapeshift into someone else was necessary, but you don't want the risk of her getting recognized for your second plan, beetle talk.

You walk up to the barricade with a confident stride, not even looking at the net so you aren't associated with it. As long as you don't act aggressively, they have no reason to attack you.

Once everyone's attention is on you, you shout "I THINK BEETLES ARE SUPER COOL! YOU SHOULD LET ME PASS!"

You hardly have the time to cast reinforce belief on every single one of them at once, so you opt for the best target, the woman peeking out of the barricade that was nerding out about beetles before.

"They are, aren't they!" The woman says, jumping over the barricade. She has two steel spider legs attached to her torso, and shining, metallic serrated teeth. "What do you know about beetles? You're not a poser, are you?"

You feel like the other thugs don't quite share her enthusiasm about the bug, so it's good you didn't cast reinforce belief on anyone else. "Well, I was hoping to learn from you, actually!"
>>
>>6110195

She smiles harder, her teeth making a horrible screeching sound as they grind together. "Well, yeah, of course, I know a lot! Not to tooth my own horn, but I might be the person that knows the most about beetles in this place, maybe in the whole city! I-"

"That's very, very cool, do you have any beetles you could show me, like, past the barricade?"

"Yeah, sure!" She ushers you in, which a lot of the other thugs aren't okay with.

"What the fuck- don't just let him in! We don't even know who he is!" One thug protests.

Unfortunately for them, she's too engrossed in her beetle facts to care about what they have to say. Everytime one of them tries to reason with her, she pokes them with her spider legs. It looks like that despite her nerdy attitude, she's still strong enough that no one's really willing to use force to stop her.

"Whatever, just let her bite his dick off for all I care. This is why we aren't respected, because she keeps pulling shit like this!"

"Well, we're lacking a lot of firepower without her, so y'know..."

Their voices fade away in the background as she fervently lists every spot you're likely to encounter beetles. Beetles in the city are either genetically modified to provide free public services, or a strange product of evolution and sometimes even magic.

"Now, like most bugs, you can find them in the dirt under stuff. However, because the city doesn't have that much dirt, lots of beetles use artificial dust deposits for laying their eggs- You know artificial dust deposits, right? The big pile of dusts that end up in specific spots because of manual wind patterns?"

You pretend to care. "Please do tell, I'm not too familiar with them."

"Well, artificial dust deposits are very important for the city's ecosystem, you see, we could easily throw the dust away in the air to the outside, but to keep the wildlife going we... we..." she slows down her walking. "...do you really care?"

"I... Yeah? Beetles are pretty cool?" You answer, trying to guess what the drawback of reinforce belief will look like.
>>
>>6110197

"I mean, if they were, why would anyone act so BORED every time I talk about them, right? People keep saying 'just get a hobby, it'll make you friends' but if you're hobby is something weird like BEETLES, then suddenly it's not good enough. I- I like beetles, okay? It's not my WHOLE personality, but I like them a lot. It's just- it's like sometimes, I think, 'hey, do you really like beetles or did you just pick a weird obsession to look special'. I don't know! Is it one of those things where you act for so long that you forget the mask has melded with your stupid face!"

She get uncomfortably close, and not in the friendly way. She poked you multiple time with her spider legs, and it actually kind of hurt. You don't think she did it to harm you, she's just a little unstable right now. "Do you need some time alone?" You tell her with a pat on the back. "Sounds like you've got some stuff to work through."

She crouches down, stabbing the ground a few times with her spider legs. It leaves a pretty big mark in the concrete, which makes you realize how much she was holding back when she was poking you before. "Sure, whatever. You don't really care about beetles, no one cares about beetles..."

Reinforce belief's drawback is going to wear out soon, which means she's going to go back to her senses. It's unlikely she'll realize she had a spell cast on her, but she'll be harder to manipulate, for sure. You could just leave, but wouldn't having someone from the dark side of the city be useful? If you leave now, she'll no doubt see it as a betrayal, that you really didn't care about, uh, beetles.

"We're going to buy something, want to talk about beetles while we get there?"

"I guess..." she gets up sluggishly, and follows you to the store, not talking much. Even though the reinforce belief effect is over, she still looks down, you unearthed some bad memories, huh.

The store doesn't look welcoming, with iron shutters on the windows and a blast door that looks tough as nails. You ring the door, and after a minute, it opens.

The store owner is behind reinforced glass, and so are most of his wares. "Alright, tell me what you want, quick."

"We're here for one of those." You show him the processor you want. "I was told you'd have them?"

He raises an eyebrow. "There's only two reasons you'd want one, the first is if you were a collector, the second... is you want access to some top secret stuff stashed into some hard drive you really shouldn't have. So, found some government stash encrypted in some old ass computer? Is that what it's about?"

"I don't see how that's relevant. Do you have it, or not?"
>>
>>6110199

He lifts some kind of orb in front of his head and snorts. "That's not- WHAT THE FUCK." He almost stumbles backward when he points the orb towards Table. The orb glows so bright you're all forced to close your eyes until he puts it away. "What the fuck is she? I have this orb that detects mana in people that I bought from some fuck, but I've never seen it act up like this. Who are you people?"

The beetle woman turns to Table, who she obviously forgot about. "Are you an outsider? Here?"

Table comes up with something on the spot. "No, I just have a lot of mana for a human!"

You quickly cast reinforce belief to back up her story. Combined with her forgotten passive, they move on nearly instantly with a 'oh okay that makes sense'. You don't want to spend time arguing longer than needed, so you buy the processors without any haggling. You basically bought them for twice the price you should've, but you'll make that money back fast enough.

You shove the packaged processors into your pocket space out of the beetle girl's sight, and get ready to make an exit. Unfortunately the reinforce belief's drawback is acting again, and she's back to thinking Table is an outsider.

"Wait, if you're an outsider, does that mean you know magic? Real magic? Powerful magic? I won't tell anyone!" She grabbing Table by the collar of her hoodie, and Table is looking at you for help.

"Why do you want to learn magic?"

"I heard you could summon bugs with it! And change them! I've tried to augment a bug with cybernetics, but they all keep dying... I want to show them my hobby isn't a waste of time! Beetle queen! I want to make a big beetle!"

Is her obsession with beetles what you sounded like to people when you were talking to them about magic? If so, you can sort of sympathize, but can you really teach some random thug magic? What would you even get from this?

>Say that you have more pressing matters at the moment, but that you'll come back to teach her later.
>Say that you're willing to teach her if she can pay you.
>Say that you'll teach her later, but lie. You'll never come back to this part of the city.
>Another arrangement? (Write in)
>>
>>6110201
>Another arrangement
Tell her to go enroll in the school next time they're open, and tell her how to. We're a first year, not a teacher. Promise to help her learn once she gets there, but that's about it.
>>
>>6110208
+1
>>
>>6110208
I should specify, by how to, maybe tell her where to find some basic literature on magic? She needs to learn like 1 spell to enroll right? We shouldn't just hand everything to her, but we can point her in the way so she doesn't spend years uselessly chasing dead ends like we did.
>>
>>6110208
Support, but also mention that she'll need to be able to have a way to keep her cybernetics running "in the wild" so to speak. What do you think the chances are that she only has 2 extra legs so that she has 6 limbs like a beetle?
>>
>>6110227
That seems fairly obvious to me. Anyway i don't want to make it *too* easy and reveal everything we know about magic to someone who might drop the subject as soon as they have to actually step out of the city.
>>
>>6110208
>+1
>>
>>6110013
Dang, human society's pretty sketchy.

>>6110201
>>6110208 +1
>>
>>6110201
Did we just cast Reinforce Belief twice in a row? We have 85 mana and it costs 50 per use. I assume we just popped Overdrive silently to have enough to recast it?
>>
>>6110398
Didn’t we reduce its mana consumption ? Anyway, there’s table to recharge us.
>>
>>6110201
>>6110208+1
>>
>>6110481
>>6110337
>>6110256
>>6110210
>>6110208

"Listen, even if I could teach you some spells, I'm only a beginner," you tell the woman. "I don't even know how to summon anything alive, or how to modify bugs. If you really want to learn magic, you could always go to the school for the magically challenged. You'll need to leave for the outside, though."

"I wasn't talking to you! Wasn't I?" She already forgot about Table. "Maybe I was, but I can't just leave! What about my prosthetics? I need power and maintenance to keep these running."

"There are spells that create electricity, as for the maintenance, you might need to do it yourself. Besides, even if you leave, you'll still be able to come back as a second class citizen. Not to be rude, but that's already how you're treated anyway, isn't it? Living all the way out here."

"Even if that's true, surely the school doesn't just accept anyone, right?"

"Alright, I'll tell you something. Do you have a mail account? I can send you some basic knowledge to get you your first spell, maybe pocket space, that one's very handy. Nothing more than that though, once you've learned your first spell, you'll have to send them a letter with a reason as to why you want to learn magic. It doesn't matter how stupid the reason for learning magic is, all that matters is for them to see you're really motivated and that you won't fluke."

"I... I don't know if I'm ready to leave everything behind, though. Can't you just teach me? Since you're here?"

"No. Everyone follows their own path when it comes to magic, and I can tell yours would be pretty different from mine. You have to make sacrifices for your dreams, but I assure you, it's worth it!" A fire is rekindled within you as you say the last words. "Do you like beetles?"

"Yeah!" She shouts.

"Do you want to make the coolest, strongest ones? Do you want everyone to respect and fear them?"

"YEAH!" She shouts even louder, a few people on the street turn to look at you.

You grab both her organic hands. "Then follow your dreams! Let nothing stop you!"

The same fire inside of you now appears in her eyes, and she nods, certain of what she now must do. "I will! Thank you stranger!" She notes down her mail address and gives it to you. It's 'BeetleQueen83', with 'PS: every number before 82 was taken somehow'. She leaves to go presumably go back to the barricade, but you now know she aspires for greater things.

"What the fuck was that," Table says.

"It was love-" You cough as she slaps the back of your head. "I mean love for magic! You know what I mean."

"I guess that's the dumbass I fell in love with, so I only have myself to blame. You got everything you needed right? Let's go back."
>>
>>6110606

You notice the dark skinned man come out of another alleyway, covered in blood. A slightly terrifying sight, but he doesn't seem to care about you which is a good thing. You have a feeling you're better off steering clear off that guy. Apart from that, the walk back home is pretty uneventful. You send the instructions for how to learn pocket space to the beetle girl's mail. It'll probably take her half a year to learn the spell without a proper teacher, but that's much better than learning it off the wrong info you'll find online. There's a reason it took you years to figure out your first spell after all.

Either way, if she can't figure out that spell, then magic's likely not for her anyway. You enter back your apartment tired, but happy you won't have to do something like this again for a while. Your mom doesn't even pay attention to you or Table and Dad is busy cooking something in the kitchen, so you'll wait in the room with Table until dinner's ready. Table's messing with her virtual pets, those thing's batteries are made to last for a very long time, so she'll be able to play with it for a while even outside. It's nice that the gloves allows her to mess with gene locked stuff, she'll finally be able to play games herself without back seating.

"Hey, is that the internet you kept talking about? The thing that's like a big library you can access from anywhere?" Table jumps on your lap, which would trigger an erection if you weren't so tired from today's shopping. "What can I search? What do you usually search?"

>Check social medias, you could catch up on recent events. Introducing Table to shitty memes might be a bad idea though.
>You could make fun of people's misconception on magic and outsiders on forum boards.
>Just let Table type whatever she wants in the search bar, surely this can't go wrong.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6110607
>Just let Table type whatever she wants in the search bar, surely this can't go wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWXfebPOauI
>>
>>6110607
>Just let Table type whatever she wants in the search bar, surely this can't go wrong.
Hopefully we won't end in jail
>>
>>6110607
>Check social medias, you could catch up on recent events. Introducing Table to shitty memes might be a bad idea though.
let's present her the revolutionary idea that is basedjak posting
>>6110612
her learning new stuff would be nice as well
>>
>>6110607
>Just let Table type whatever she wants in the search bar, surely this can't go wrong.
We have to watch her and correct any mistakes. Somebody's first time learning the internet is precious
>>
>>6110676
+1

>>6110607
>Just let Table type whatever she wants in the search bar, surely this can't go wrong.
"Just ask me first in case it's a crime. Things are strict here."
>>
"How about you try out yourself? You have the gloves, after all. You know how the keyboard works, right? Just press the right keys to form the sentence you need." You get up from your chair and sit her down. "Go ahead, type anything!"

"Uh... so if I type..." She raises a finger, and slowly lowers it on the letter 'H'. Her eyes widen as the letter appears on the search bar. Even though she's seen you use the computer a lot, actually using it must be a very different experience. She's a very slow typer, but that's to be expected when it's her first time. Maybe you'll give her some typing lesson when you have the time. She types the word 'human', and looks at you expectantly.

"Okay, now press the 'enter' key, the big one. You'll see a bunch of sentences in blue, that means you can click them."

She nods, and clicks on the first result. It's the online encyclopedia's result on humans. It is, admittedly, a little biased towards humanity, naming them as the race that 'suffered the most' and painting humanity's tech advancement as fastly outpacing that of magic. You're not sure how the page can so confidently say that when they barely know anything about magic, even if you wouldn't say it's not too far off from the truth. Humanity's technology has been advancing at a rapid pace in recent times, you just wouldn't say it works as a 1 to 1 comparison to magic.

Table has already clicked on another blue link to something else. You make sure to stop her when she's about to click on something that a second class citizen probably shouldn't know about. Generally speaking anything on the internet isn't top secret, but there have been cases of accidental leaks that could get you in trouble for just knowing about them, or at least making people know that you know about them.

Now that she has a general idea of how the internet works, it doesn't take her long to type more questionable things. The moment she opens a porn site, she closes it, blushing furiously.

"Why are you surprised?" You ask her. "It's what you typed."

"I didn't expect it to actually work? These were real people too, it feels wrong? Like voyeurism?"

"I'm not going to start a conversation on the morality of porn, I don't really care since I never used them, but if your problem is with it using real people, maybe you could just look up pornographic comics and drawings." You're not sure encouraging her to look at porn is a great idea, but it's better if she looks at it as you look over her, after all you don't want her to click on any fishy links.

She's fascinated by the 'interesting' tags of the website. Like the fact that despite humanity's supposed hate of outsiders, the most popular tags are in fact related to said outsiders and magic. People want what they can't have, after all. Anbees are one of the most popular tag, with demons a close second, third's mind control, and beastfolks fourth. Anything after that has more or less the same degree of popularity.
>>
>>6111410

"I'm not surprised there isn't a forgotten tag, but still a little disappointed," Table complains. "The closest thing I can find is a tentacle girl but that's just an octopus beastfolk."

"Well, yeah, the chances of an artist not only knowing about forgotten but also bothering drawing porn about it is astronomically low. Maybe you'd have a better chance searching by least viewed?"

She follows your advice, and at the top of the page is a lot of very badly drawn comics, but one in particular catches your attention, or rather, the opposite, it makes you want to look past it the same way that the entry logs back then did. There's no way, right? But the title makes you curious, 'a memoryless love', what else could it be?

Table clicks on it, and the comic's story is pretty basic. The female protagonist is a high school girl that bumps into a boy that she keeps forgetting about once they stop talking. The boy looks human but has the same traits you'd expect of a forgotten, the eyes are shrouded (admittedly the same way a lot of male characters in those comics are) and his presence is hard to notice and remember. You don't see any of the tendrils that you'd expect of a forgotten, but to be fair those tend to be hard to notice.

Anyway, it's revealed that they had sex more than once, but the girl forgot all about it. For porn, it actually talks about the subject of consent and love with a lot of nuance. She did give consent, but she doesn't remember giving it, and that makes her feel violated even though she technically wasn't. Eventually she grows to understand the boy's predicament and accept that none of it is his fault, which is followed by- yeah, a lot of sex, no surprise there.

"That's cute," Table says. "But isn't that weird, though? That it feels boring even though it isn't? Does that mean that the curse extends even to fictional forgotten?"

It's not too far-fetched, after all even talking about the race as a whole is boring, so it makes sense that even fictional ones would be boring. Even Table tends to write her protagonists are non-forgotten for that reason, even if self-insert attempts tend to result in her curse affecting it anyway. You look at the description, and the author says she was inspired by a random blog post that someone made about a strange person they met. Unfortunately the blog post has been deleted, and there's no way of recovering it, it's the only comic with a forgotten-like comic she ever drew too, since she described the process of making it as 'actually quite dull, even if I liked the story in theory, it felt very tedious to draw for some reason'.

"Do you think there's another forgotten in the city?" Table asks. "I mean, I'm here, so it's not impossible, right?"

"It's unlikely, but considering how much mana you guys hold, and how easy you are to hide from the public, it wouldn't surprise me."
>>
>>6111411

You look at more saucy stuff, and apart from Table trying to mimic a snake girl's tongue using shapeshifting, there isn't much that strikes her fancy. Dad shouts over your bedroom's intercom that dinner is ready. You remember that your dad used to shout really loudly to get past the soundproof walls, but his voice got tired and he ended up installing an intercom in your room to make up for it. Your mom never uses it, though, she just bangs at your door.

Dinner is missing the chair and the meal you asked dad to add for Table. He forgot about it, but it wasn't out of malicious intent. You tell her you'll make her a sandwich later or something. After you're done eating, you find Table browsing the internet without your supervision, and she notices something strange.

The comic you were reading before was just deleted. Since it wasn't popular, it's unlikely it was backed up anywhere else but the original author's computer too. Weird, very, very weird. You're both staring at the screen in silence, refreshing the page now and then as if the comic was going to show up again, but it doesn't.

You don't feel like talking about the implications of this, so you leave to the kitchen to make her something to eat.

"Bitch make me a sandwich," she says, suppressing a laugh.

"Okay, now I'm not making you one. Hope you like starving."

She waves her hands in the air. "OoOoO, you really want to make me food... you like it when I call you a bitch, OoO- ACK-" You flick her forehead to make her stop.

You're too tired to entertain her right now, so you quickly put together the most depressing looking sandwich you can and pass it to her before heading right to bed. It's a little bit of a shame that you've passed the 'private hour' again without realizing it, but you'll make up for it later. You can't fully enjoy yourself when you've still got business to take care of.

The next day, you go to the anti-magic force's HQ. You were asked to leave Table at a nearby hotel in the meantime, since they consider what they'll show here to be a little sensitive. Claire is the one escorting you to the inner building. The turrets stand menacingly on the sides of the steel walls, you can even see a few runes carved on them. There's a lot of people inside, but very few of them are actually practicing magic. It makes sense, they hardly have the mana to cast their spells more than once or twice a day, even so, it's a very different vibe from the magic school.

You're led to a magic training chamber which sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. It's a room with a lot of screens, moving dummies and of course, runes. You watch replays of the spells cast here and it's... well, you're not sure what they're doing wrong since recordings don't show mana, but you can tell the way they cast spells isn't right. There's always an awkward delay every time they throw a spell, and there are also a few chants here and there that you're pretty sure aren't necessary.
>>
>>6111412

"So?" Claire asks. "Room for improvement?"

You do your best to not sound condescending, "I can think of a few, yeah. Like..."

You're coming up blank, everything about what you're seeing feels wrong, and you're not sure making a huge list of points to improve on is going to be very efficient, you'll need to teach them one mistake at a time, beginning with...

>Tell them that they could increase the efficiency of their rune by overloading it with mana.
>Tell them that the chants are probably not necessary. You know some spells require them, but low level spells like those that can be cast by humans rarely are.
>Tell them how to improve their mana storage runes, the one that Fet taught you should be better than what they have.
>Screw it, they'll learn the hard way. Propose a friendly duel against people of the force, they'll quickly realize what they're doing wrong.
>>
>>6111410
I wanna see Table's reaction to tentacle fun or shibari
>>6111412
speaking of turrets, did we ever "unglue" that one defending the hidden bunker ?
>>6111414
>Tell them that they could increase the efficiency of their rune by overloading it with mana.
>>
>>6111414
>Screw it, they'll learn the hard way. Propose a friendly duel against people of the force, they'll quickly realize what they're doing wrong.
I really wanna see a duel. This is also so we can get a feel of what it is to fight an anti-magic man.

>>6111436
>I wanna see Table's reaction to tentacle fun or shibari
Eeeh...i don't think 'tentacle' stuff would fit her situation, given the female one is her and not us.
>>
>>6111414
>Tell them that they could increase the efficiency of their rune by overloading it with mana.
We don't wanna make them too strong, after all.

>>6111436
I can't wait for Table to start spouting some cringe teasing like saying Atlas looks like he fucks forgotten women.
>>
>>6111414
>Screw it, they'll learn the hard way. Propose a friendly duel against people of the force, they'll quickly realize what they're doing wrong.
Show-off!
>>
Welp, guess we're in a tie now.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6111467
1. Switch my vote to break tie
2. You do it
>>
>>6111481
Huh, my IP already changed? Usually it takes some more time. Well, I did roll the dice, so i guess I'll change >>6111463 to
>Duel them
Can we at least hold back? I don't want them to know all our spells. We should probably tell them to not use like...guns and shit too. Make it a pure magic duel.
>>
>>6111411
Sad story. I wonder if it was a true one in the human city?

>>6111412
Is somebody out there targeting Forgotten fiction?
>>
>>6111544
Maybe somebody WANTS to be truly forgotten? Or, given we're being monitored, maybe when we started speculating about a Forgotten in the city...

Oh. Oh god. Claire found that Forgotten and is using him as a battery, isn't she?

>>6111414
>Screw it, they'll learn the hard way. Propose a friendly duel against people of the force, they'll quickly realize what they're doing wrong.
>>
>>6111581
>spoiler
Unlikely. Not when she knows so little about magic. Even Jack, who studied for way longer than us, didn't figure out everything.
>>
>>6111592
We know that there are items kicking around even the dimgy part of the human city which can identify a high-mana individual. She might now know how to use the body or living test subject properly, but she might still have it.
>>
File: he looks like.png (200 KB, 686x519)
200 KB
200 KB PNG
>>6111441
>Eeeh...i don't think 'tentacle' stuff would fit her situation, given the female one is her and not us.
I mean, she can still do the restraining thing and master bait us with it. perhaps even stuff our mouth
>>6111463
>I can't wait for Table to start spouting some cringe teasing like saying Atlas looks like he fucks forgotten women.
reminds me of picrel
>>
>>6111659
>
>>6111441 #
>I mean, she can still do the restraining thing
I don't think she can shape-shift *that* much

>reminds me of picrel
It reminds you of the variant? Not the original? That's actually about non-human women and human men? Like we are?
>>
>>6111814
I didn’t have the og “she looks like she she fucks human men” around and since it was table doing it I thought the women speaking might fit better.
>>
>>6111814
>>6111659
>>6111581
>>6111482
>>6111466
>>6111463
>>6111441
>>6111436

"It'll be better if I show you, can I spar with someone from the anti-magic force? No lethal weaponry, of course, just practice."

She raise an eyebrow. "I know our magic knowledge isn't quite up to par, but that doesn't mean you should underestimate us, you know? But fine, I'll humor you, let me call someone."

Claire sets you up with someone that she deems as 'experienced enough'. He sure looks like it with the scars he has. He's equipped with a laser gun, but it's more akin to the kind you'd find used in laser tag games, it's harmless for the purpose of this exercise.

"Want a gun?" Claire asks, but you shake your head. You won't need it, you have to prove a point. He's not wearing armor, and neither are you, so you figure he'll be an easy target.

The duel starts, and before he can even raise his gun, you use the good old spark and fire flare combo on him. He keeps hold of his gun, but not for long. He can hardly dodge the spells you throw at him and the match is quickly decided.

"He only won because I didn't have armor, in a real life scenario, I wouldn't go down so easily," the man says.

"It's not about winning or losing, it's about the fact you were taken by surprise. Sure, you can gun down the average magic user easily with numbers and armor, but what if they get the jump on you? What if they start heating up your armor and melt you from the inside? Unlike guns, spells don't make it obvious what you're aiming at, and you need to look out for the right signs before acting," You retort.

"So? If spells are cast instantly, what am I supposed to do?"

"You build counters. Isn't that what the anti-magic force is about? Countering magic? Let's do that again, but this time stay prepared. Most spells require focus, so there's a small window where I'll be vulnerable after casting, try to abuse that."

He begrudgingly gets into position for another spar, you're given some mana by someone else so you're back to full. You cast two pocket spaces, one above him and one behind you. This time he's wary, but his eyes are so fixated on you, he doesn't even notice the portal that's slowly lowering towards his head. He doesn't fire, clearly expecting some trick, but that is ironically what seals your victory.

You snap your finger, and stop the pocket space above him from moving. "I could've beheaded you right now if I wanted, was standing still really necessary?"

He's surprised, and a little mad after looking up. "I can't look at two places at once! Usually, we work as a team, so-"

"Well, I'm ONE magic user, what if you fight a team of them? Magic doesn't fight fair, keep that in mind. Let's go again."
>>
>>6112012

You keep sparring, and even when fighting against other members of the force, it's clear none of them are really used to fighting against mages, which makes sense. Nearly none of them cast spells either, and when they're about to, it's so obvious you see it as a free hit. You may be enjoying the power trip a little bit, and in their defense, you do occasionally lose, they're not ALL pushovers, but they never really win by using their magic, just better combat experience overall.

"Alright, I think that's enough," you say, using skin heal to fix the last bruises you got from the sparring. "You can rewatch the footage and see what you did wrong, alright?"

Claire rolls her eyes. "Sure, consider that 'lesson' enough to pay for your friend's stay." She turns to the other beaten up recruits. "We'll show you what we can do next time. Humans may fail a lot, but we're good at adapting and coming out on top."

You don't comment on this, and take your leave. She's not wrong, humanity's weakness turned into their greatest strength. You wouldn't have had to be half as creative as you were in your magic duels if you weren't so limited, after all.

You go pick up Table at the hotel. You find her lazily stretching against the sofa watching TV in her underwear, she's also eating a bag of chips.

"Table, get a fucking job." You sit down next to her. "I can't pay rent if you're just going to watch TV all day."

She digs around the chips bag, and throws it on the floor after seeing its empty. You weep for the hotel staff that will have to clean all of this. "Okay, I can give you a blowjob, that's a form of job, right? If prostitutes makes you pay for their service, and I'm doing it for free, then you're actually saving money. I'm doing my part."

"Table, you're acting as if hookers are a basic human need. Also, you got chips all over you, take a shower."

"You could clean it off of me, if you know what I mean." She pulls at her bra seductively without showing what's under it.

The idea of licking the chips off of her does sound hot, but you're not in your private hour, and just because the magic force said they wouldn't watch you doesn't mean the hotel's camera won't. You still have some time off the day, and you've got about...120GPC, which isn't much, but it's enough to have some fun. On the other hand, you could also just spend nothing and just have fun at home.

>There's still things you want to show her, might as well do it now. (20GPC cost)
>Just spend time playing games at home, you're tired anyway.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6112014
>Just spend time playing games at home, you're tired anyway.
Let's just chill. It's vacation. Also, we can finally enjoy our private time. Maybe take a shower before though? Those chip crumbles get everywhere.
>>
>>6112014
>Just spend time playing games at home, you're tired anyway
Fuck, I totally forgot to vote.
>>
>>6112014
I should also note, when we leave, we should convert that human money into outsider currency. So we can buy magic stuff.
>>
>>6112017
+1

>>6112114
yeah wise move
>>
>>6112014
when we're less tired we have to take Table to a movie theater as well as for the requisite theater blowjob
>>
>>6112118
Eh...wouldn't it be just a rehash of the forest scene? I'd prefer something more standard and lovey-dovey this time, preferably including handholding
>>
>>6112121
You drive a hard bargain anon. I'm for your idea more than I am for mine
>>
>>6112017
>+1
>>
>>6112014
>Just spend time playing games at home, you're tired anyway.
>>
>>6112014
Since Forgotten and everything about them are considered boring, surely mobody would bother watching us have sex? Right?

I say we at least tease her a little and pretend we're going to go for it, and then...

>There's still things you want to show her, might as well do it now. (20GPC cost)
Movie theater time!
>>
>>6107736
>has eyes
im still 139 posts from getting up to date, but i feel like i have to note this: OP hinted at that she only has one real eye
>>6107739
>The question is whether she actually has normal skin that keeps all the worms inside her.
Atlas was able to push his hand "inside" her thigh before. that seems to be a 'no' to me.
>>
>>6112953
>OP hinted at that she only has one real eye
That..wouldn't make sense. She'd have no depth perception. All she does is say that one of her eyes popped out of her head.
>>
>>6112541
>Since Forgotten and everything about them are considered boring, surely mobody would bother watching us have sex? Right?
Doesn't work that way. They'd remember it because they saw us. They might not remember it was with Table, but they'd remember "Atlas had sex in his room"
>>
>>6113166
>>6112954
>>6112953
>>6112541
>>6112337
>>6112168
>>6112117
>>6112112
>>6112017

You go back to your room with Table. By some divine providence, your dad says he's going to take out your mom for dinner tonight, this means that you've got the entire apartment for yourselves now. You finally understand what people mean when they say 'my parents aren't home tonight', it's pretty freeing to know you don't have to fear someone opening the door at the wrong moment. You dust off an old console of yours that you connect to a just as antique TV. Good old nostalgia. Table doesn't like that the video quality looks so much worse than what she saw on your laptop, but she gets used to it pretty fast.

You pick a fighting game, another one of those games you only picked because you knew a few of the characters in there were mages. You remember becoming quite good at it, mostly to live the power fantasy of a powerful mage, not that you need to pretend anymore. You both sit down on the floor, Table hovers over the different characters, and pays special attention to the female ones.

"Humans really like their breasts, huh. How can she even fight with that? Wouldn't that get in the way? Is she wearing an iron bra?" Table barrages you with questions that all have a very simple answer: The developers thought it'd be hot.

"Sex sells. People see a woman they want to have sex with on the cover, and they want to buy the game, that simple."

"Yeah, but isn't that a little...excessive? I mean if I... hold on..." She pats her flat chest, and slowly expands it. She's holding her breath as something snaps, and her chest deflates. "My bra is MADE to adapt to different sizes, and it still can't replicate those girls, seriously."

"I'm fine with whatever size, as long as you're the one with it. I do agree that there's a point where it becomes too big to be hot, it just becomes comical when you can't even see their waist, you know?"

She nods. "Good, cause there are limits to how hard I can change myself, even with shapeshifting. Anyway! Let's play the game, whatever it is!" You select your characters, and even though you go easy on her, she's very very bad at the game. It's not surprising, she has little to no prior experience with fighting games, and those are already pretty hard to get into when all she's played before are turn based RPG's (if you consider backseating playing).

In her defense, she learns fast, but it's hard to enjoy a match where you have to voluntarily delay your reaction time by a couple seconds every time you press a button. You spend a while teaching her the basics, but with the private hour right around the corner, you think it's time for another kind of game.
>>
>>6113245

"Hey, Table, it's the hour when they're not watching us anymore. Want to do something?" You wrap your arms around her from behind.

"I don't know... We can always do sex back there, you know? Might not get to play those games when we go back to school. Maybe later?"

"Video games or me?" You ask, knowingly parroting the ultimatum you've heard many girlfriends give to their boyfriend, except this time it's the other way around.

"Video games," she says without skipping a beat. Even though you know she's joking, it still hurts a little. She notices your frown, and sighs. "Alright, how about we do both to see which is better? Let's do both at once."

"You mean... playing the game AND sex? That sounds dumb and uncomfortable." You start another match. "Let's do it."

https://rentry.org/vce3mwip

Out of breath, Table can only get two words out. "I- I won."

You look at the screen, and she did. You don't think she was looking at the screen either when you were fucking her brains out, she must have just clicked the light attack button over and over until she won. You'll say that loss is worth it for sex like that. You're both still in the mood, and after dumping the excess mana from the bracelet, you have another go at it until you're both exhausted, you would've gone for a third time if not for the private hour ending soon, and the fact that you need to clean everything before your parents come back.

"Table, it's really impressive that you're still coming up with weird ways to have sex after all this time. Didn't expect it to be that good."

She smirks. "I don't know, you're pretty good at dumb ideas that somehow work out yourself, buddy. Also to answer your previous question, yes, you're better than video games, but you wouldn't have really given it your all if you didn't have some competition, it was all part of my master plan."

It's nice that you were able to have sex here before leaving. You don't have that much time left after all, since you need to walk back to the school, and you prefer leaving early just in case something happens during the trip that makes you arrive late. You should probably finish what you can in the city before taking your leave, though, like...

>Do another service for the anti-magic force, you could use the money.
>You suppose you could check in on the beetle woman, maybe she'll get you something in return for your help?
>The fact that forgotten comic got deleted bothers you a little, you want to look into that before leaving.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6113246
>Something else?
Maybe try seeing if we can convince mom? Get her to see Table isn't so bad? If she does, we'll get access to our college fund...
>>
>>6113252
+1 also very nice scene
I don't think this is the last we'll be hearing of any of these options and who they entail, but getting the parents to be okay first is way more important than
>anti-magic squad and the ex-friend
>the beetle woman and her magic school attempts
>the forgotten comic and other human/forgotten couples in the human city
I think if Atlas can have more prestige in the human city and the government due to his role as the best city-aligned human mage, he might be able to help other humans and forgotten out there in the city
>>
>>6113264
>very nice scene
Not as detailed as the forest scene, but then again if they all were it woulddn't make them special. I kinda expected her to lay on his chest and blow him while continuing to play
>I think if Atlas can have more prestige in the human city and the government due to his role as the best city-aligned human mage
Yeeeeah but their morality is spotty. As much as we'd like to see more humans get into magic, do we really wanna see someone like Clara figuring out the forgotten mana battery experiments?
>>
>>6113269
>spoiler
So did I, but I like the way this turned out too. I'm glad Atlas has a family that cares about him and has not abused him or bred resentment in his psyche, like so many anons out here have been by those closest to them. And I like how they have an intercom in Atlas' room due to his soundproofing.
>forgotten mana battery experiments
Yeah good point, but I figured the forgotten in the human city are a special case. I think it would be cool for him to help those in a situation like him and Table and what that forgotten comic expressed. Don't forget what Table said about other forgotten and their lack of upbringing and close ties, and what that generally results in most of the time.
>>
>>6113246
>The fact that forgotten comic got deleted bothers you a little, you want to look into that before leaving.
let's try solving this before we go. btw you're getting good with those smuts, that visual novel will be good with these.
>>
>>6113281
I feel like trying to snoop so soon might lead to bad things. They're probably keeping an eye on us after we found it.
>>
>>6113246
>The fact that forgotten comic got deleted bothers you a little, you want to look into that before leaving.
>>
>>6113246
>The fact that forgotten comic got deleted bothers you a little, you want to look into that before leaving.
>>
>>6113246
>The fact that forgotten comic got deleted bothers you a little, you want to look into that before leaving.
>>
You know, I'm thinking about it, and it really is kinda weird how strongly Atlas changes when Table puts on the bracelet, innit? It just turns off the curse temporarily. Not even completely since there's still obviously a lot of residue. But just that is enough to make him feel like he got hit with reinforce belief.

When we're about to cure Table, we should probably do it in private, because if the reaction is anywhere stronger than this he might just pin her down and take her in plain public.
>>
>>6113620
I think it's that we get that "first time you realize you're ACTUALLY in love" butterfly feeling every single time, because normally Atlas' understanding of how attached he really is to her is dulled.
>>
>>6113620
At that point there should be enough invisibility and illusion spells to account for that, on top of Atlas being corrupted enough where what you said will happen because he'll want it to happen
>>
>>6113620
>because if the reaction is anywhere stronger than this he might just pin her down and take her in plain public.
on that day Atlas will be the strongest MC to ever set foot on /qst/
>>
>>6113640
Truly, not even Lieren, Karn, or Beta have anywhere near that level of GUTS
>>
Oh yeah, also, i just remembered something - we should probably try to find some way to send letters to our parents. If i remember correctly, we were able to send our application to the school using a drone, right? We could probably do that to send letters to them every now and then too.
>>
>>6113354
>>6113309
>>6113294
>>6113281
>>6113269
>>6113264
>>6113252

You want to figure out what was up with that forgotten comic. It being deleted just after you got done reading it, that was a little bit too much to be a coincidence, right? The author had no reason to delete this comic after so long, and since you know you were being watched this entire time, it's not crazy to think the government or at least the anti-magic force is responsible.

But why? Forgottens are already so easy to forget, why would they bother going the extra mile of deleting a comic that features them? Online search yields nothing, of course. The only result you get is forgotten as a word, not a race. You try different strings of words, 'the race that makes you forget them', 'race made of tendrils', 'the races with the highest mana'. Nothing, not at the last page of the search engine, and not at the first. You're going to need to think outside the box, the comic was called 'memoryless love' or something, so maybe the term 'memoryless' will yield better results--it doesn't.

"Alrighty, I'm done cleaning!" Table sits on your lap. "What are you looking at?"

"I'm just wondering why the forgotten comic was deleted, there's nothing online about forgotten either, it's weird. I don't get why they would do that, do they know something about forgotten that we don't?"

"Maybe they're just trying to make sure no one can recognize me as an outsider?"

"That doesn't make sense, there's no way they would go through the trouble of deleting everything about forgottens online just because of you, that's too much effort and it's been too little time. There must be a reason for it."

She gets up and checks her virtual pet. "Does it matter? Even if it IS a government conspiracy, they're watching us right now, aren't they? What can we really do about it?"

"Because if it's true, they might know something that we don't, something I can use to cure you. We already know so little, we have to use everything we can get."

"Atlas, I know you really want to 'fix' me, and I'm sure you'll figure something out, but maybe you should do that when we're back at the school? I don't... I don't really want to think about that here, that's all."

"Table, I know, but I'm doing this for you. I can't really ignore a lead because we're on vacation, you know? It's fine, you don't have to do anything, I'll just look a few things up, and-"

"No, if you're doing something, I want to help. So, what's your dumbass plan so I can make fun of it?"

Your plan? If online searches don't work, then...

>Maybe you could check books? Physical media isn't as popular within the human city, but that means it's more likely to have books the government hasn't had the time to censor.
>You could ask Claire, might take a little bit of convincing to get her to talk if it's top secret info.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6113930
>Maybe you could check books? Physical media isn't as popular within the human city, but that means it's more likely to have books the government hasn't had the time to censor.
Maybe our good friend Beetle Queen would know a place where we can find 'forbidden' information? There's probaly at least one forgotten old book nook in the depths of the city...
>>
>>6113930
Assuming the comic was based on a true story, then...
>look around regular schools with Table
>keep senses peeled for that "forgotten" vibe
Would also be an excuse to get Table to see how ordinary non-magic human schools are here in the human city. Maybe taking a spare girl's uniform for later? I hope Weaver has a better life here than in his original setting...
>>
>>6113934
>You look at the description, and the author says she was inspired by a random blog post that someone made about a strange person they met. Unfortunately the blog post has been deleted, and there's no way of recovering it
Hmmmm...
>>
>>6113934
>spoiler
Huh?
>>
>>6113936
Just some stupid "hey what if last quest's main character was somewhere in this one but living a different life and doing better than he did in his own quest?" musing
>>
>>6113943
Anon, Weaver had a long, peaceful (after he moved to russia) life with a loving wife, four children, grandkids, and got to basically go to heaven to chill with his wife and the reigning deity. The only way he could have a 'better life' would be if he somehow clinched a sawyer-etsy threesome route with a happy ending

Forgot to add spoilers for anyone who hasn't read CC
>>
>>6113947
I meant before all that. Otherwise yeah you're right
>>
>>6113954
His life wasn't exactly horrible before that, other than your standard 'young man without any real motivation or plans for the future in a slump' that seems to describe a rather large number of people today. And that whole weird thing he had going on with some ex that was erased, but we never found out about that, so...
>>
>>6113955
I guess you're right. It could've been worse for him
>>
>>6113930
>Maybe you could check books? Physical media isn't as popular within the human city, but that means it's more likely to have books the government hasn't had the time to censor.
>>
>>6113932
+1

>>6113930
>>
>>6113930
>Maybe you could check books? Physical media isn't as popular within the human city, but that means it's more likely to have books the government hasn't had the time to censor.
>>
>>6114323
>>6113965
>>6113963
>>6113932
>>6113934

You tell her you'll check books. She's surprised books even exist in the human city, but they do, they're just not as commonly used for obvious reasons. They do have an advantage over digital media though, they're much harder to censor as you have to individually modify or destroy every single book if it contains a bit of info they don't want you to know about.

There are a few public libraries, but most of them are inside schools. Thankfully, your old schools is a little lax on security, and your old ID still works despite the fact you've left high school a while ago. You just have to hope no one asks what you're doing here, or you'll have to make something up on the spot.

Table's easy to bring along, since the gate doesn't check if more than one person passes it, you just use the ID and anyone can come in before the door closes. Normally it'd be the role of the gatekeeper to check for anything weird, but Table being Table, it's doubtful they noticed she didn't belong here either. The school is a massive block of square concrete with windows spread out evenly across the walls. Human architecture can be impressive, but a lot of it is more utilitarian than pretty. The inside looks much better, the yellow walls give a sense of nostalgia for a place you used to hate. You don't miss school, but your brain is very good at tricking you into thinking the past was better than it actually was.

You wish you could brag to your bullies, you've got a girlfriend and you are arguably one of if not the most powerful living human mage on this planet. Yeah, yeah, revenge doesn't fix anything, but it would make you feel better, and what's the point of having all this power if you don't abuse it just a little bit?

"Library!" Table says, snapping you out of your revenge fantasy. "It says library here, right? That's what we're looking for." She points to a withered sign that does in fact say 'library'. You remember going there a lot, since books usually had better info on magic than what you could find online. Not great, but better.

The librarian is surprised to see you again. You were one of the regulars in the library, so you figured he'd notice you right away. "Atlas? What are you doing here. I heard you left the city, but clearly not."
>>
>>6114425

It looks like your story went around, it is pretty rare for a human to leave the city of their own free will, especially when they're middle class and would benefit way more from working inside it. "I'm uh, working for the anti-magic force now, in a sense. Say, do you have any books about outsider races?"

"Didn't you say the anti-magic force wasn't enough for you? Well, whatever, none of my business. Did you have any race in mind?" He gets up from the counter to check the other bookshelves. "Most info on outside races are a little bit outdated, might not find a lot of useful things in books."

"That's fine, I'll take what I can get. Especially if it's on more obscure races."

"Check the bottom of the bookshelf, then. That's where the oldest books are. If it's something you can't find online, it's bound to be here."

You follow his advice and get to work, checking each book title to see if anything catches your eye. You hear something fall, but it's not a book, it's a camera.

"Dangit." The librarian picks up the fallen camera and puts it back up. "Don't tell anyone, but the cameras don't work, not like anyone would bother stealing books nowadays. I'd get them fixed but it's just so much paperwork and our budget's already razor thin."

"Sure, I won't tell anyone." You turn to see a grinning Table that's thinking exactly what you're thinking. "Table, we're not doing this, we have to get this done."

"I didn't say anything," Table whispers. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

You don't believe her, but now is not the time for fooling around, you're on a serious mission for serious stuff, and you are NOT keeping the lack of cameras here in mind for later, not at all. Table finds a book that looks promising, and after flipping through its pages, it does in fact contain info related to forgotten. It's not a book about forgottens, but it still mentions them a lot, and since this was made by a human author, it might shed some light as to why forgotten mentions are being deleted from the web.

The book is about religion, specifically the parallels between the different religions of outsiders and humans. Human religions are a little bit all over the place, many believe a god did in fact create humanity, but instead of the usual worship that's expected from most religion, prayer is considered pretty insulting, because it's the equivalent of either begging for god to do something, or it's assuming the human god is vain enough to demand worship in the first place. Human culture takes self-actualization and improvement very seriously, and as such it's believed that the best way to honor your god isn't to worship it, but to make them proud by being the best you can be. Not all humans religions are the same, of course, but the one you described is the most popular version.
>>
>>6114426

How does this relate to forgottens? Well, the book mentions that many outsider religions include an event known as the 'god war'. There were multiple gods that each created a race that they fought with in a global war, and after the war was over, the gods were either so weakened that their influence over the world became scarce, or that the gods were killed outright. The interesting part is that most of those religions mention a race that matches no other, and that they were 'powerful, stealthy, and ruthless'.

Of course, every religion has their own interpretation of what that race was, some think they were actually a creation of the beastfolk gods, some think they were actually not created by a god at all but a freakish product of evolution. No one agrees on anything, and the truth is said race is often only a couple of lines in each sacred text. It's possible those weren't forgotten at all, but what else could they be? You were never very religious yourself, but it looks like you may have to catch up on your theology if you want to understand more about forgottens as a whole.

You pick up a few books on the god war and say you'll bring them back later. You're not telling the librarian you won't be back for months, but you don't think he cares either way. It seems like books didn't yield that much insight as to why forgotten's existence were hidden from the human city, but you may have found another lead to their origin, so it wasn't pointless either.

You've done what you wanted here, and it's already time to leave. You'll finish reading the books at the school. Table is sad that her vacation in the human city is already over, but you tell her you can always come back later. You're told to leave the city through a secret passage since having a nobody like you go in and out of the main gate is a little suspicious. The trip back goes very smoothly, even if Table likes to interrupt you to show the progress of her virtual pet every few hours. If you ever end up living together, you'll have to buy her a real pet, like a cat or a dog.

If you end up living together...

You're flustered by the idea for some reason. You've been dating her for long enough that spending the rest of your life with her isn't out of the question, in fact, you can hardly imagine your life without her now. Will you have children together? Or marry? You never considered yourself much of an adult, but you'll have to consider what you want to do when school is over, right?

You still have a lot of time to think about these things, right now you should focus on what matters, your magic study and fixing Table's curse, anything else is secondary.
>>
>>6114427

You're back at the school, two weeks before classes start again. Most students aren't here, which makes the campus feel very empty. What should you do before the end of your vacation?

>Might as well look up more religious books in the school's library, you could also ask the teachers.
>You have the parts to fix the computers, it's time to make a new spirit friend!
>Maybe you should check on Fet to see how she's doing. She's one of the few students still here with Rin.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6114428
Bloody hell, are my posts getting eaten?
>>
>>6114438
Okay now they're working
>Maybe you should check on Fet to see how she's doing. She's one of the few students still here with Rin.
This shouldn't take long. We'll have time to do other stuff, no?
>>
>>6114428
>Maybe you should check on Fet to see how she's doing. She's one of the few students still here with Rin.
Are they still digging up corpses?
>>
>>6114428
>Maybe you should check on Fet to see how she's doing. She's one of the few students still here with Rin.
What the others said

>>6114426
>You turn to see a grinning Table that's thinking exactly what you're thinking. "Table, we're not doing this, we have to get this done."
>"I didn't say anything," Table whispers. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
>You don't believe her, but now is not the time for fooling around, you're on a serious mission for serious stuff, and you are NOT keeping the lack of cameras here in mind for later, not at all
He's gone. It's so over for him. He'll never be able to un-degen himself.
>>
>>6114478
It's all nice to talk, but he hasn't even sneaked out into a classroom at night to bend Table over a Table.
>>
>>6114483
He'll have to build up his courage to do it plus come up with the idea on his own. It'll happen in due time

>>6114426
>>6114427
I personally think the god of the forgotten is what is behind the portals that the maintenance worms transport mana to. The secret emperor...
>>
>>6114426
>You don't believe her, but now is not the time for fooling around, you're on a serious mission for serious stuff, and you are NOT keeping the lack of cameras here in mind for later, not at all.
gentlemen, we got him
>>6114428
>You have the parts to fix the computers, it's time to make a new spirit friend!
time to fix it and learn the secrets
>>6114485
mysterious
>>
>>6114427
I like how Atlas is actively thinking of the future and what he wants compared to how Weaver was in CC. Atlas has way more agency and initiative. Definitely a more developed protag for a proper second quest from the QM
>>
>>6114567
He also doesn't knock up his girlfriend in the middle of a magical battle royale like a few months after they met.

I mean it ended up alright, but i rememer being pretty damn paranoid over someone attacking them during her pregnancy.
>>
>>6114567
3rd quest actually. Did you miss the eldritch god royale ?
>>
>>6114596
I said proper second quest. I excluded the oneshot

>>6114577
We had every right to be paranoid about it with the shit Mona could do and after the first thing with Sawyer. If there was no anti-pregnancy spell due to actual magic and no valid reason not to like life magic causing horrible biological complications, then Table would have been knocked up in a few months after she and Atlas met too
>>
>>6114428
>You have the parts to fix the computers, it's time to make a new spirit friend!

>>6114601
My biggest fear with having a Forgotten child right now is that, until we have a cure... That kid could just be forgotten about and neglected, like Table was as a baby, or like her father presumably was before her.
>>
>>6114616
>That kid could just be forgotten about and neglected, like Table was as a baby, or like her father presumably was before her.
Not really, we already have ways to remember Forgotten. I doubt it'd happen with our kid, especially since we have ways like the bracelet (A baby would basically have zero mana, so it wouldn't be an issue, right?)

Anyway, the real issue is Life magic. The kid would end up being subject to it, and that's no good.

So ideally, we'll wait until we manage to find a cure for Table and we finish school, and *then* we'll be able to impregnate her.
>>
>>6114428
>Maybe you should check on Fet to see how she's doing. She's one of the few students still here with Rin.
>>
>>6114983
>>6114478
>>6114475
>>6114439
>>6114545

You check up on Fet. She's happy to see you again, even it seems like she's a little bit on edge.

"HI! I mean, hello! G-Good morning."

"We heard you the first time," Table says. "How's that thing with your 'friend' going?"

Fet looks at Table for an uncomfortable amount of time. "Uhm... who... s-sorry if we met before, but-"

"She's my girlfriend, Fet. She also knows about what you were doing with Rin's parasite."

"Did you- Did you tell her? You said you wouldn't..."

Despite yourself, you groan. It's not her fault, she hasn't interacted with Table for a month or so, of course she'd forget about her, but that doesn't make the whole affair any less frustrating, because now Fet is going to think you told someone despite promising not to. You could explain the whole forgotten affair again, but then she'll just feel guilty that she forgot at all about someone that helped her before. "No, I didn't, she learned on her own. I just wanted to know how you were doing, or if you needed help."

Fet is still eyeing Table suspiciously, but there's not much you can do about that. "O-Okay, uhm, so we sort of managed to make a wraith body, but we sort of have a problem. We need to extract the parasite and put it on the wraith, right? But wraith bodies are a little weird, and I'm- I'm afraid I'll mess it up, you know? If it doesn't work, she'll die! I don't want to- I don't trust myself with this."

"Would it be easier if we also helped? Life magic isn't my specialty but I know a few things." You pat her back.

"I don't... I don't know. I said I wouldn't tell anyone, if she learns that you know then- aaah... I don't know! I just want to be done with this! I just want to go back to normal studies! I-I should've never gotten involved- I knew I was going to mess it up like everything else!"

You try to calm her down, but that doesn't solve the problem. I'm sure the parasite won't mind if we help Fet, it's not like she spilled the beans on purpose, but you still need to find a way to transplant the parasite into a wraith body without messing things up... but how? What kind of spells would that entail?

>Ask the life teacher, she doesn't have to know why you're asking those weird questions, but even if she figures it out, you're sure she'll understand the parasite's predicament.
>Check the library, something about Wraith biology could help?
>It's better to try and figure out a solution with the parasite, that might make Rin suspicious though.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6115121
>Check the library, something about Wraith biology could help?
>>
>>6115122
+1
Let's go learn about necromancy, everyone!
>>
>>6115121
What if we ask the Divination Teacher what to do? She probably already knows the situation. Life isnt her specialty but she can tell us what the best course of action should be.
>>
>>6115121
>Check the library, something about Wraith biology could help?
>It's better to try and figure out a solution with the parasite, that might make Rin suspicious though
Library first, but we should being Rin in on it. She's going to learn about rhis one way or another pretty quick here...
>>
>>6115122
>+1
>>
>>6115212
>>6115174
>>6115124
>>6115122

Checking the library sounds like a good idea.You consider telling Rin about your plan, but Fet made it pretty clear that if Rin was to get wind of this, she'll oppose it; after all, her parasite gives her a definite edge on the other students, both in its mana and spell knowledge. You did ask Fet if she could talk to the parasite to tell her of your involvement, but you're probably going to need to do it yourself at this rate with how afraid she is to speak up.

Anyway, the library is as confusing as always, and you have to do your new favorite activity, looking at book titles hoping it will actually be relevant to you. You never considered that 'book clickbait' could be a thing, but it makes perfect sense, people still need to sell their books after all. Your search isn't fruitless, and wraiths are well documented, unlike forgotten and humans so it wasn't as frustrating as usual to find what you needed.

Wraiths are interesting, they aren't a race in the traditional sense, but whatever traits they had in life tends to be overwritten after their transformation. For example, if Fet was turned into a wraith, she might keep her beak and whatnot, but she wouldn't be able to fly using her wings, and her maximum mana would also change. Yes, turning into a wraith changes your body so drastically it even alters your mana, which makes you wonder what would happen if Table was to be turned into one. Despite being ghost themed, a wraith does need a proper physical body to transform first, just a soul is hardly enough. Wraiths also do grow up in a sense, but rarely grow old, a wraith is very susceptible to changing depending on its surroundings. For example, if someone was turned into a wraith as a child, they'd still look like a child, but if they spent a lot of time with kids that grew into adults, they would themselves grow into an 'adult wraith' form. Most interestingly, the wraith growth might also be affected by other people's puberty, occasionally manifesting physical traits of the races it spends time with, meaning a wraith that used to be a human on death could very much look like a demon later if they grew up surrounded by demons.

One can make a soulless wraith body, just like Fet and the parasite made, but the issue is that the ectoplasm forming the body can be very unstable without one. In theory all you'd need is to shove the parasite in there, but the problem is the parasite will need something to attach to, and if the ectoplasm lets her fall through as you're making the transfer it might be an issue. The good news is if the transplant is done successfully, the parasite should be able to control the wraith body just fine, and might even be able to hide inside its body without revealing itself, since the parasite doesn't need to attach to a brain, it just needs to attach its soul to it.
>>
>>6115716

Now, how do you 'stabilize' a soulless wraith body? Great question!

It doesn't say anywhere. Nearly all wraiths are already born with a soul already, and the few that aren't just have a necromancer shove the soul in there directly. As far as you can tell, there's no real precedent for a parasite attaching itself to a wraith body, not that you can find anyway.

What to do...

>Maybe you could ask the divination teacher, she's a wraith, and she probably already knows about your plan anyway.
>You could ask Ivy when she comes back, since she's a wraith, but...ugh, Ivy.
>Maybe looking into the past life of the body they're using could help stabilize it somehow?
>You can share what you know with Rin's parasite, but you'll have to explain how you even knew about her plan. (if things go wrong, you might need to start the transplant early)
>Write in.
>>
>>6115717
>Maybe you could ask the divination teacher, she's a wraith, and she probably already knows about your plan anyway.
>>
>>6115718
+1
>>
>>6115717
>>Maybe you could ask the divination teacher, she's a wraith, and she probably already knows about your plan anyway.
>>
>>6115717
>You can share what you know with Rin's parasite, but you'll have to explain how you even knew about her plan. (if things go wrong, you might need to start the transplant early)
>>
>>6115808
>>6115800
>>6115721
>>6115718

It's better to ask the Divination teacher. She knows things, she's a wraith, and you really want a teacher's advice before doing something stupid. Since she doesn't have any classes to teach, Nina isn't busy, unless you count 'laying down on the grass looking up at the sky' as busy.

"Miss Nina, can we-"

She answers you before you even finish your sentence. "Yes, yes, the wraith affair. I wasn't able to get a good read on your decision because of this thing in your pocket, the coin." She points to the copper coin you got from the store a while ago, you still don't know what it does. "It's a focus, if you were wondering. You know how some spells require you to think of something before doing it? Some spells don't punish you too hard for doing it wrong. If you use Remote View, and you accidentally cast it at the wrong spot, then it's no big deal, just cast it again, but what about dangerous spells? What if you're trying to teleport somewhere and you teleport yourself directly into the ground? That's where objects of focus start to matter."

"So... how do I use it, then?" You ask.
>>
>>6115847

"When things look grim, and you have to cast a spell with a high chance of failing. Don't take my word for it, though, that coin's for you to figure out. Anyhow, that wraith business, we're aware of it, Kit even grades Rin and her parasite separately, even if neither of them are aware of it yet. Parasites may have no rights legally, but as an independent school, we can give the worms beneath the grass the same rights as everyone else if we wanted to, only inside the school perimeter, but still."

She gets up from the grass, as always, she towers above you. It makes you wonder what kind of race she even hung around with to grow this tall, you've never heard of a giant race. "Now you may wonder why we didn't do that little transplant plan ourselves if we value this parasite as highly as her host, and the answer is the same as most obstacles this place face, annoying politics. i won't get into details, but the vow we take to protect students include that catgirl, and forcefully taking away the parasite without her consent could be seen as a violation of her bodily autonomy. It's a pain if we get involved directly, but if another student acted of their own accord then, ah, it's more of an unfortunate accident, isn't it? Let's get to the point, if you want your transplant to go well, you're going to need crystallized emotions from the parasite. It doesn't matter what kind, although more extreme emotions like fear and hate are preferred. This will help stabilize the body and acclimate it to its new soul, then the wraith will welcome the new soul with open arms."

Oh, that sounds...easy? Maybe? You thank Nina, but before you leave, she says one last thing. "That girl, Fet. She's never acting how I expect her to, which is strange. I'm not saying she has any ill intent, but I can't say that she doesn't either, which bothers me, take care, alright?"

Nina sure likes her ominous goodbyes, but you have no reason to suspect Fet of anything, right? If anything, Nina has always acted more strangely and secretive than Fet ever did. You hope Table doesn't take this as an opportunity to scrutinize Fet again for no reason, this isn't the time for that.
>>
>>6115848

Anyway, now all you need to do is to crystallize the parasite's emotion. Just getting Rin won't work, it has to come from the parasite specifically. The last time you needed crystallized emotion you asked Table to take you by surprise, but you have no idea if the parasite would fall for that, or if she might overreact.

>Happiness can work, right? Maybe if you just hang out with her like a normal person, she'll feel something?
>Fear worked once, it can work twice. Table jumpscare operation 2.0.
>Hate is mean, but it's a lot easier to provoke than other emotions, and it's strong.
>Write in

Also, should you let the parasite know ahead of time of your plan? It might be harder to get some emotions out of her if she's already aware of what you're trying to do, but you don't want her to get the wrong idea either.
>Let the parasite know.
>Do not.
>>
Okay, why the hell is every second post i make not going through? Seriously. I post something, it says i posted, and then nothing.
>>
>>6115849
As i *tried* to say before
>Hate is mean, but it's a lot easier to provoke than other emotions, and it's strong.
>Do not.
This might not work with a normal person, but thankfully, we have Table. The Parasite probably won't remember her. So we'll meet up with it, and Table, who'll be "introducing" herself again, will begin to be extremely demeaning to her, asking why we want to help some parasite creature, completely ignoring anything she says, and then assuming we're just trying to remove Rin's abilities (implying they belong to her) for beating us in a duel. Just outright disrespectful.

If that doesn't get the parasite angry, nothing will.
>>
>>6115856
+1
I wanna see the look on their face when they find out we were helping them all along
>>
>>6115857
Ah, but we should probably ask Fet whether she knows if pissing the parasite off would awaken Rin.
>>
File: SHNina.png (78 KB, 651x811)
78 KB
78 KB PNG
(I tried to draw Nina how I remembered her but I genuinely forgot I gave her super long hair, with the short hair she looks more boyish than expected. Couldn't be assed drawing the body proper either because she's so god damn tall)
>>
File: 1710743035882165.gif (600 KB, 132x126)
600 KB
600 KB GIF
>>6115880
Your drawings are great when you make them, the artstyle has sovl
>>
File: NinaBlush.png (158 KB, 817x758)
158 KB
158 KB PNG
>>6115884
>>
>>6115890
How many crazy students have hit on her over the years?
>>
>>6115856
+1, good plan

>>6115911
I can only imagine she has to shut it down before they develop the crush lest she end up seeing some unsavory moments.
>>
>>6115880
She's just trying something different today.
>>
>>6115849
>Hate is mean, but it's a lot easier to provoke than other emotions, and it's strong.
>>6115849
>Let the parasite know.
in facting, knowing will help get some emotions outta them
>>6115880
>Couldn't be assed drawing the body proper either because she's so god damn tall
how tall ? also thanks for the kino
>>
>>6115996
She's like 10 feet tall, which is really god damn high even for demon women. The only other race that can reach these heights consistently is certain brands of beast folks.
>>
>>6116032
>cute 10ft tall teacher lady
Now i definitely think some students had to have gotten crushed on her over the years.
>>
>>6115849
>Fear worked once, it can work twice. Table jumpscare operation 2.0.
>Let the parasite know.
She can store a note in her pocket to remind her she agreed to it.

>>6115856
Though this is good, too.
>>
>>6116032
>She's like 10 feet tall, which is really god damn high even for demon women.
wait, I thought Lazari was the demon one. speaking of demons, how tall was the one Atlas fought ?
>>
>>6116261
No, Lazari is the demon one. QM's saying demon women are hella tall, and Nina is taller even than she is.
>>
>>6115849
>Hate is mean, but it's a lot easier to provoke than other emotions, and it's strong.
>Do not.
>>
while on the topic of crystalizing emotions, i dont think our response to our last experiment was appropriate:
we ALMOST SHOT TABLE, in the middle of a forest of all places.
(as a reminder Atlas reached for his pocket space, but failed to open the portal)
can we just not attempt such dumb thing ever again? especially because as we go forward we get more likely to be able to pull off whatever spell on the spot
>>
>>6116619
How will we gain strong enough emotions then if magical or artificial means are worse?
>>
>>6116638
Ehh...other emotions aren't so hard. It's just fear that we should look out for, since that's the risky one. I certainly don't think it would be hard to get Happiness with Table around.
>>
>>6116638
We can always make do with lower-quality or weaker ones, and opportunistically crystalize stronger ones when/if the opportunity presents itself.
>>
>>6116310
>>6115996
>>6115916
>>6115857

"Table, can you make yourself very hatable?" You figure hate is a pretty easy emotion to trigger, and Table's curse means the parasite is unlikely to hold any grudges.

"I can make myself very Table." She smiles. "I can make my-"

"I heard you the first time. Anyway, I want you to make that parasite pissed off, then crystallize that emotion like the teacher said. We'll explain why later, since it might be less effective if she's already aware of what we're trying, we can't count on her forgetting that we tell her later."

"Sure, sounds like a plan, I hope she won't take anything I say too seriously, because I'm going to be very VERY mean."

"Even if she ends up hating you for real and somehow remembers it, it'll be worth it if it means freedom for her. If that happens I can make myself hated too so we're even?"

She shakes her head. "Nah, no need, I get why we have to do it. Besides, it will give Fet a more 'permanent' friend, and she really needs more of those."

You also ask Fet if pissing off the parasite may wake up Rin, and she says that she only wakes up when someone speaks too loudly or when they exert themselves too hard, other than that there's no reason for her to wake up other than just not being sleepy anymore. You tell Fet of your plan, and she's... not exactly on board, but you tell her she doesn't have to do anything, you just want her to know you're not being mean for no reason. Tables makes a comment about how she can always 'comfort her' after the fact, but it seems as if Fet is too pure to understand the innuendo.

Table waits for the night to come, when the parasite is most active. Table intercepts her before she visits the library in the hallway. You're listening in from behind the door of your dorm, you learned the soundproof part of your room can be modified so you can listen in on what's going on outside without people hearing you.

"Not even going to say hello?" Table asks. "That's rude, you know."

"I didn't see you here, sorry. If you'll excuse me, I have studies to do," The parasite answers calmly.

"What for? You don't need to study at all, you're just leeching off of Rin. You're just pretending to be busy." Table's acting is on point, it really feels like what your bully sounded like back in high school.

"Yes, I wanted some fresh air. Let me pass now."

"What, you're too good for me? Is that what you're saying? No wonder you have no friends if you push away anyone that tries to talk to you."
>>
File: Para.png (81 KB, 741x741)
81 KB
81 KB PNG
>>6117192

"...what are you trying to do?" The parasite asks, her voice as calm as ever. "I don't know you. I didn't do anything to offend you, is berrating me the only way you can give meaning to your miserable life? Anything you can say I've already heard a thousand times, don't bother."

Shit, it's not working, she's a lot more thick-skinned than you expected. How is Table supposed to get on her nerves? How much meaner does she need to get?

"I know about your plan, you know?" Table says, breaking your agreement to NOT tell her. "I'm going to tell the teachers, and you'll be punished accordingly. How sad, I'm sure you were so close to getting your own body, but you really don't deserve one."

Silence. You can feel the astonishment of the parasite even from here. She can't scream or shout because she knows it'll wake up Rin, from her point of view this must be terrifying. You hear steps from Table's position, she's approaching her slowly with what you assume is a very smug expression.

Then, you hear an explosion- a fire flare? That's absolutely a fire flare. You open the door in a panic, but Table is already running away, and Rin has woken up from the loud sound and pain. She's looking around confused as to how she ended up here. You tell her you accidentally messed up a spell you were practicing in the hallway. It's a stupid lie, but if you tell her she got assaulted by some random person it might lead her to look further into it which is not what you want. Rin wasn't that hurt by the spell since the parasite didn't aim it at herself, so she's not that angry about it, just annoyed.

Rin walks back to her dorm to fix up her clothes, and you take your leave to check up on Table. She did manage to get crystallized hatred out of her, but taking that fire flare point blank really hurt, since she didn't have any protective spell or enchantment on her. It's nothing too bad, but Table is convinced that if she didn't run when she did, she might have been knocked out or killed.

You'd call these measures extremes, but you can understand why the parasite reacted as strongly as she did, disposing of the only witness was the only think she could think of at the moment. Table says she doesn't hold any animosity towards her either, but that she'll steer clear of her just in case, because even with her curse, the parasite has a very good reason to remember her.
>>
>>6117194

The next day, you get a visit from... Rin? Not the parasite, Rin the catgirl. "Can I come in? Don't get the wrong idea, I just want to ask you a few things, that's all!" She has this same nice but slightly condescending tone she always has.

"I'm not going to get the wrong idea because I already have a girlfriend that's right behind me, what did you want to talk about? Sorry for hitting you with a spell yesterday I really didn't mean it."

"You have a girlfriend?" She bites her lip, or whatever cats have in place for lips. She looks annoyed, was she interested? That doesn't seem right. "You're a lot more social than I expected. I mean that in a good way, of course! And who is this mystery girl? I don't remember you hanging out with any girl other than Charlotte, but I doubt it's her."

"Just tell me why you're here, Rin." You tap your foot impatiently.

"You lied about hitting me with a spell on accident, I have a spell to check just that. Now why would you do that? You're trying to cover for someone, but who, and why? Something's going on, and I don't like to be behind when it comes to 'gossip'."

Shit. Shit, how does she know? A spell to tell if someone's lying? You REALLY have to find protective spells against stuff like that because you're not a huge fan of being taken by surprise like that. Whatever, you need to tell her off, somehow.

>Just close the door on her, even if she asks the divination teacher, you don't think she'll rat you out.
>Let her in, but use reinforce belief to manipulate the truth. Hopefully she won't realize she's being manipulated, but...
>Tell her you said the truth, and that you don't care what she thinks.
>Lie by omission and make up a version of event that is technically true but still supports your original lie.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6117196
I have an idea, but it's a bit awkward. The idea was to say that we were uh....having some fun with our girlfriend, and when we saw her coming she panicked and ended up casting fire spark as a distraction without seeing who it was.

It's awkward enough that she'd probably not think much more about it.
>>
>>6117194
Damn, she really doesn't mess around...

>>6117207
+1, the best way to make someone lose suspicion is by making it awkward, and "I was having sex in a public place with my girlfriend" is very awkward. If she was able to tell what actually happened she would have already went to go kill the parasite, not asked us what was happening.
>>
>>6117207
+1
It'd be funny if Atlas and Table both apologize to Rin and the parasite after all this is done
>>
>>6117214
Well obviously we're going to explain to the parasite the situation once we're done so we can do the ritual and give her a Wraith body. Rin's probably gonna be pissed after we do that, though. But i guess then it won't matter because she won't have the parasite.
>>
>>6117196
>Lie by omission and make up a version of event that is technically true but still supports your original lie.
>>6117210
no need to go that extreme, anon
>>
>>6117318
Well, what lie would you say, anon?
>>
>>6117207
+1

>>6117196
>>
>>6117196
>Lie by omission and make up a version of event that is technically true but still supports your original lie.
>>
>>6117627
>>6117508
>>6117318
>>6117214
>>6117210

You don't exactly care about what she thinks of you, so if you have to lie, you might as well make it a very uncomfortable one.

"So, with my girlfriend we were... doing stuff outside our dorm. She was practicing a spell, and it kind of got out of hand..." You voluntarily phrase it in a very misleading manner. You remember something about the detect lie spell, and it's that it's very bad at nuance. You were doing sexual stuff outside your dorm, and she did use a spell on you, but it was in the forest, or in the vault. Yes, of course this doesn't answer her question at all, but it's implied that it does, and that's all that matters.

"I- Were you seriously having- I don't believe you." She frowns. She specifically said 'I don't believe you' and not 'I know it's a lie'. This means her spell didn't trigger, and that the only way for her to bust the lie is to ask more about what we did, which is going to be obviously very awkward for the both of you. "Let me in, I don't want to talk about that outside."

You look back at Table, and she gives you a thumbs up. Okay, she'll back you up, good. She enters the room, and Table supports your story. She still looks around to look for anything suspicious, but you don't think she knows what you're up to.

She sniffs the air, and small cat ears plop out of the top of her head. She sniffs again, and she makes a disgusted face before leaving in silence.

You close the door behind her so Rin doesn't hear what you have to say next. "What the fuck was that? Does this place smell that bad?"

She reveals one of your underwear she was holding behind her back. "Sometimes I keep them instead of cleaning them, and since she has an enhanced sense of smell, I thought it'd help sell the story about us fucking recently, you know?"

"Table, making another girl smell that is weird even by your standard."

"Hey, I wasn't getting off to it or anything, I did it because it was the quickest way to make her leave. The only one that's allowed to smell you like this is me. Besides, you're the one who started talking about our sex life, I only followed your lead, you're the weird one if anything." After she shifts the blame on you, she puts on her gloves and start playing with her virtual pet.

Awkwardness aside, this went as well as it could've. You don't care what Rin thinks of you, and you doubt she'll bother spreading the rumor you're fucking in public. Rin doesn't sound like the type of person to harm someone unless it benefits them somehow, an opportunist of the highest order. This doesn't make her a good person, but it does make her predictable, which is all you need to know about her.
>>
>>6118663

Now here comes the parts that sucks, confronting the parasite about what you did. Unfortunately, after her attack, she's now locking herself up in Rin's room so she doesn't meet Table again. You have to ask Fet to knock for you so you can talk to her, she opens the door slowly, and you're face to face with the parasite. You can feel surprise from her, it looks like you were the last person she expected.

"What are you doing here?" She asks. "Fet, did you...?"

You shake your head. "She didn't say anything, I found out on my own. I'm here to help, but first I have to explain what's going on, just don't get mad, okay? So..."

You explain to her what you were up to with Table. How you needed to piss her off to get the crystallized anger, and even how Table covered for her in the graveyard. At first, it looks like she's about to kill you, but she calms down as you give more and more context as to why you did the things you did.

"Why didn't you tell me that they knew?" The parasite asks Fet.

"I- I didn't want you to get mad. You told me to not tell anyone, and I thought that, uhm..."

"It's fine, we can argue about that later. What matters right now is we have everything we need for the transplant. Can we use your room, Fet? This one has spells set up so I can't try anything, but yours should be fine."

You're all brought to Fet's room, but before you enter, she warns you that she 'made some boring changes recently'. You don't understand what she means by boring until you enter.

It's white. There's no furniture other than the bed and the shower on the side. Everything else is empty space, which makes no sense considering your dorm came with furniture already, which means she must have taken the pre-existing furniture away for some reason that eludes you.

"I'm not even going to ask." The parasite sits down on the eerily clean white floor. "Let's get to work, Fet, get the body out."

Fet reveals the body from the corner of the room that she hid with an invisibility spell, which she somehow knows. The wraith looks decent for something that was dug up from a graveyard not too long ago. She's also naked, so you decide to not stare too hard at the would be body of the parasite.

"If the teacher said that the crystallized emotion was necessary, then I'll believe you. Give me that." The parasite grabs the crystal from your hand and puts it on the body's tummy. It slowly sinks into it, and after it's fully absorbed, the parasite lays down on the floor. "Fet, it's time. We should have enough, but if she runs out of mana, give her some."

You nod. Somehow neither of them noticed that Table is with you, she hasn't said a word this entire time, maybe she doesn't want to get blasted by the parasite like last time.
>>
>>6118664

You cast remove hurt on Rin, since what's about to happen might wake her up. The parasite slowly detaches herself from Rin. It makes unpleasent squish sounds as her tendrils detaches herself from the brain. Fet opens her claws so the parasite can climb on it, and she gently deposit her on the forehead of the wraith. The parasite can't speak in that form, so all you can do is hope Fet knows what she's doing. She's casting spells on the body, you can see its fingers twitch before the parasite is even fully settled. For half an hour, you're forced to watched the body's random spasm and attempts at rejecting the parasite. It looks like the process isn't as seamless as your teacher made it sound, even with the crystal.

Finally, the body speaks. "A. Beeee? SSSee." She puts her finger down her throat, and wiggles it around, don't wraiths have a gag reflex? "Aiii.. fffink, ftil hath to get uused to that t-tongue." Her voice doesn't sound the same as before, but you can still tell it's her.

She points to the unconscious Rin. Fet picks Rin up and leaves, presumably to put her back in her dorm.

"How do you feel?" You ask.

"I theel- I FEEL- there it is. I feel like I want to kill you and your girlfriend, but I think that's the crystal still having an effect on me. I'll ignore the hatred, because now I can do this." She pinches her cheek, and then yours. "Or this, or this, or this." She does a bunch of random movements, stretching, running around, spinning in place. It's getting really hard to ignore the fact that she's still naked while doing all of that. "I'm free. I thought I was going to die, but this is real. I'm free. I'm free. I'm someone. I matter. It's a lot, I can't explain it."

"What now? Will you be a proper student or what?"

"I'll sleep with Fet for now, since I don't have my own dorm. If the teachers are truly on my side, then I might be able to be part of the class. Rin will surely dislike that, but selfish as she is, she's not spiteful. She'll just move on to something else in her mad quest for power. I'll think of a name for myself later. So much freedom, it's intoxicating."

Table throws some of her clothes at the parasite. "You have no right to be this hot already, put on some clothes."

The parasite gets dressed up. "Is this considered attractive? I'll need to keep my looks in mind in the future. Bothersome."

She does look pretty, and more...gifted than Ivy in certain areas. You wonder if Ivy will get jealous of a better looking wraith showing up in class? You hope so, she needs some competition. You leave Fet and the parasite to talk it out by themselves, since you feel like there's things they want to talk about that don't concern you.
>>
>>6118666

Back in your room, you let out a sigh you didn't know you were holding. This went way better than expected, and she wasn't as angry as you thought at Table, maybe her curse made her easier to forgive and forget, or maybe she didn't get the time to fully process her feelings on the matter. You hope she'll be able to become a regular student, which reminds you, even though you still have some time before classes, it can't hurt to pick your classes early.

As always, you've got 3 choices, and this time you don't have any obligations since you finished learning spirit link.

>Divination
>Summoning
>Intangible
>Life
>Material
>>
>>6118667
Hey, we're back! I hope you're okay, QM. >Life
>Material
>Summoning
No real reason why, they just felt right.

There is DEFINITELY something wrong with Fet. I don't know what, but there's definitely something wrong with her...
>>
File: Gth.png (51 KB, 616x695)
51 KB
51 KB PNG
>>6118672
Had to do a few things, things might get more busy too so updates might get more erratic, sorry about that.

pic isn't related to the quest just a random doodle since I know some people like em.
>>
>>6118678
That's a shame, but obviously your life comes first. Anyway, even an erratic update schedule is better than no updates...
>>
>>6118667
>Intangible
>Life
>Material
>>
>>6118667
>Life
>Material
>Summoning
We should begin repairing the computers when we can.
>>
>>6118667
>Divination
>Life
>Material
Paracynthia is a cute.
>>
>>6118667
>Life
>Material
>Summoning
When will we use this?
>Garbled Truth (30 mana)
>If you think of a word when casting this spell, you will get a quick, dreamlike and often incomprehensible vision related to that word. The visions often have a grain of truth to them, but are easy to misinterpret.
Also what >>6118702 said, I want those computers fixed
>>
>>6118672
>You're all brought to Fet's room, but before you enter, she warns you that she 'made some boring changes recently'. You don't understand what she means by boring until you enter.
>It's white. There's no furniture other than the bed and the shower on the side. Everything else is empty space, which makes no sense considering your dorm came with furniture already, which means she must have taken the pre-existing furniture away for some reason that eludes you.
This combined with her wanting to het close to Atlas and being low mana but still knowing spells?
>Fet reveals the body from the corner of the room that she hid with an invisibility spell, which she somehow knows
Like this? Calling it now, Fet is an undercover human agent
>>
>>6118666
>don't wraiths have a gag reflex?
Neither does Table, right?
>She does look pretty, and more...gifted than Ivy in certain areas. You wonder if Ivy will get jealous of a better looking wraith showing up in class?
We are not on a necrophilia/GHOST BLOWJOB WOO WOO route, thankfully
>Table throws some of her clothes at the parasite. "You have no right to be this hot already, put on some clothes."
Well at least Atlas isn't alone in enjoying eye candy
>Rin will surely dislike that, but selfish as she is, she's not spiteful. She'll just move on to something else in her mad quest for power.
Did Atlas and Table already know Rin was secretly a bitch? We knew because the QM told us, but...
>>
>>6118718
>Did Atlas and Table already know Rin was secretly a bitch? We knew because the QM told us, but...
It was the parasite saying that, and she obviously knows.
>>
>>6118667
>Divination
>Summoning
>Intangible
>>6118718
>We are not on a GHOST BLOWJOB WOO WOO route, thankfully
never say never, anon
>>
File: mfw.png (239 KB, 659x553)
239 KB
239 KB PNG
>>6118776
>>6118718
>GHOST BLOWJOB WOO WOO
>>
>>6118667
>Divination
>Summoning
>Material
>>
>>6118970
>>6118791
>>6118776
>>6118711
>>6118708
>>6118702
>>6118699
>>6118672

Intangible 2
Life 4
Material 6
Summoning 5
Divination 3

You pick Material, Summoning and Life. Shame you have to skip on Divination, since Table is going to take that class, but you want to round out your magic knowledge a little bit more. Material is very useful for dungeon exams, and Summoning is very versatile. As for Life, you figure it'll help you find a fix to Table's curse faster, since her curse seems to be just as biological as it is magical.

Before classes begin again, you travel to the vault with Table to fix the computers. It's not an easy fix, but you were capable of finding a few manuals around the vault's library to help you figure out what goes where. The spirit is still there, looking intently. What's in there must be really important if it was willing to wait here for that long, then again, spirits don't age, so they have all the time in the world, you doubt a few months is that much to them.

Of course, the computers don't have a functional gene-lock system anymore, and it's thankfully not necessary to make the machine function. That means that Table can help you look into the computer's files with you, which should lower your workload. The computers monitor spark back to life after the press of a button. Even with how old this place is, the runes work just fine, including the ones in charge of electricity.

As for how the runes stayed active even without someone to recharge them well... let's just say the corpse was for more than just experimentation. Table recharge those runes herself now, of course.

Anyway, the computers! There's a lot of stuff here. No logs, but a lot of diagrams, theories, and notes that complements stuff you've seen in the library. It doesn't take you long to find a file on forgottens, as ironically, you've become quite good at noticing anything relating to them. All you needed to do was scroll through all the files until it feels boring, then you just need to stop scrolling and check each file close to where you got bored to find what triggered that.
>>
>>6120150

It's not a foolproof method, sometimes browsing all those files genuinely is just boring, but hey, it worked this time. What you find is a lot of stuff you already knew, mostly due to the fact you're literally dating a forgotten while Jack only had the twitching corpse to study. Jack noticed the portals the tendrils used, but he never managed to get a good view of what was inside, however he did figure out that the portals were very similar to a pocket space, not just a portal one would use to go around. Not just that, but all tendrils went to the same place, they didn't deposit the mana somewhere else. In conclusion, they are not going somewhere else on this planet or dimension, but in an artificially created one like the pocket space you use to store things, just on a theoretically much grander scale. It was also impossible to make something that wasn't a tendril or mana go through the portal, as even liquid would treat the portal as if it wasn't here at all.

Now that info isn't that useful to you as is, but Jack was able to extrapolate some theories to handle the flow of the mana and the tendrils more efficiently. The curse is, as far as he could tell, not necessary for their survival, and a forgotten could live just fine without it if not for the absurd mana they produce. The curse itself also seemingly does not come from the body itself but from the tendrils coming back 'coated' in the curse they found behind the portal. As such, there would be two solutions to fixing the curse, one would be to constantly drain the mana a forgotten produce, as the tendrils only use the portals when a forgotten's mana is over half of their maximum mana, or to somehow trick the tendrils into using portals to deposit the mana somewhere else, which is harder than it sounds.

It seems Table's bracelet already stops the tendrils from leaving, but they still have nowhere to dump the mana in, which forces Table to throw the mana elsewhere. Yes, the bracelet is just a temporary measure, and you don't know any spell that would need a constant drain like that.
>>
>>6120151

Your thoughts are interrupted by something heavy leaning on your back. The spirit is fixated on the computer, impatiently tapping its claws on your shoulder. It doesn't hurt, but you're surprised that spirit is capable of having a physical presence at all when all it did was mess with your spells before. You propose a spirit link, a spell that's more complex than you'd think since it also acts as a pseudo-universal translator.

"I'll show you everything inside the computer if you make a pact with me, alright?" You propose.

"Uneven. Knowledge inside that computer is [Limited? Vapid?]. For a [Lifelong? Human Lifespan?] alliance, a similar amount of potential knowledge must be offered." Some of the spirit's words are almost... blurry, you get the general idea of what it's saying, but it still feels like you're missing some context to fully understand them.

"I can go to the human city. As long as you keep yourself hidden, I can show you things in here, how does that sound? Just promise you won't share that knowledge with anyone else."

It thinks for a while, climbing on top of your head as if getting higher would help it think better. "Pact can be arranged. I will help find [Unintelligible] even if it cannot be found. Mutually beneficial arrangement. Welcome [Gift? Sample? Handshake?], then show me the lifeless light."

You assume it's talking about the computer screen when referring to the lifeless light. As for the welcome gift, it seems like it's giving you a choice on what to pick for your first deal. It doesn't say what the 'gifts' are, but the spirit link gives you a clear idea of what they are nonetheless.

(New passive: The seeker spirit will make 'special' knowledge easier to find, may it be in libraries, shops conversations or spell experimentation.)

>Find Solution: Material and Divination spell that takes more than one month to learn can now be learned one month faster.
>Find Weakness: Finds a weakspot in an opponent or structure. Make Mana Rip even more efficient as it can also find the weakspot in spells.
>Find Power: Gives you the ability to upgrade pre-existing spells further by finding new ways to use them. It'll take as long to upgrade the spell as it took to learn it.
>Hide and Seek: 'Upgrades' the spirit's passive to focus solely on finding hidden, forbidden and potentially dangerous knowledge.
>>
>>6120152
>Find Power: Gives you the ability to upgrade pre-existing spells further by finding new ways to use them. It'll take as long to upgrade the spell as it took to learn it.
I don't know if this can also apply to applications such as Mana Up, but either way, this is a really good thing to have. Why? Well, one simple spell we know:
Overdrive.
Also a plethora of other spells that could benefit from being upgraded either for efficiency or otherwise.
>>
>>6120152
>Find Power: Gives you the ability to upgrade pre-existing spells further by finding new ways to use them. It'll take as long to upgrade the spell as it took to learn it.
Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh I really wanna take Hide and Seek. It sounds so cool. But at the same time i really want to see how the upgraded version of spells look like. Imagine upgrading something like Mana Flare or Mana Analysis.

Well, it says 'first deal' right? So we can take this now and maybe we'll be able to learn Hide and Seek later when we give it some sufficient knowledge. Anyway, i guess we should wait until we're a bit better and tougher to find the hidden forbidden knowledge.

Also, familiar got! We truly are alike in our search of knowledge.
>>
>>6120151
Thanks for the reclarification QM. So anybody have any ideas what the fuck is beyond the tendril portals?
>>
>>6120152
>Find Power: Gives you the ability to upgrade pre-existing spells further by finding new ways to use them. It'll take as long to upgrade the spell as it took to learn it.
MOAR POWAH
>It thinks for a while, climbing on top of your head as if getting higher would help it think better
Every animal and bug tries to do this. It's a part of natural instinct to get up
>>
>>6120152
>Hide and Seek: 'Upgrades' the spirit's passive to focus solely on finding hidden, forbidden and potentially dangerous knowledge.
To help Table faster.
>>
>>6120178
Probably some sort of ancient creature from the 'god war'
>>
>>6120200
Wait, oh shit, i got it.

What if...it's the deity that created humanity. And the other gods sealed it in a dimension with a curse that made everyone forget it.
>>
>>6120152
>Find Weakness: Finds a weakspot in an opponent or structure. Make Mana Rip even more efficient as it can also find the weakspot in spells.
>>
>>6120242
>>6120180
>>6120179
>>6120176
>>6120161

You feel it again, this sensation of knowing something you never learned. It's as if you were looking at magic as a whole from a completely different angle. Magic is alive, it's inconsistent, and this whole time you've been trying to think of spells in such a reductive fashion. No spell is inherently better or more complicated than another, it's only true if you look at them from a surface level. With a little bit of time, you could figure out ways to improve spells you already know, not just once, but twice, three- as many times as you want. The only real limit would be your free time and-

Something taps your head. "Proceed. Pacts are [Simultaneous? Investment?]"

Right, your part of the deal was checking the rest of these computer files, that and showing it the human city when you get the chance. You know this spirit is patient, so you're sure it won't mind waiting until the next vacation before you get back to your home city.

You browse through the files, and some of them catch your attention despite looking the same as every other.

"Wait, how do you know what files are 'special' anyway?" You ask the spirit. "It's not like you know what's in it either."

"Some things wish to be found. They know their discovery will make things more [interesting? Unstable?]," It answers.

You don't fully get what that means, but you'll have plenty of time to test your new ally's ability. Coming back to the files, the 'special' ones are, in fact, very important. There's a lot of top secret info that would be worth a lot in the human city if it wasn't outdated by more than a century. You figure some of it is still worth something, like military bases under the human city and even around the world. This isn't the only vault like this, but it is (as far as Jack knew anyway) the only one that was dedicated to understand magic, other vaults had other goals like acting as storage rooms for human troops or even future human settlements. From what you can read, none of these vaults did particularly well, and most of them were found quite fast by outsiders due to Divination magic.

Well, it's not like you have any reason to check those vaults, the tech you'd find here would be outdated as hell, and it's unlikely any of them discovered magic Jack didn't since it wasn't what their vaults was made to do. That's what you think, but the spirit has other plans. It points to a red dot on the map, a vault dedicated to gene splicing outside plants and animals to bring back to the city.

"Will you give me something if I go here?" You ask it.

"Yes. This place wishes to be found. It will not make it easy. It will be more ready than you are."
>>
>>6120337

Cool, a vault full of mutated plants and wildlife, that's fine, not terrifying at all. It's nowhere near where you are, so you'll need to plan a trip there during your next vacation unless you find a way to get here and back fast with a spell. You'll do that later, because right now you have something very important to do.

Table is chilling on a couch in the library, but not for long as you dive on her from above. "Table! I can upgrade spells now! I made a pact with the spirit! Imagine the possibilities! It works on mixed spells too, what do you think happens when you mix an upgraded spell? Isn't that cool?

She smiles at you with a tired look. "It's nice to see that part of you is alive and well. It's been too long since I've seen you nerd out about magic." She gives you a light kiss on the mouth. "What spell did you want to upgrade, wizard boy?"

"Wait, I'm wizard boy now? Not just magic?"

"I promoted you in my mind, congratulations. Also, you didn't answer my question, what spell do you wanna upgrade? I'm curious myself what that even means."

Yes! You can't wait to upgrade a spell, and that spell will be...

(Unlike spell mixing, you can pick any spell to upgrade unless stated otherwise. mixed spells can be upgraded, but it will require upgrading both of the spells forming it which will take some time.)

>Pick a spell to upgrade.
>>
>>6120339
>Pocket Space
Now hear me out, as much as I'd like to upgrade Overdrive, do we really need it? There isn't a single spell we've used more than Pocket Space. Imagine if we manage to get a safe unlocked portal, or even a portal we can cast anywhere for easier portal slicing.
>>
>>6120339
>Analysis
>>
>>6120363
Why Analysis of all things anon?
>>
>>6120347
>+1
good points
>>
>>6120347
Support. Not to mention that this might further our research into curing the curse.
>>
>>6120347
Better yet, we might learn how to make a portal, upgrade the other spells we need to mix to make it, and we can secure some fast travel to the vault we need to go. But I feel that's going to be a lot of investment and maybe there's other spell that's going to give us the right amount between short time benefits and potential for later

>>6120373
We could turn Atlas into Kakashi from Naruto, and basically learn on the fly what other spell an enemy mage is using and copying/learn it way faster
>>
>>6120391
>We could turn Atlas into Kakashi from Naruto, and basically learn on the fly what other spell an enemy mage is using and copying/learn it way faster
That seems like a poor fit given that Atlas already has a slower learning rate than normal thanks to his lack of mana. I feel like a better fit would be for him to basically minmax spells and push them way further than most people do through creativity and necessity. Kinda like how we kept using our clothes together with 'seal'
>>
>>6120347
+1
>>
>>6120339

I say we upgrade mana rip

Mana feel or mana tracking could also be useful, would alow us to better understand magic and spells. If we upgrade mana rip hopefully we can use it in duels.
>>
>>6120339
mana rip
>>
>>6120347
+1

>>6120339
>Pocket Space
Could be helpful for understanding Table's portals, too.
>>
>>6120373
I passed out forever, hence my delayed response.
The majority of mechanics in this quest are in the form of puzzles with limited information given. Dungeons and Fights are basically puzzles. 'Figure out how to solve this, figure out the opponent's strong and weakpoints, etcetera'.
More information will make it easier for us smoothbrains to solve things correctly.
With less mana expenditure.
>>
>>6120790
Pretty sure that would just be the 'Find Weakness' special spell we could have gotten from the spirit, anon.
>>
>>6120791
No, that's weaknesses exclusively. It won't tell you about how to solve a dungeon puzzle.
>>
>>6120792
That sounds like an even more complicated spell. It doesn't sound like something we could do with just a simple upgrade given that 'find weaknesses' requires a special gift from a spirit.
>>
>>6120793
I think you should read the description of Analyze.
>>
>>6120797
No, I think you should read the actual updates. You are asking for a spell that is literally 'Find Weaknesses, but with a bunch more stuff that's even harder to make'

The idea that you'd get that out of using upgrade, a spell on the same level as find weakness, is nonsensical. You can't use a level 10 spell to upgrade a level 1 spell into being a level 15 spell.
>>
>>6120799
k
>>
>>6120595
>>6120531
>>6120379
>>6120363
>>6120347
>>6120386

"Pocket Space! It's been my bread and butter for fights, and it's really versatile. If I have to upgrade any spell, it's that one."

She taps her foot on the metal floor. "So, are you going to show me?"

"Ah, uh, the upgrade still needs me to practice and everything. It's kind of like reinventing the spell in a way, you know? I can't tell you how it works though, not just because the spirit doesn't want me to, but because it's err... hmm..." You try to turn your head to the spirit, but it scurries to a side of your back your can't see. "Hey, spirit, is your method any different from me just practicing a single spell by myself a lot?"

"Communicate through [Thoughts? Inner movement?] when with others. I will allow it for her. Question's answer: Yes but no. Practice makes perfect, but magic hates perfect. Perfect is stiff, unfit for progress. This method I gave you lets you see your spell at their core, what they can and cannot be, you will find applications that would normally be impossible with the version you already knew."

Table looks surprised. "Wow, that thing's talkative now. If what it's saying is true, you'll have me beat in no time, actually... ah, you're already better than me, aren't you? That can't stand." She gets up from the couch. "There's no way I'm going to lag behind, it's study time."

"I don't think you're bad at magic or anything Table, you don't really need to."

"No, it's about me and my pride. I don't mind being the damsel in distress that gets rescued, but only if I can do the same to you. If you get into a situation you can't get out of, and I'm weaker than you, then that means I won't be able to help you, you know? I also lost a few duels, and that's getting on my nerves."

You get why she's worried. If things keep going the way they are, things are only going to get harder and more dangerous. That new vault you'll have to go to later also sounds very dangerous, so you'll need all the power you can get.

For the remaining weeks, you both train your magical abilities. You haven't upgraded your Pocket Space yet, but you can already see what the upgrade would entail. It's a very simple looking upgrade, but a very strong one, it should make portals open faster, silently, and even make them move faster. If you were using them as inventory storage only, this would be a pretty worthless upgrade, but in combat? It would make it a LOT harder to dodge them. You'll have to see how good this upgrade actually is when you figure out how to cast the spell properly, but things are looking good right now.

As for Table, she's practicing her own spells. She's getting much better at that 'moment in time' spell, but also at shapeshifting; she was right to pick that, since she can change far more than just in looks now, although most of her shapeshifting is just really creepy looking as of now, like turning into a skin puddle, or adding mouths to random limbs.
>>
>>6122880

It's a little annoying that you're spending the last of your free time studying magic when it should be for leisure, but magic is your way to relax, so you don't mind.

Soon enough, everyone's back from their vacation. Lots of grumbling and excited chatter in the cafeteria as everyone shares what they did during their break. Ivy and that crystal guy fought a bunch at the top of a mountain (for some reason?), Charlotte and Aroth look even closer to each other, and Rath has a scar on his left cheek now. Everybody's got their little adventure, including yourself; you really want to share what you did to the others, but unfortunately a lot of it is confidential.

There's a little bit of time before classes start, you might as well talk to the other students some more. You scan the cafeteria for...

>Fet and the parasite.
>Rath.
>Ivy and the crystal guy.
>Aroth and Charlotte.
>Someone else? (Write in)
>>
>>6122882
>Fet and the parasite.
Let's see how she is.
>>
>>6122885
+1
I'm glad first bro Aroth has finally started overcoming his girl issues and has embraced his life having a permanent threesome in it
>>
>>6122890
He's pretty lucky, he got to have the threesome route everyone wanted before a protagonist did. A good choice of shipping on Table's part, i guess.
>>
>>6122891
>the threesome route everyone wanted
Who's this "everyone"? And yes, Table's choice in books paying off
>>
>>6122892
There were quite a few people who wanted a threesome in the previous quest, and the Anbees were obviously one of the possible choices for a waifu, but we ended up not going for it in this one either since we picked the mystery option and got everyone's favorite sexy bag of worms.
>>
File: spiritseeker.png (68 KB, 718x586)
68 KB
68 KB PNG
(also quick doodle of the spirit you have, just imagine a gecko with a lot of eyes.)
>>
>>6122894
>quite a few people who wanted a threesome in the previous quest
Yes yes, that's me you nigger. I was the first guy. I already explained why there and I also explained why not here. And yes picking ??? and getting Table made this quest incredible.
>>
File: One_Who_Observes.png (1.17 MB, 1000x707)
1.17 MB
1.17 MB PNG
>>6122895
Is he related to that guy? You know the one
>>
>>6122897
It took me way too long to remember what that was. I didn't have a specific inspiration I just like slapping a bunch of eyes on random animals because I think it's funny, I think it's because most animals irl almost never get more than two eyes, and since eyes are often seen as a sign of intelligence or a window into the soul, too many eyes can feel unsettling, unnatural, or like the thing is smarter than it looks.
>>
>>6122882
>Rath.
>>
>>6122895
Spoopy.

>>6122882
>Fet and the parasite.
>>
>>6122882
>Aroth and Charlotte.

friends first
>>
>>6123269
I agree with you, but I'd also rather handle the aftermath of the very dangerous and illicit magic experiment that was carried out. Once we're sure Fet, the parasite, and Rin are all OK, we can always go congratulate Aroth and Charlotte and ask how they've been doing over vacation. Will there be a double date one day? Or a 2.5 group date or whatever it would be here considering one of the relationship pairs is an Anbee and is themselves a pair of a self?
>>
>>6123275
It's a double date, Charlotte's whole double personality thing is kind of a ploy, no? She acts like she has two different personalities in order to be able to "Take back" anything she said if it's taken wrongly.
>>
>>6123279
Not a ploy, I don't think. That implies a calculated, deceitful character. Her conversations between Char and Lotte are simply a sort of 'inner monologue' which is externalized, if I'm understanding the authorial intent and the nature of her race correctly.
>>
>>6123280
It's not exactly deceitful, but it is in fact a calculated plan. She says it herself. She uses one of her sides as a "crash test dummy" that's ultra forward, and then if people feel weird, her "serious" side reels her back, and people don't think much about it because they still associate the anbees as being basically twins.
>>
>>6122882
>Fet and the parasite.
>>
>>6123441
>>6123269
>>6122983
>>6122885
>>6122890

You sit down with Table next to Fet and the parasite. The parasite tries to give you a thumbs up, but she uses the hand she was using to eat, which spills mashed potatoes all over the table. "Sorry. Still getting used to my new motor function, sometimes I mix my left and right hands," she says, putting her fork down before more accident happen.

"Thanks for, uh, helping, Atlas." Fet says as she wipes the Table clean. "If it weren't for you, maybe the transplant wouldn't have worked. S-Speaking of, we were discussing names for her, since she doesn't have one, what do you think of 'Aya?'"

The parasite shakes her head, but she overdoes it and her head spins all the way around in a 360 motion. "Overdid it again. Anyway, no, Aya's a very beastfolk type name, I don't want it, reminds me of Rin too much."

"I-Is it? What's beastfolk-y about it?"

"Nearly all beastfolks have three letter names, I think it's because shorter names are easier to pronounce and beastfolks have plenty of weird vocal chords. Anyway, not Aya, something longer."

"Ayaya?" Table proposes.

"No."

"Okay, what about just 'Ay'."

"Table, if we ever have kids, I'm not letting you name them." You shut her down before the parasite can. "How about Mimi? It's a cute name."

"Too cute, I want to be a woman, not a little girl. Mirabelle...sounds nice?" She repeats the name to herself multiple time, stabbing her food with the fork pensively. "It's more of an Anbee's name, but wraiths don't have enough of a unified culture to have their own naming conventions, so getting names from another race is fine. Mirabelle it is."

In the end, she didn't end up taking any of the names you gave her and picked her own, you suppose it's for the best, you aren't that good at naming things either. That reminds you of forgotten's naming convention just being...stuff. A name that makes remembering them easier because you associate common objects with them, it's less of a cultural thing and more of a necessity, so if you do end up fixing her curse, then your child wouldn't need an absurd name.

Is it strange to think about having a family? You've never seen yourself as much of an adult, but you've got a pretty important job in the human city now, and your magic abilities are increasing at a rapid pace. Everything's moving so much faster than you thought, and as pretentious as that might sound, you feel like you might end up leaving your own mark on history in one way or another. Maybe it won't be a big mark, but as arguably the best human mage right now, you'll have to leave something.
>>
>>6123538

You get a slap to the back of your head from Table. "Hey, what was that for?" You cry out.

"You were staring at her chest," Table pouts. "I know you were probably just thinking of something else, but still, it's rude when I'm right here."

"Ah, yeah, sorry Mirabelle, wasn't paying attention." You're a little ashamed of yourself, but it doesn't look like anyone really cares.

"Why are you sorry? My chest's fine, little big, but they've got some tight bras here, I can run easy with it. The texture's weird too, you can touch it, it's like-"

"No he does not want to touch you, Mirabelle." Table stops her right here. "Breasts to humans are what horns are to demons, you know?"

"Uhm, l-like, is bigger better for them, or...?" Fet asks tentatively.

"Why would I ever tell you. You don't even have breasts! You have plumage!"

Mirabelle yawns. "If you want to argue semantics, the plumage at the chest area of a bird is also called breast."

You do wonder if you would've taken Mirabelle's offer on touching her chest if you weren't dating Table. Probably not, you didn't care that much about sex before you started dating, and you'd just feel guilty doing it anyway. Besides...

You take a glance at Table's chest, which she slightly inflated as if she was asserting dominance in her own way. Even though she says she trusts you to not cheat on her, that doesn't stop her from being a little jealous. A part of you almost wants to make her even more jealous to see how she'd react, but that feels a little mean, so you give her a kiss on the cheek instead.

"Yeah, you get away this time..." Table gives you a kiss back. "Anyway, are you going to be part of the school now, Mirabelle?"

She nods, but a little too fast and her head falls off, which makes her entire body go limp. Fet picks the head up and screws it back on like she's a robot. "To answer your question, yes, I've taken a quick dungeon exam by myself so they could see what I was capable of; had a spar with a teacher too. I'm more or less on the same level as most students, maybe I'm a little behind, since I rarely got direct help from teachers while I was stuck to Rin."

"You had a spar with a teacher?" You're excited by the prospect of seeing what the teachers are capable of, since they all seem pretty powerful in their own rights. "What was it like?"

"They held back on me. It was with Kit, the Summoning teacher. My goal was to hit him, but I couldn't see him behind all the portals. I didn't hit him once, but he still gave me a passing grade, no idea why."
>>
>>6123539

Man, you really want to see what a teacher going all out looks like. You're not sure how strong they are compared to the best mages in the world, especially since they rarely show what they're truly capable of. You do wonder if you would get to see them at their peak if a war broke out? Not that you want it to happen, you're just really curious as to what that would look like.

You wonder if you'll ever get strong enough to fight them on equal terms.
>>
(Also I'm delaying the next post until either the archive goes back up or I can find the previous thread file I stashed somewhere to make sure I have the proper spells that you can learn ready.)

>>6123282
I wouldn't exactly call her deceitful, as much as she's trying to fit in. The same way someone autistic might eventually find ways to be 'normal' in social situations, while hiding weirder behaviors. One thing to note is that she always refers to herself as 'I' in her internal monologue, but uses 'we' when speaking out loud.

She does consider herself one person, and the way she talks about her two sides is closer to the way someone might refer to their left or right hand when it comes to what body does what. They both think a little differently, but they still consider the other's body as themselves, share memories and experience, and cannot actually develop too differently when it comes to personality without some mental illness involved. If an Anbee hates another side of herself, then it's no different from hating yourself for being too emotional or too cold, you're not hating someone else, it's you that you hate.
>>
>>6123543
(You can used archived.moe, just search for "Atlas")
>>
>>6123538
>Fet says as she wipes the Table clean
There's no cleaning Table. Not after what she and Atlas have done together and to each other. This is entirely a good thing
>"Table, if we ever have kids, I'm not letting you name them."
He was the first one to say it out loud. I don't think that fact escaped the three girls right here who heard that, silent as they were about it
>Is it strange to think about having a family?
Since returning to the human city, Atlas has been having these thoughts and tangents. I hope things will work out for them later

>>6123539
Fet and the parasite are an interesting duo. I still wonder how their dynamic will be with Rin the catgirl, as well as the other students, in light of all this

>>6123540
If Atlas can ever fight one of the teachers to a standstill or get close at all, he might as well be a teacher himself that day
>>
>>6123546
I didn't even mean to capitalize table, I wanted to make a joke with Table also having stuff spilled on her but didn't go through with it, but when rewriting the sentence somehow kept the capitalized version. Well, the joke works both way anyway.

Also speaking of names, it's not said outright, but Anbee's naming convention is literally just french names. Humans don't really have one though, I didn't really think that far when naming Atlas and Claire.
>>
>>6123546
>silent as they were about it
Mirabelle probably barely cares since she's just starting to adopt social cues.

>>6123543
https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6096986/
If it helps.
>>
>>6123557
I think he wanted the first thread, anon, which would be this

https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6056315
>>
>>6123540

It's about time to go to class. First is Life class, something Mirabelle won't go to since that's where she expects Rin to be. Sure enough, she was right, as when you enter the classroom, she's already sitting at her desk. For a split second, she looks at you with knowing eyes, and comes back to whatever she was reading soon after. She knows, there's no way she doesn't, but she either doesn't feel like confronting you about it, or she doesn't want to make a fuss in front of the teacher.

Speaking of the teacher, miss Lazari has had one of her horn severed off. It must hurt a lot since their horns are apparently pretty sensitive, but she acts as if nothing's wrong. You suppose that if she's that good at Life magic, she can just regrow another one in due time.

"You people had fun during your vacation?" Lazari asks. "I'm not going to ask you to tell the class what you did, no one cares, and I'm sure there's a lot of stuff you did that you'd rather people not know."

Somehow, nearly every student has that same look of 'how does she know?'. Apparently it's pretty common for students here to be up to something during their time off, and you're no exception.
>>
>>6123669

"Now refresher on Life magic: no sex without magical protection, always go to me or another teacher if a Life spell goes wrong, and any spell that affects the brain of someone is illegal to use without their consent. Okay? Okay. We're getting to dangerous spells, so wear the necklace on your desk before casting any more advanced life spell on you. Just like the duel necklaces, these will show you what the spell's results will be without harming you. Of course, as with everything Divination related it's not always accurate, but it's good enough for our purposes."

You put on the necklace, and you can already feel a sense of disconnect with your own body. It's not exactly the same as the duel necklace, this one feels less... advanced somehow. You also notice that the give mana spell won't work on you as long as you're wearing it, as it only simulates what would happen if you were given more mana, so you have to remove the necklace every time Table has to give you your fill.

Pick one spell from the previous class:
>Sap Life: A spell that forcefully takes away stamina from a target. The caster first needs to know 'give life' (you already know that spell from Fet) before learning this spell. Takes two months to learn.
>Pheromone: A spell used to mimic and recreate known pheromones. This spell also allows the caster to strenghtent or modify the effect of said pheromones. Legally speaking it is considered a mind spell as it can serverely affect some race's ability to think clearly, especially beastfolks. Takes two month to learn.
>Shapeshifting: A somewhat advanced spell that you can use to temporarily modify your body. At your level, it can only really be used to make cosmetic changes rather than anything practical, but with enough practice, anything is possible. Takes three months to learn.

Additionally, pick one new spell:
>Love: One of the most infamous life spell. Makes the target romantically and to some extent sexually attracted to a target. Outright illegal to use on other sapient being even with consent, but it is still taught as it is a requirement for some other spells. Takes 2 months to learn.
>Blood Flow: Allows you to take control of your own blood. Can be used to eject or neutralize poison, stop bleeding, or even offensively if you have enough blood to go around. Cannot be used to control other people's blood.
>Perfect Point: Repeat a movement that you've executed at least once perfectly as long as your body can withstand it. Often used with martial arts or some demanding rituals.
>Intrusive Thought: Forces a specific thought in someone's head. Often used to disrupt spells that depends on specific thoughts to be executed properly. The thought can influence someone's action, but not any more than any random thought someone may have.
>>
>>6123670
>Sap Life
>Intrusive Thought
Imagine how OP intrusive thought would be when used in conjunction with our mind spell...especially once we upgrade it to get something like the "increase length"

We could win a duel instantly by giving them an "I should give up" intrusive thought then boosting it so they actually do it
>>
>>6123670
>Sap Life
>Blood Flow
That ruined bunker the lizard wants us to go to sounds dangerous enough. "a vault dedicated to gene splicing outside plants and animals" screams biological horrors. Both of these spells matter for that place
Imagine if both Table (bracelet on) and Atlas cast Love on each other at the same time
>>
>>6123676
>Both of these spells matter for that place
Suuure, but we're probably also only gonna be able to go to that place at like, the end of the year. We can learn it later. We should get something flashy to use in the next duel.

>spoiler
Would love even do anything here? They already love each other pretty damn well. I kinda wanna see it, but i don't think it'd do much.
>>
>>6123561
Woops, meant to link that one. D'oh. Thanks, anon.

>>6123670
>Sap Life
>Intrusive Thought
Seems like it could help combat the Forgotten curse...


>>6123676
>>6123678
If we want to spice things up with Table, who has a scent-fetish, Pheromone would be where it's at.
>>
>>6123684
Mehhh...pheromone stuff is weird. Like it's one thing for our girlfriend to enjoy huffing our crotch. But then pheromone gets into a way-too-weird magic realm territory.
>>
>>6123685
Anon, we're dating a shifting human skin-suit full of extradimensional worms who squirts out dozens of orifices whenever she cums ad blows us with three tentacle-tongues, while also sticking tentacle-tongues out of her forehead. We are in a very magical realm.
>>
>>6123695
Despite that, the things we actually do are mostly normal. Oh sure, she has an 1d6 number of tongues, but the stuff they do is normal. Stuff like pheromones is when you start getting into the kind of fetish that you see on /trash/

We're not a skunk to start spraying people with chemicals.
>>
>>6123539
>You take a glance at Table's chest, which she slightly inflated as if she was asserting dominance in her own way. Even though she says she trusts you to not cheat on her, that doesn't stop her from being a little jealous.
based table
>>6123670
>Sap Life
>Blood Flow
glad to see you back, OP
>>
>>6123670
>Sap Life: A spell that forcefully takes away stamina from a target. The caster first needs to know 'give life' (you already know that spell from Fet) before learning this spell. Takes two months to learn.
>Intrusive Thought: Forces a specific thought in someone's head. Often used to disrupt spells that depends on specific thoughts to be executed properly. The thought can influence someone's action, but not any more than any random thought someone may have.
>>
>>6123700
I guess we all draw our liens in different places. I would consider a weird smelly skunk-girl substantially less weird than an oozy tentacle-monster in a pieced-together fleshy exoskelton, but to each their own.
>>
>>6123670
>Sap Life: A spell that forcefully takes away stamina from a target. The caster first needs to know 'give life' (you already know that spell from Fet) before learning this spell. Takes two months to learn.
>Intrusive Thought: Forces a specific thought in someone's head. Often used to disrupt spells that depends on specific thoughts to be executed properly. The thought can influence someone's action, but not any more than any random thought someone may have.
>>
>>6123944
>>6123794
>>6123747
>>6123684
>>6123672

Sap Life and Intrusive thoughts are both useful to you. Taking away stamina can either incapacitate someone or make you last longer in a fight, and intrusive thought is a no-brainer as it allows you to force a thought in someone before using Reinforce Belief. It's not guaranteed to work though, there are a few spells that can counter most mind manipulation attempts, mainly the Clarity spell. Thankfully, there is only one person in your class that knows this spell, so it should work against everyone else.

Fet raises her hand. "Miss Lazari? Isn't it a little dangerous to teach us the Love spell? Since it's illegal, shouldn't it be taught in more advanced classes?"

Lazari sighs. "Kid, I get where you're coming from, but think about it, someone casts a love spell on you with ill intent, what's the counter to that, do you think?"

"The uh, Clarity spell?" Fet answers hesitantly.

Lazari shakes her head. "Clarity is a good spell, but it's not a catch-all spell. If someone's smart, they'll tinker their spell to go around it, you know what's harder to tinker around? A dedicated counter spell. The reason I'm teaching you that spell is because the best way to counter a mind spell is to know it yourself. You realize the artificial feeling better since you know what to look for, and then you rip it out. Remember kids, the teachers here won't always be around to look over you. It's a ruthless world out there, and the stronger you get, the more people want you, the more underhanded their tricks will get to bring you down to their level, because they know they can't beat you fair and square." She looks up at the classroom's roof pensively for a few uncomfortable seconds. "I know you all feel like you're weak in your own unique ways, but that means you'll also have to think about everything differently, and find solutions no one else has. We wouldn't have accepted you here if we didn't believe you were capable of kicking ass." After an almost uncharacteristically heartfelt speech, Lazari looks almost embarrassed at the stares she's getting, and promptly tell you all to get back to work.

You've never thought about it, but is it possible all the teachers here were also considered 'magically challenged' before they reached their current power? You really want to look more into their past, although that might be considered rude if the teachers don't want you to know what they were up to as kids.
>>
>>6124610

Lazari sees you at the end of class, and drops a paper with notes on it. "Here's some idea on how to improve your friend's bracelet. It's a little half-assed, but it should make all her spells a lot less efficient mana wise. Normally you'd have no reason to want to consume more mana, but in this case it means she'll be able to get rid of the excess faster. Not really a solution, more of a band-aid, but it's the best I could come up with."

"Thanks. I was wondering, what were you like before you started teaching here?" You ask, not expecting much of an answer.

"Don't wanna tell you, and it'd take too long anyway. You're free to look it up though, most teachers won't mind if you're trying to find more about their past, but they don't like talking about it themselves. Except Kit, Kit won't shut the fuck up if you let him, how much of what he says is true can be hard to tell, though. Maybe be careful about digging stuff up on Nina, you shouldn't find anything too bad by just going around the library, but if you do, it might tick her off."

Sounds fair. You know what you're doing for the rest of the day now.

>Look stuff up on Kit, the Summoning teacher. He's always been the most eccentric of the teachers, you wonder if he was always like that.
>Look stuff up on Lazari, the Life teacher. She sound like she got in a lot of trouble in her younger years.
>Look stuff up on Nina, the Divination teacher. As long as you don't dig too deep, it's fine, right? But maybe that will be hard to avoid with your seeker spirit.
>Look stuff up on Ayn, the Material teacher. You... don't actually know anything about him? Weird, that only makes you more curious.
>Look stuff up on Suuri, the Intangible teacher. You only found surface level info on him before, with the spirit, you might find more.
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Nina, the Divination teacher. As long as you don't dig too deep, it's fine, right? But maybe that will be hard to avoid with your seeker spirit.
I'm interested on her. She seems to know a lot.
>>
>>6124613
>>Look stuff up on Nina, the Divination teacher. As long as you don't dig too deep, it's fine, right? But maybe that will be hard to avoid with your seeker spirit.
I wonder, if our seeker spirit is good at finding stuff, maybe we'll be able to find more helpful books like Jack's?
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Ayn, the Material teacher. You... don't actually know anything about him? Weird, that only makes you more curious.
He's a total blank nobody to us. I wanna see what the big armor nigger's deal is
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Ayn, the Material teacher. You... don't actually know anything about him? Weird, that only makes you more curious.
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Lazari, the Life teacher. She sound like she got in a lot of trouble in her younger years.
Start with the lady who gave us permission and romantic advice
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Lazari, the Life teacher. She sound like she got in a lot of trouble in her younger years.
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Ayn, the Material teacher. You... don't actually know anything about him? Weird, that only makes you more curious.
>>
>>6124613
>Look stuff up on Ayn, the Material teacher. You... don't actually know anything about him? Weird, that only makes you more curious.
>>
>>6124945
>>6124753
>>6124724
>>6124679
>>6124671
>>6124653
>>6124645
>>6124617

You want to look up stuff on Ayn, the Material teacher. You hardly know anything about him, and he's not exactly the talkative type outside class hours. On your way to the library, someone you didn't think of for a while stops you, the demon princess. Her name was Naja, wasn't it?

"I won't be long. I just wanted to ask you if Aroth and that Anbee, Charlotte I think, are they really... together? You're his friend, so I thought you'd know."

You raise an eyebrow. "And what would you do if they were?" You answer calmly.

"Nothing! I just want to know for sure, but everytime I ask people they say they don't know. If he's happy that way then... fuck, that's that. Just want some closure."

"As far as I know, yes, they're together. I don't think he'd like it if you interfered either, maybe if you didn't come up so strongly on him it would've went better."

"It's not like I can get a do over-"

Table swiftly puts both her hands on Naja. "Wait, do you want a boyfriend like him?" She looks very excited for some reason.

"I-I'd only date someone stronger than me, it can't just be anyone!"

"Ooooh, you want them to fight you and put you in your place, hmm?"

"What?" She grabs Table by the collar, lifting her off the ground. "S-Say that again! That's not what I want! It's not! I'm a royal, I'm strong! So what if he shoved me on the ground and..." She's getting so red it even becomes noticeable on her already red skin. Even though Table is the one being grabbed, she's the one with the smug expression here.

"Listen. There's no shame in liking what you like, I won't judge you. Atlas, asking permission to play matchmaker again!"

You sigh. "Sure, just don't get into trouble. I wanted to do a lot of boring reading anyway."

"I didn't even agree to this!" Naja protests. "I don't need anyone to find me a boyfriend, I could get anyone in this school if I really wanted to!"

"Well, I'll help you find who you need, then! Now, tell me about the second years..." Table ushers her out of your view as they discuss what she likes in a guy. It's pretty rare for Table to separate like this from you by herself, but it's not like you can't live without her for a few hours.

You crack your knuckles and start searching for a book on your teacher, but you're not sure where to start. Thankfully, your spirit does, and you feel pulled in a particular direction deeper into the library. This place is big, much much bigger than you previously thought. Some bookshelves have multiple rows of books inside of them you can only get by taking out the books at the front, with others being outright invisible and only revealing themselves when you get close. You knew they expected you to learn spells to navigate the library, but isn't that a little much?
>>
>>6125324

Deeper you walk, it feels like it's been hours now. There are bookshelves with only one book, others have everything inside blink a different color as if it was some kind of code. You're starting to think this place was designed like this less for practical reasons and more because the teachers thought it'd look cool, which to be fair, it does.

After what feels like an eternity and a half, you find what you want, a book that is very very far up. You have to literally climb the bookshelf to get to it, and you're very thankful the entire thing is too heavy to fall over from your weight.

You open the book, and it's...

It's blank.

"Hey, spirit, can you read this?"

It looks at it, but doesn't answer.

"I'll take that as a no. Can you lead me to a book that will teach me how to read it?"

"A blank book expects words. Write," it finally replies.

You don't get the point of this, but the spirit probably knows what its talking about. What should you write, though? Are you supposed to write what you want to know, or what you think the teacher's life is like?

You use a ballpoint pen to write something, and you can feel something pull at your mana. It's strong, you feel like you'd run out of mana after a single word. You try to use a mana portal to get some from Table, but you forgot this only works if she also opens her portal. The spirit tells you it wouldn't work even if she did, because you're apparently in another dimension entirely.

You try to not think about the implications, and get back to the book. You read the title, and it says 'the great necromancer war', there's no description of the content on the back. How helpful.

Just start with something simple, a single word.

>Ayn
>Material
>School
>Armor
>Something else? (Write in, does not have to be a word, can be a spell or another action.)
>>
>>6125325
>Armor
Who knows if "Ayn" is even his real or TRUE name?
>>
>>6125325
It's nice to see Table interacting more with people. Also, I was right, Aroth did give her a maledom fetish. Cute.
>Something else?
Shortcut, I kinda wanna see where it takes us.
>>
>>6125325
>Ayn
>>
>>6125330
+1
>>
>>6125329
>>6125330
>>6125375
>>6125401

You wonder if you'll find something else if you cast the Shortcut spell. You let the spirit twist it as it did when you were navigating the forest. It... leads back to the book, unsurprisingly. This is what you were searching for after all.

Well, you could always check the book later when Table can supply you with extra mana. Since you're already so deep in the library, why not explore? You should be AT LEAST in the second year's section, maybe even third years! You might be able to find books on spells you've never seen before! Actually... in what section are you even right now?

You look around, and after casting Bright Sight, you reveal carvings that spell out 'Advanced Material Magic History.'

Right, it looks like you're in the general Material magic area, and considering the size of this place you don't think you'd have the time to search for anything that isn't Material related without a few more hours of walking.

"Hey, spirit, think you can twist that shortcut towards a good material spell? There has to be something in there."

"I can. Do you not wish to absorb the [content/experience/existence?] of this book first?"

"Later, if I'm here I might as well get another book while I'm at it."

It climbs on top of your head again, a sign it's thinking about what to do next. "What type of material spell do you desire?"

>You do have a golem core, is there anything about making one around here?
>The strongest spell you can find, even if it takes a long time to learn!
>Something that's advanced but doesn't take too long to learn.
>Maybe not a spell, what about a book that will enhance your understanding of Material magic as a whole?
>>
>>6125728
>You do have a golem core, is there anything about making one around here?
We can use it in duels since we got it in the school.
>>
>>6125728
>You do have a golem core, is there anything about making one around here?
>>
>>6125728
>>You do have a golem core, is there anything about making one around here?
>tfw the human shows up in a fucking mechsuit to the duel and powerbombs you
>>
>>6125730
+1
>>
>>6125728
>Maybe not a spell, what about a book that will enhance your understanding of Material magic as a whole?
gotta work smarter, not harder
>>
>>6125798
>>6125768
>>6125747
>>6125744
>>6125730

You ask for something to build a golem, or anything that could use the golem core. Your shortcut starts to twist away from the book you're holding and deeper into the seemingly endless library. It only takes about twenty minutes to walk to your destination, which doesn't sound like that much if you ignore the fact you had to jog there.

You find the book encased in the floor, and you have to use a simple Unseal spell to get it out. It would've been very sad if you went all the way out here only to not be able to get the book out. The book is, in fact, about the different kinds of golems and how they're built. The book is thick and it goes into excruciating details as to how you're supposed to do it, with a lot of jargon you've never heard before. It's going to take a while to make sense of this.

You use another shortcut to leave the library, but it looks like your shortcut struggles to find an exit when it's in another dimension, your spirit however knows how to bridge that gap, and you find the exit after what feels like an eternity of running through endless bookshelves.

By the time you're out, it's already dark outside, and every student is walking back to their dorms. It's a good thing you didn't have anything else planned today, you wonder if there's a more efficient way to navigate the library. There's no way second year spend hours walking to the book they need, there must be some kind of trick to get where you need to be in fewer steps.

Oh well, you got what you need, you shouldn't complain. You stumble back to your dorm exhausted.

"Man, where WERE you?" Table pats your spot of the bed. "I was busy on my end trying to find that princess a boyfriend, but her reputation doesn't help. She's sooo stubborn too, she just can't be honest with herself about the kind of guy she likes, but I can SMELL it. Speaking of smell..." She sniffs you as you slip into the bed with her. "Did you exercise? Without me? Well, at least you didn't take a shower yet."

She shamelessly starts licking you all over, eventually disappearing under the blanket to make sure she doesn't miss a drop. It's a little weird, but you wouldn't call it unpleasant. "You didn't answer, by the way. What were you doing all day."

"I was getting a book, but the library is way, waaay bigger than it seems. It's literally an entire dimension of book, it's kind of creepy honestly. I did get two books, one about a necromancer war that should be related to our Material teacher, and the other about making golems. The first one asks a lot of mana to be used though, and I need to think of a word to use it though."
>>
>>6125892

She pops out of the blanket, gulping down the sweat she licked off of you with a satisfied expression. "Is it one of those books that react to stuff you write in it? I heard about those, they usually cast some Divination spell related to the word. If it's draining your mana that hard for writing something, it's probably a pretty potent spell, so I'd get ready if I were you."

"Ready for what?"

She shrugs. "I dunno, visions, forbidden knowledge. Who knows what's in there."

You raise your ballpoint pen and press it down. Okay, let's do this again, a word... or a sentence, if you want.

(Previous votes will be counted for this, but you can still change them now if you wish.)

>Ayn
>Material
>School
>Armor
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6125893
>Ayn
Why not? Let's go.
>>
>>6125892
Yeah, we should learn Pheromone sometime, as a treat for Table.

>>6125893
>Armor
>>
>>6125893
Still keeping my old vote for >Ayn
>>
>>6125894
>+1
>>
>>6125893
Ayn
>>
>>6125892
>Table pats your spot of the bed.
These two are already married. They just don't know it yet.
>>
>>6126007
Easy way to willingly mindbreak Atlas
>Table takes bracelet off
>Table uses Love on Atlas
>Atlas uses Love on Table and Pheromone on himself
Certainly a combination for a time worthy of saving with A Moment in Time
>>
>>6125893
>Ayn
>>
>>6126150
>>6126132
>>6126096
>>6126081
>>6126076
>>6126007
>>6125894

You start writing your teacher's name, 'Ayn'. Each letter is painful to write, as if the pen was getting heavier by the second. It almost feels like the book doesn't want to be written in, are you really doing the right thing?

The name is written, and your existence shifts for a short time.

---

One day, a land in which a massive amount of death occurred was found. No one was quite sure who the victims were, there were no records, and the corpses were all from different species making it quite hard to figure out a specific origin.

Normally, this would be a tragedy, but in the world of magic, it's an opportunity. A high number of unattended corpses and souls have many, many uses. Normally it would be considered illegal to desecrate the dead for your own ends, but as none of the dead here were known civilians, they didn't have any rights to speak of, which made it a perfect ground to practice necromancy on.

Of course, different nations argued over whom the land belonged to. Arguments turned into warnings, and warnings turned into war, and if you're going to go to war on a place full of corpses, why NOT send your best necromancers to do the job?

Well, that's why you're here, Ayn, good old Ayn, the best beastfolk necromancer around. That's not exactly saying much, not a lot of people like to practice necromancy because of the stigma associated with it, so it isn't what you'd call a competitive field of magic.

You think people judge necromancy a little too much, though. Yes, letting the body rot and be eaten by worms over years is fine, but we just can't let you reanimate the bones to contribute to society, that's just too far. Now sure, you'd consider necromancy using the souls of the dead to be pretty morally black, but that's hardly what you do, you just use a few material spells to re-animate bones into something useful.
>>
>>6126800

Now, the demons you're fighting right now? You can't justify what they're doing, shackling the souls of the fallen and turning them into shambling monstrosities. They'll call it something like 'giving them another chance to fight', but they're delusional, it's no different from slavery.

Problem is that their method may be slightly, sliiightly more efficient than yours. Your skeletons are cheap in mana, but it hardly matters when you're facing off against something that can something that can wipe off ten of them in a single stomp.

The longer the fight lasts, and the harder you're losing it. You keep asking the skeletons to dig more to find more corpses, more soldiers, but all that's left is random bits of armor from a nation long since forgotten.

The armor bits don't even match, there's just a little bit of everything here, chainmail, plate armor, and even one made of some of those materials you remember humans using, plastic you think. You improvise, you may not be the best at messing with souls like your opponent, but you're pretty confident in your Material knowledge if anything.

You quickly carve runes into the different armor bits and use an advanced version of the seal spell to carve them together while still keeping some flexibility. You carve another spell inside it to fuel it with mana and give it the will to move, admittedly you end up using a few wandering souls for that, but you'll let them free once the war is over, so it's fine, right?

It starts to move, a glint of awareness behind its previously lifeless helmet can be seen. Good, good! You carve a few material spells into it to help it fight and send it on its way.

Immediatly, the result of your ingenuity pay off, as the new armor is doing very, very well. It's capable of absorbing the mana of the other revived soldiers to fuel its own mana, and the armor is strangely sturdy for something you made haphazardly. You decide to use this new creation as a leader of sort, with the skeletons escorting and protecting it. This gives you enough time to make more of those armored fellows, even if none of them quite compare to the original.

After a few hours, the demon's army start to crumble as they run out of mana to withstand the absurd cost of their necromancy. Strong as demons are, it doesn't look like any of them specialize in close quarter combat.

Unfortunately, the fighting doesn't stop. One armor falls, then another, then another, the skeleton's skulls get cracked one by one as you frantically scan the battlefield to see who is still fighting long after the battle is supposed to be over.

The original armor you made is still fighting, and with no opponent in sight, it's destroying your own guys.
>>
>>6126801

Wait, no, it's absorbing their mana. It realized its existence was on a timer and decided the best course of action was to choke the mana out of your own creations. But, shouldn't the souls inside it want to rest? That hardly make any sense, its existence should be pretty bad compared to the peace of death, so why is it trying so hard to stay alive?

No, you can't let it destroy what you came here for in the first place. You need as many bodies intact as possible. You send your remaining army to take it down, but it doesn't fall, it keeps absorbing more mana, more pieces of armor, more bones into itself.

It approaches towards you, and you try to destroy the enchantment keeping it alive, but you forgot about the runes you carved into it to protect it from such an attack, sometimes you're a little too good at your job.

You try to flee, but a wall stops your way. Shit.

To your surprise it speaks, "Name"

You point to yourself, confused. "Err, Ayn? Listen, I didn't mean to put your soul in there, if you want to I can-"

"Ayn." It walks past you, and through the wall. It's gone.

You look at the decimated battlefield, and wonder how the fuck you're going to explain this to your superior.

---

You wake up from...something. That was weird, it wasn't quite a vision, it was like you were someone else for a moment. As a matter of fact, you feel like you got some second-hand knowledge of necromancy just from this. Nothing you can use just yet, but you'd probably be able to learn some spells faster now.

You look at Table, and she's reading a novel as usual. "Good book?" She asks. "You were just staring at the name you wrote like it was the most interesting thing in the world."

"How much time passed?" You put the book down. Even if you could write more words in it, it feels very uncomfortable living through someone else's experience, you don't want to do that more often.

"I don't know, like thirty minutes? What, did you get trapped in the book for a thousand years?" She doesn't even phrase it as a joke, but as a genuine question.

"No, it wasn't that long for me, just weird. I'll just move on to the next book this time."

"You're such a nerd, drop one book just to pick another," she says while reading a book herself.

"Okay, but it's a COOL book. On how to make golems! Think of the possibilities!"

That gets her attention, and she scoots closer to you to take a look at what you're reading. "Fiiine, you got my attention, it DOES sound cool."
>>
>>6126802

You flip through different sections of the book, and it feels a lot easier to understand than before, maybe due to the knowledge you've indirectly absorbed from the other book. Turns out reanimating skeletons and armor isn't THAT different from making a golem.

However, you only have one golem core as of now, so you'll have to be careful with your pick. You've heard there's a lot of discarded material you can use to make things in the school, so you're not too worried about what you'll have to use to build them, and you can always upgrade the golem's material later.

Now let's see, what do we have here...

>Adaptative Armor: A very peculiar golem that hardly looks like one. The core will, at a moment's notice, spread its respective material around the user to protect it. The main advantage is that compared to a regular armor, the material will regenerate and adapt to your need. It's also highly customizable.
>Jumping Spider Golem: A spider-like golem that moves in quick, erratic jumps. This allows it to be substantially faster than most golems despite its considerable weight, at the cost of being unable to readjust its trajectory after a jump without proper upgrades.
>Behemoth: The behemoth is a classic. Slow, beefy, and so tough that it's better for most people to avoid fighting it altogether. The sheer size of the thing makes it very easy to carve a lot of runes into it. The Behemoth cast spells very slowly, but it can also prepare more than one spell to cast at a time, which can turn it into a walking spell artillery.
>Agile Golem: A fast golem whose dexterity and speed comes at the cost of its size and mana consumption. These golems can still pack a punch, especially when equipped with the right weapons, but they often need to be trained before using any of them efficiently. They can technically cast spells, but their mana requirement is so high that it's hardly worth carving into them anything but the most basic of spells.
>>
>>6126804
>Agile Golem
Huh, I guess Ayn was an armor, then, and not the necromancer.

Well, anyway, as much as i'd like some armor, i think i'd prefer the agile golem.
>>
>>6126804
>Adaptative Armor: A very peculiar golem that hardly looks like one. The core will, at a moment's notice, spread its respective material around the user to protect it. The main advantage is that compared to a regular armor, the material will regenerate and adapt to your need. It's also highly customizable
>>
>>6126804
>Adaptative Armor
It fits Atlas' style
>>
>>6126804
>Adaptative Armor
>>
Quest relevant video
https://youtu.be/b1ZWjqhgwF4
>>
>>6126804
>Adaptative Armor
>>
>>6126917
>>6126818
>>6126817
>>6126815
>>6126809

An adaptative armor would be really useful, and a lot less cumbersome than having to order a golem around during fights and dungeon exams. Table is a little bit disappointed by your choice, saying having a little golem servant would be nice, but you tell her you can always make one of those later if you ever get the funds to buy a golem core yourself.

The problem with the adaptative armor is that it is still, at its core--pun intended--still a golem. You'll still need to train it to work with you, and it might makes its own decisions which could possibly make things worse if you're not careful. You'll also need to be careful with the material, you can pick something heavier with a lighten rune, but it will cost extra mana to lower the weight until you can wear it.

This night, you don't sleep as you want to make sure you understand the basic golem principles. They're really easy to mess up, and the last thing you want is for your armor to crumble on you because you half assed it.

Table wakes up next to you as the morning comes, disappointed by the lack of breakfast and hair brushing that you usually do. "Did you really stay up all night? Maybe I should've fucked your brains out until you collapsed, it seems like the only way to force you to sleep."

"Table, fucking my brains out is your answer to everything." You close the book and put it in a drawer. You see the other books in there that you didn't quite finish reading. No matter how much you learn, there's always something you could work on when it comes to magic, not that you mind.

"Hey, if it works- NOOO. MY BABY!" Table suddenly lets out a high pitched scream, staring at her virtual pet. "It's dead... No..."

"But I fed my little Blirbo so well, why did it die?" You can't tell if she's actually distressed or playing it up to mess with you.

"Blirbo? Really? That's the name you gave it?" Despite yourself, you let out a suppressed laugh.

"How could you forget our baby's name, I'm disappointed in you, Atlas." She pouts, pressing more buttons as if it was going to fix the current fate of her baby.

"You can just make another one." You grab the virtual pet, and prick one of the openings in the device with a small needle, which restarts it. "There we go."

She looks simultaneously happy and a little sad. "He lived a good life. Now, what should I name this one-"

You wrestle control of the virtual pet before she gives it another one of her terrible names. You're invested in this thing's well-being now, and you don't it to get bullied in virtual pet...school, or whatever it is.

You manage to think of a good name before Summoning class begins, Jill. Table keeps arguing on the way to class on how it's not original or memorable enough, but you remind her that if you try to make a name too original or memorable, it might end up standing out too much for its own good.
>>
>>6127966

Kit, the summoning teacher, looks a lot less chipper than usual. He doesn't look angry or anything, just worried.

"Right, students!" He switches back to his happy self in an instant. "As mentioned previously, summoning is primarily used when mixed with other spells, or to mess with portals. This is only half true, there is more to this field than just portals or mixing, but at your level it wouldn't just be hard to teach you, it would be lethal. For example, I'm sure some of you realized that the dimensions you may create may work differently from your own. Time may flow differently, the laws of physics may not quite work the same, on and on."

He creates a portal with a beetle on the other side of it. The moment the beetle leaves the portal and flies into the class, it quickly melts like it's made of wax. "Some of you have already experienced what it was like to be dismembered by a closing portal, but believe it or not this is one of the least bad thing that can happen from shoving your body in another dimension. As a rule of thumb, it's generally a bad idea to try to attack someone with better summoning skills than you with portals, because they can easily turn them against you. Today's class will be about spells that will help you counter enemy portals, and counters to those counters, and then counters to those counters to those counters, so on and so forth. Remember! No matter how good someone is, the greatest strength of portals is that no one but the caster knows with 100% certainty what's in there until it opens, so use that to your advantage."
>>
>>6127967

Alright, so long story short, you can finally learn how to get back at Ivy when you ever duel her again. She's a better summoner than you, but that doesn't mean your portals have to be useless against her, you just have to be smarter about their use. Now let's see, what do we have here...

Lean one spell from the previous class:
>Unsafe Portal: Disables the inherent safety measures of a portal. For example, pocket space will allow you to put your hand through more than two portals at a time, which can be used for much more destructive results than a simple portal cut.
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>Speedy Portal: Enhance the speed at which a portal is created, this also makes moving portals faster. This makes the portal cost 50% more mana however, so it's best to use it sparingly.

Additionally, learn one new spell:
>Curtain Call: Forcefully close ALL portals in a chosen area. This spell is very obvious and takes a few seconds to cast, but is hard to counter and can even shut down experienced summoners if they don't move their portals out of the zone in time.
>Stubborn Portal: Enhances a portal to make it much harder to affect with other summoning spells. Curtain Call is generally still strong enough to force it close however.
>Portal Geometry: A spell that alters the shape of a portal, but not the dimension inside it. A simple yet often underestimated spell as its only limit is the caster's imagination.
>Swarm Tactic: Create more than one portal at once. You can only create the same type of portal in one cast with this spell, and each additional portal will make the next one cost 10% more than the original cost.
>>
>>6127968
>Speedy Portal: Enhance the speed at which a portal is created, this also makes moving portals faster. This makes the portal cost 50% more mana however, so it's best to use it sparingly.
If this stacks with our previous portal upgrade, we would get ridiculously fast portals.
>Portal Geometry: A spell that alters the shape of a portal, but not the dimension inside it. A simple yet often underestimated spell as its only limit is the caster's imagination.
This can be very useful. Imagine if we were to, say, create a teeny tiny portal and then later create a gun? We could shoot people really far.
>>
>>6127968
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>Portal Geometry: A spell that alters the shape of a portal, but not the dimension inside it. A simple yet often underestimated spell as its only limit is the caster's imagination.
>>
>>6127968
>Embargo: Can be used to stop anything from going past a summoning portal. Often used against other people's summoning spells, and the effectiveness highly depends on your and your target's summoning skill. If one is creative, it could be used on their own portals for interesting results.
>Portal Geometry: A spell that alters the shape of a portal, but not the dimension inside it. A simple yet often underestimated spell as its only limit is the caster's imagination.
>>
You know, I was about to say that we could do some 'fun' stuff with Table using portals given the very first example we had when teaching it was 'holding hands', but then i realized i really, really, REALLY don't wanna see what happens if it were to suddenly deactivate.
>>
>>6127968
>Embargo
>Portal Geometry

>>6127994
Maybe someday, anon. Dare to dream that impossible dream.
>>
>>6127995
Well it's not impossible. In fact, with portal geometry, we could do it right now. The portal is only locked if you try to get somewhere else - you can still put your hand in the portal dimension itself. So there's nothing stopping Table from giving us a 'hand' mid-class. But uh, like i said, i just don't wanna see what happens if the portal turns off.

So not impossible, just very, very risky.
>>
>>6127968
>Unsafe Portal
>Swarm Tactic
>>
>>6127968
>Speedy Portal

>Stubborn Portal
>>
>>6127968
>Embargo
>Portal Geometry

>>6127995
Not the time or place, Don Quixote!
>>
>>6128192
>>6128186
>>6128048
>>6127995
>>6127984
>>6127975
>>6127972

Embargo can counter a lot of portal tricks, and portal geometry sounds like it would be very versatile for such an easy spell to learn. You're given a few items that react strongly to different dimensions to practice your portal, pocket space are made to be very stable and will rarely affect what's inside as they're made to be very similar to the dimension of the caster, but that doesn't mean it's perfect, if someone doesn't open their pocket space at least once a month, the items inside might slowly get corrupted in some way. This is hardly an issue for you, as you use that spell all the time, but it doesn't hurt to know the spell's limitations. Besides, you're working hard on upgrading your pocket space, so whatever issue that spell has right now may not become relevant later.

Anyway, as for spell geometry, it's a little... strange. The portal changes shape, but most portals are disc shaped for a reason, because turns out a curved portal will also curve whatever comes out of it. If you have a cube inside your pocket space and it comes out of a sphere shaped portal, the cube will look bent. Strangely enough, this doesn't include things that enter the portal, only those that come out of it.

Theoretically, this is a great addition to your usual 'portal cut' tactic, but in practice it looks really unreliable. A shaped portal is harder to close, harder to move, and just harder to use in general. Aiming a pocket artillery with this sounds like a nightmare, the spell itself might be easy to learn, but you wouldn't be surprised if it would take years to master--and that's just for pocket space, you're unsure what applications this may have with other summoning spells.
>>
>>6128816

You'll have the answer to these questions when you can actually cast the spell properly, right now, you have a golem to build. There's plenty of stuff you can use from the discarded summoning and material practice of other students, a lot of it is very standard, stone, wood, bricks--but then you get the weird stuff, solid yet still hot magma, artificial flesh blocks, an illusion so real it somehow manages to trick everything around it into believing it's solid when it's not actually there.

Advanced magic gets really strange, and these are just the failures, you have no idea what they were trying to make in the first place, or if you should use what really looks like unstable experiments. Then again, it's free, so it would be a waste to NOT use it.

You double-check your book to see what could be used to make an Adaptative armor, and you settle on...

>Icyuu: A material that managed to trick reality itself into believing its existence. The more attention is drawn to the material, the stronger it becomes. Protects very little against non-sapient beings.
>Stone: Simple, tough, effective, and easy to replace. Its main drawback is its weight and stiffness which can make it hard for the armor to move when needed.
>True Ice: A form of ice that is incredibly hard to break through. The golem can melt the ice at key point to quickly reform itself. True Ice can also easily create more of itself with more water if needed.
>Looped Metal: A material stuck in its own time loop. This has the peculiar effect of making it nearly immune to divination spells, and giving the armor future knowledge it shouldn't have. It's not great for protection, but it may protect you in other ways instead.
>>
>>6128817
>Icyuu
I See You, qm.

>True Ice
Is there any downside to True Ice? The implication is that it can un-melt itself, which kind of nullifies any weakness to heat it might have compared to stone. Looped Metal sounds interesting, but we can work that into something internal later on.

This time, WE have become the Etsy.
>>
>>6128817
>Looped Metal
In all honesty, while True Ice is cool, i feel like i care more about increasing our general skill than i do about increasing our power level. How longer will it be until we just start finding stuff that can basically bypass toughness?
>>
>>6128817
>True Ice: A form of ice that is incredibly hard to break through. The golem can melt the ice at key point to quickly reform itself. True Ice can also easily create more of itself with more water if needed.
Definitely want this as the base.
An internal layer of looped metal would be cool too.
True Ice is just hella versatile though. Touch water to freeze it into more true ice!
>>
>>6128817
Can portals also be used as "material"? E.g. a portal with an embargo to water leading to a high-pressure water region should repulse nearly anything. Or a self-interconnecting interlocking portal that connects any single point of its surface to a random, different point resulting in anything entering getting dispersed (the last one sounds like an upgrade to Looped Metal so that it doesnt only loop through time but also through space). If portals are not possible:
>>Looped Metal
Divination protection is a big thing. Maybe we can alloy it later or make a compound material with it to upgrade it. We might have access to human books on (very old-school) materials processing that give us an advantage over other Mages. This wouldnt be true for True Ice or Icyuu.
>>
>>6128817
>Icyuu: A material that managed to trick reality itself into believing its existence. The more attention is drawn to the material, the stronger it becomes. Protects very little against non-sapient beings.
can't wait for the P upgrade
>>
>>6128817
>Icyuu
>>
>>6128817
Icyuu would be great in combo with reinforce belief however I vote for
>Looped Metal: A material stuck in its own time loop. This has the peculiar effect of making it nearly immune to divination spells, and giving the armor future knowledge it shouldn't have. It's not great for protection, but it may protect you in other ways instead.
>>
>>6128817
>Looped Metal
>>
>>6128817
>Icyuu: A material that managed to trick reality itself into believing its existence. The more attention is drawn to the material, the stronger it becomes. Protects very little against non-sapient beings.
>>
>>6129000
>>6128984
>>6128973
>>6128940
>>6128870
>>6128853
>>6128826
>>6128823
>>6128822

You pick up the looped metal. It feels... weird, but not weird in any tangible way, more so in a metaphysical way. Whenever you move it around, you have this inexplicable need to put it back where it was. You can resist that feeling, and eventually the metal seemingly settles on another 'start point' where it will want to be instead.

Apparently, this metal was made by a student that stuck themselves in a timeloop, which happens a lot more than you'd think. From what you've heard timeloops are almost never done on purpose, as while you can technically use them to gather information or practice your magic, they're not a one to one recreation of reality, as like Nina often said 'Divination's prediction are often unreliable.'

In other words, timeloops are more or less an approximation of what your spell THINKS would happen if you did this or that, and unless you're a very experienced mage, the caster's biases will often interfere with the results and make the spell nothing more than a living nightmare, as it's also notoriously difficult to stop a timeloop once it starts without outside interference.

Case in point, timeloop sound cool, but they're impractical, which is something you'll need to keep in mind with a metal that might be reliving the same minutes a thousand times over. The problem is that working with it is a pain, and worst of all, there isn't that much of that metal around to work with, so you can't mess it up too much, or you'll run out of metal.

Table isn't with you today, she's busy playing matchmaker with that demon princess, so you have to work alone in your room. You follow the instructions of the book as well as you can, but whenever you look away, the metal has this habit of going back to its previous unworked state. You have to hold it still with your bare hands for an uncomfortable amount of time until it accepts its new 'loop'. Your spirit isn't that helpful, since the metal is, unsurprisingly, highly resistant to its magic, so you really have to do everything yourself.

You cut yourself multiple times, and every time you try to fix the bleeding with skin heal, it opens right back up. Thankfully it's not permanent, and you can heal yourself just fine if you cast the spell on yourself far away enough from the metal.

You work the entire day on this thing, but even seal spells can barely hold it together, and the core keeps detaching itself from the metal. Table's back empty handed, she still couldn't find anyone that the princess might be interested in, but she still feels like she made some progress in making her at least consider some of her classmates.
>>
>>6129122

You tell her how your day went, and she's both confused and interested in your peculiar choice of metal. After more banter and another game session, you both go to sleep to get prepared for another day.

You wake up to breakfast and your hair being brushed. Seems like Table wanted to be the one to treat you today. It feels nice, you feel like today is going to be a good day. You stretch and take a look at your unfinished golem again, it needs a LOT of work, so maybe you should ask one of the teachers for help.

>The Material teacher would know a lot about golems, wouldn't he?
>The Divination teacher might know how to work around the limitations of the looped metal.
>You did get a few cut from that metal, maybe you should ask the Life teacher if you didn't get wounded in some way you can't see.
>The summoning teacher is used to weird stuff, maybe he has some unconventional solution?
>>
>>6129126
>You did get a few cut from that metal, maybe you should ask the Life teacher if you didn't get wounded in some way you can't see.
Better to find out now than later.
>>
>>6129126
>You did get a few cut from that metal, maybe you should ask the Life teacher if you didn't get wounded in some way you can't see.
>>
>>6129126
>The Material teacher would know a lot about golems, wouldn't he?
He can probably also tell us if we should be worried about those cuts. We can see our Life teacher if he says we ought to.
>>
>>6129151
Okay, fair enough. Changing >>6129128 to support this.
>>
>>6129126
>The Divination teacher might know how to work around the limitations of the looped metal.
>>
>>6129126
>The Material teacher would know a lot about golems, wouldn't he?
More other character screentime!
>>
>>6129126
>>The Material teacher would know a lot about golems, wouldn't he?
>>
(I miscounted the votes and wrote an entire entry for the material teacher option instead of life because I didn't realize >>6129153 was switching votes, because I feel like it'd be a shame to can the entire thing, i'm going to slightly modify it to include the life teacher partly.)
>>
>>6129319
>>6129286
>>6129158
>>6129151
>>6129128
>>6129148

You find the Material teacher building some kind of structure in the back of the campus. He's continuously dissolving and rebuilding it, changing its shape entirely every time. You're not sure if he's doing it because of aesthetics or for practical reasons, since what he's making looks like anything you've seen before.

"Sir? Sorry to interrupt, but I'm trying to build a golem, and I'm using a weird metal for it, I was wondering if you could help me figure out how to work with it."

He doesn't stop what he's doing, but he does turn his helmet backward to show you have his attention. "Strange, I do not believe you've been in a class that would teach you the skills necessary to make a golem. Even if you did, it would be a mistake as this is reserved for second year students."

"I found the book in the library thanks to a spirit, I wanted to try more advanced stuff, and I already obtained a golem core from a dungeon exam. I already get the general gist of what needs to be done, but the looped metal I'm using is really hard to handle."

He dissolves his structure again. "Looped metal? Where would you... No, I remember now, that timeloop incident from a student a few weeks back. It's a good thing you found use for it." He turns the rest of his armored body back to you now. "When you worked with that metal, some of it ended in your body."

"Wait, really? I mean, I did get a few cuts, but I don't feel weird or anything, is that bad?"

"Normally it shouldn't be, but because your mana flows so much slower than most, the effect of the metal went uncontested in your body before dissolving. In other words, you may experience light looping symptoms soon."

You're flabbergasted at what he just said so casually. 'Looping symptoms?' You knew getting into a timeloop on accident was common, but is just getting a light cut enough? Beside, wasn't the whole 'low mana makes you weaker to spell effects' a myth? Well, okay, the issue wasn't your low mana in this case, but the fact it 'flowed more slowly', whatever that means.

"So? Can it be fixed? I haven't exactly heard good things about looping from other people, I'd like to avoid it."

"Yes, but you should not," He says bluntly. "If you wish to make a golem, you will be subjected to that metal for extended periods of time. Even without cuts, the metal could still affect you in other ways, you must develop tolerance to it. What type of golem did you wish to build?"
>>
>>6129588

"An Adaptative Armor. Is that a bad choice for this metal?" You ask.

"Unconventional, but not bad. If you plan on wearing that golem, you'll still need to build that tolerance. As for what the looping will entail, I do not know, it should be unrefined as it is hardly a properly cast spell. All I can tell you is that Divination spells usually seek to answer a question, and bad answers are simply badly worded questions. When stuck in a loop, you will need to ask yourself what question was asked by the metal, and what is the answer it wishes to teach you."

"Wait, so if I CAN'T find an answer, I'll just be stuck in a loop forever? I'll just work with another metal, that's not worth the risk!"

"No, not forever. You share your room with another classmate, don't you? Then tell them to warn us if you stay unconscious for too long, we will forcefully pull you out of it. Do not a loop in your mind will last much longer than in this plane, so you should not over rely on our help to leave the loop."

You try to argue, but what he's saying does make sense, and the idea of reliving the same day a few time does sound fun but... a part of you still doesn't like the idea of being trapped for what could be years in the same day over and over again. The teacher does point out a few ways to build the golem faster, but he says that at this rate, it's going to take at least two months to get done, the golem will also need a lot of training to work properly as an armor too.

You still decide to pay a visit to the Life teacher just in case. You explain to her what the Material teacher told you, and she sighs. "That's what he told ya? It's not as if I don't see what he's getting at, but looping gets to a person's mind more than you think it would. I can purge your blood of some of that metal, but since it's already mixed with your mana, the best it'll do is... well, I guess you'll feel less pain in that loop, as you'll be more disconnected from it. I could remove it from your body entirely if I tried, but then you wouldn't build tolerance or whatever. Fuck, Life magic is so straightforward compared to this dragonshit."

She casts a spell on you, and after the odd sensation of your blood seeping out of your body and being steadily replaced by something else, you go back to your dorm, exhausted.

It's fine, it'll be fine, you can handle a loop, even if you don't figure out a solution you'll be pulled out eventually, you just need to keep your cool. You do wonder, will it loop today? Or yesterday? Or tomorrow? What if it's a really bad day? What if you're forced to loop through a day where you're REALLY sick? Or a day where Table is mad at you for some reason?
>>
>>6129590

No, you're overthinking it. It'll be fine. You leave a note to Table in the dorm explaining your situation, just in case it happens while she's away. You work on the golem in the meantime, with the teacher's pointers it's a lot easier to 'forge', but maybe learning some more shaping material skills would've helped. Thinking back on it, it's funny, your very first spell was a Material spell, but it was never your highest focus as far as magic goes when you entered the school.

You feel a cut on your finger, but it was nowhere near the metal when it opened. You try to walk away from the metal, but you can't, your body feels stuck. You look around, your room slowly dissipating out of view. Wait, is it happening already? You feel more cuts on your body, but it doesn't hurt, even if you can feel the blood flow out of you. You try to stay calm but-
>>
>>6129591

--- --- --- --- --- --- ----

You wake up, a familiar yet insufferable alarm sound coming from a digital clock. Wait, that's not the alarm of your phone, that's a clock, but you never brought a clock to the school.

You look to the other side of the bed, and see that no one is here. As you regain your senses, the room reveals itself, and it is not your dorm, but your room, the one you spent most of your life in.

You're back in the human city. You hop out of your bed and try to check your pocket space out of instinct, but... it doesn't work. You're doing it wrong, it's hard to explain how but it's like your reflexes are all out of wack, you know HOW you're doing it wrong but you cannot for the life of you twist your mana in the right way to cast it. You check your phone, and it has none of the notes you had of Table, no matter how you look at it, this can't be a recent day.

You get dressed and shamble out of your room. You try to act natural with a 'hi mom, hi dad.'

"You look like hell, son," your dad remarks. "Did you stay up all night doing your hocus-pocus again? You have school to worry about too, you know?"

Your mom rolls her eyes as she chugs her coffee in a matter of seconds. "Your dad's right, you're 15, aren't you a little grown up for magic?"

"Honey, he could always end up in the anti-magic force, that's not the worse job there is."

"But those people are fit, so if he wants that, he better get to exercising."

These arguments were pretty common between your parents, and you remember always being very irritated by them. Looking back on it now, you can tell they were just worried about you, but as a kid it felt like they didn't believe in you in the slightest. You remember their face when you told them you wanted to leave the city, they were heartbroken, your mother was crying.

It all worked out in the end, but it's not like your parents could've known that, so you can't blame them for their reaction.

You don't argue with them, even if you feel very smug internally knowing what you know now. Even if it's been a long time, you still remember the path to school, you put on that stupidly heavy bag on your back, open the door and-

"'Heya." A younger and more amicable Claire waits for you in front of your door. Your dad suppresses a laugh. "You look awful, did you even brush your hair this morning? Hold on, I got a brush on me I can do it for you."

"Uh, no, it's fine." You push the brush away, since you primarily associate it with Table now, and it feels weird to have Claire do it, even if she doesn't mean it in a weird way. "Let's just go to school."

She shrugs, and you walk to your destination talking about magic. Claire has a resting bitch face, but when she talks about magic, she lights up, and she feels so distant from the ruthless, uptight anti-magic force member she will be in the future.
>>
>>6129592

It's a loop, right? It's not like any of this is real, if it was that simple to go back in time, more people would do it, so that means whatever you say or do here doesn't matter, you could just skip school if you wanted, or explore the town.

>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?"
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."
>Go through school, you can always skip later.
>Now that you're more informed, you wonder if you can convince her away from the mana battery idea since she wasn't as extreme as she'll turn out to be in the future right now.
>>
(Also if you were wondering what the pure life teacher choice would've done, she would've purged the metal from your body entirely and done it occasionally as you were working on the golem, essentially skipping the timeloop part, but that doesn't mean that wouldn't have its own consequences.)
>>
>>6129593
>Go through school, you can always skip later
Actually, you know what? Let's play out this day first so we can get an idea. Maybe something happens. Time Loop etiquette is you always play put the whole thing the first time.
>>
>>6129593
>Go through school, you can always skip later.
I wonder what the lesson is. Maybe we're supposed to help Claire give up on the plan? Then again, that doesn't really seem like a lesson for US...especially since Atlas doesn't seem like he has such a high opinion of her anymore anyways.
>>
>>6129593
>Go through school, you can always skip later.
>>
>>6129593
>Go through school, you can always skip later.
If we make moves on Claire in the looped time, is that still cheating?
>>
>>6129720
I wouldn't know about it, but Atlas doesn't really seem to like Claire much anyway, so...
>>
>>6129593
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?"
>>
>>6129593
>Go through school, you can always skip later.
>>
>>6129723
Well we'll see how things happen as we go through this timeloop the first time and witness the default events

>>6129593
OP we're on page 9, might wanna archive in a few days
>>
>>6129739
>OP we're on page 9, might wanna archive in a few days
With the speed of this board, it'll be weeks until the thread falls off.
>>
>>6129586
That anon DID change to Materials, on the basis of >>6129151, so that's fine...

>>6129593
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."
What are the limits? Can we go places and see things that aren't in our memories or even in our imagination? Will our mind fill in the gap, or can we learn true details?

>>6129740
Can always archive early. Suptg auto-updates until the thread falls off the board.
>>
>>6129754
>>6129738
>>6129727
>>6129720
>>6129695
>>6129609
>>6129597

You'll go through school as usual. It'll all repeat, right? Maybe it's better to see what the day will be like before doing anything. You arrive at school, some students shove you when they come near you. You forgot about the whole 'being bullied' part, the shoves aren't much, but it's only because there are too many witnesses right now. It's fine, you just need to stick to hallways and populated areas.

You and Claire aren't in all the same classes. The way schedule works here is that one class is separated in different groups, and some classes will have both groups together, while most will have the groups use different schedules.

It's fine, you don't need her. You sit down at your math class, it's... fine. It's boring, it's stuff you already know, and you wish you were doing anything else right now, but you'll survive. You have a paper airplane thrown at your head, someone pokes your ribs a few times, mild annoyances that you forgot you had to deal with every day.

You try to cast pocket space again, but it fails. You almost get it the second time, but someone just has to make you lose your focus with another childish attempt to get on your nerves. You draw some runes, and they are a little easier to make than spells, the Lighten rune in particular is something you get first try, probably because it's a spell you have the most experience with.

Class is over, and you're the first to leave before one of these assholes catch you. The rest of the morning goes more or less the same, the only moment of respite comes in the form of lunch. The cafeteria food sucks; but what matters is that you can talk to Claire now.

Her hair is wet when you find her, she gives you a meek smile. "Now we both have shitty haircut, heh..."

Instinctively, you pull out tissues you kept in your bag. You remember now, you did that exact thing before, your body just remembered the action before you did. You tried to dry her hair with the tissues before, but...

You hold the tissues in front of her, hesitating. Is that a good idea? Won't she get the wrong idea if you touch her hair like this? But it's what you did before, you've known each other for so long, isn't that what childhood friends do?
>>
>>6129862

Claire takes the tissues from your hand, a confused look on her face. "That's not going to dry much, but better than nothing. Do you think there's a drying spell?" She gracefully changes the subject.

"Hydrophobia would make the water leave, I think."

"What's that? Never heard of it." She stabs some carrot bits and puts the fork in front of your face, waiting expectantly. You... awkwardly bite the carrot she gives you.

You told her you liked carrots, so she'd often give you the carrots in her food. This isn't weird, but looking back on it, isn't feeding someone the way she's doing a couple thing? You look at her, but there's no flirty smile or smug expression, it's just her usual resting bitch face.

Maybe you're reading too hard into it. But what if you aren't? You could... try to get that answer out of her, if you wished.

>Try to flirt a little. You won't actually do anything that goes too far of course, but you do want to see how she reacts.
>No, even if this is all fake, that doesn't make it any less weird. Just act out the rest of the day as normal.
>You don't have to flirt to get that answer, just ask her what kind of guy she likes.
>>
>>6129863
>You don't have to flirt to get that answer, just ask her what kind of guy she likes.
Let's see where this goes.
>>
>>6129593
> Skip school to acquire knowledge of engineering to help us build that golem or to later summon more complicated mechanisms. The human city is the best place for this knowledge.
Lets stay resistant against finding closure with our past and continue becoming a better mage
>>
>>6129896
Ah, but if we want to become a better mage we need to develop a resistance to timeloops, and we can only do that if we learn the lesson we're supposed to learn, which probably involves claire.
>>
>>6129863
>You don't have to flirt to get that answer, just ask her what kind of guy she likes.
>>
>>6129863
>You don't have to flirt to get that answer, just ask her what kind of guy she likes.
>>
>>6129863
>You don't have to flirt to get that answer, just ask her what kind of guy she likes.
>>
>>6130133
>>6129915
>>6129914
>>6129867
>>6129896

"Hey, Claire, weird question, what kind of guys are you into?" You ask casually.

"Why, are you interested?" She replies very calmly. It's a good thing that Table gave you plenty of experience when it comes to dealing with being put on the spot.

"I'm just curious, that's all. You never talk about that type of stuff that much."

She looks away. "What about you? You never talk about that too. It's hardly fair if I'm the only one disclosing that info."

"But I asked first."

"Okay, how about this, I'll tell you one thing I like in guys, and you'll tell me one thing you like in girls, deal? So, first, body type. I have a preference for athletic people, but not too fit, bodybuilders are a bit much I think. I want their waist to still be grabbable, you know. What about you?"

That doesn't sound like you at all, or at least not this past version of you, so that's a good start. "I like girls that... err..." You've never had to pick a specific body type with Table, nor did you have a preferred one before her. "I like all kinds, I'm not picky, you know?"

"Come oooon, there has to be something. Girls with glasses? Freckles?" She points to her chest. "Big? Small? What about height, or weight, there's options."

"I don't know, I guess...scars are cool." What Table has aren't quite scars, but they're close enough.

"Huh, didn't expect that, interesting taste. Okay, second one, personality. I'd like a guy I share hobbies with, one I can feel safe messing around with and-" She stops, her eyes still avoiding yours. "...your turn."

"I like a girl that forces me to go outside my comfort zone a little, one that's a little needy, but still respects my boundaries. Someone I just feel happy being around with, I guess?"

"That sounds specific," she asks seriously.

"Not really, that's a pretty generic description. Don't worry about it."

The conversation comes to a grinding halt. Personality wise, you might match what she said, but look wise you're not particularly athletic, so she might actually be talking about someone else. Sure, she was avoiding your gaze this entire time, but isn't it because it's embarrassing to talk about love in general? There's no point jumping to conclusions here.

"Want to have a sleepover tonight?" Claire asks. "We both start school pretty late tomorrow since that teacher's absent, it could be fun."

You think about it, you've had a lot of sleepovers with her before, so it's not like anything's likely to happen. You give her a thumbs up, and she smiles.

The rest of the day goes as expected, you share a few classes with Claire, but it's the same as this morning, light bullying and whispers from kids who have nothing better to do. You almost expect one of them to stop you from leaving the school, but they're busy bullying someone today, which is good for you. You'd help them, but everything here is fake anyway, and you doubt you'd get much out of it.
>>
>>6130190

You walk back to your apartment with Claire. You can't help but feel like you're being observed on the way there, but when you look behind you, there's nothing. Claire says she can't feel anything, you wonder if that feeling is unique to the loop or if you also felt observed back then. You come back home with Claire, and your parents say it's okay for her to stay. They've known her for a long time, and she's polite, so they have no reason to refuse her.

The sleepover itself feels...weird. You're just too self-conscious about everything you do that you normally wouldn't care about; you can't pin her down during a pillow fight, or ruffle her hair, or all those things you'd just do out of habit. You try to pass it off as being a little sick, but Claire isn't buying it.

"Hey, Atlas?" She leans closer. "...do I disgust you that much?"

Her face is too close to yours, you put your hand between you and her without thinking. She frowns. You're REALLY not helping your case here.

>"We aren't kids anymore, so getting that close feels a little weird."
>"It's stupid, I just had a really bad nightmare where something bad happened to you, so looking at you puts me on edge."
>"I'm sorry, it's just that I like someone else, and being that close to you feels wrong."
>Stay silent and give her a hug.
>Write in.
>>
>>6130191
>"It's stupid, I just had a really bad nightmare where something bad happened to you, so looking at you puts me on edge."
I get that he's really loyal to table, but geez....
>>
>>6130197
Actually, actually, i've had a better idea. We should still go with the nightmare stuff, but maybe add more about what she's become in our life? Be a bit honest?
>>
>>6130198
What do you mean exactly?
>>
>>6130204
I mean like...see, here's the thing, it's obviously not just "being loyal to Table" that's making him act this way. You usually don't say someone you're friendly with has "resting bitch face", and though he told Table to give a hug to Fet to not make her more jealous, he was still treating Fet pretty good otherwise.

Obviously he resents her for what she's "become", so i feel like adding into some of that might help him get closer to figuring out what he's supposed to do in this 'loop'?
>>
>>6130208
I see. I guess I'll support it.

I kinda feel bad for Claire. I get that her plan was freaky, but she clearly cared about Atlas. I can't help but feel him going off to the outside made her worse.
>>
>>6130209
>spoiler
I agree

>>6130197
>>6130198
>>6130208
+1 this plan
>>
>>6130230
>>6130197
>>6130209

"It's just- I had a nightmare, of you, becoming someone very bad. You were talking about outsiders in a pretty disturbing way, turning them into mana batteries, it felt... pretty real."

She puts her face away from you. "That's because of what I said last time? Do you still hate me for that?"

You don't answer, you don't remember what she said at this specific time.

She crosses her arms. "Listen, I- I get it, I said some dumb things, how the world would be better off if we put down all outsiders. I wasn't exactly thinking straight after what you said."

You remember now, it's when you said you were considering leaving the city, and she freaked out saying some extreme stuff. Even now you don't think she was serious back then, even if her disdain of outsiders seemingly never left her. "It's not like we wouldn't be able to see each other again after I leave the city, right? I can always come back to visit-"

"Will you, though?" She grabs and covers herself in your bed's blanket. "Atlas. You said it yourself, magic is the most important thing to you, and if going outside gives you all the magic you need, then why would you EVER come back to the city? You'd just stay inside all day reading books and practicing spells while I'm stuck here!"

"Claire, you could always go to the outside with me."

She throws the blanket at your face. "It's always about you, isn't it? What about me? What if I like my citizen privilege. Atlas, I like magic, but not so much I'd give up all of this!" She gestures around the room. "It's like I'm third-wheeling your magic obsession sometimes! And that's fine, because I still like to talk to you, and do stuff with you, but if you're just going to leave me behind without a thought, of course that's going to piss me off!"

You leave the blanket on your face. You don't want to face her, you don't want to see her cry, you don't really want to admit the fact you might be in the wrong here. You don't regret leaving the city, not one bit, but it's hard to face the person you had to leave behind in the process.

"Claire, I'm sorry." You slowly unravel the blanket, she's not crying, her face has the same determined look her adult self has. "Maybe you deserve a better friend than me."

A stinging sensation on your cheek followed by a sharp sound resonating through your room. She grabs you by your shirt's collar and pushes you on the cold floor. "I don't give a shit who I deserve, I want you! I don't want a replacement, or a replica, or someone similar, none of them will ever be YOU, why's that so hard to understand!?"

It hurts. It hurts because you know how this ends, you know that her worst fear will come true. You'll grow apart and things will never be the same again. But she changed, it's not your fault that she ended like that, is it? The way she talks about outsiders in the future is... is...

Is it really because of you?
>>
>>6130280

You hear something metallic roll down next to your head. A very familiar copper coin. It glints bright, so bright that it envelops the room and-

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

You wake up, a familiar yet insufferable alarm sound coming from a digital clock. You thought that time loop were supposed to reset at midnight, but you suppose they all have their own rules. You're relieved, relieved that you didn't have to see this conversation to its cruel end. Now it will be like nothing ever happened.

You wake up, brush your hair this time and check your phone to make sure this is the same day. As expected, it is, and you get the same conversation from your parents. They didn't know your plan to leave the city at this point in time, but Claire did, or at least you pitched the idea to her early. Would it have been better to not tell her at all? No, that would've been even more cruel, right?

Claire waits for you at the door, but this time she doesn't try to brush your hair, since you had the foresight to do it properly earlier. The conversation is the same, but you don't mind, anything's better than whatever happened yesterday.

What to do...

>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?"
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."
>Go through school, you can always skip later. (Previously picked)
>Bring up the previous conversation you had about you leaving for the outside again.
>Try to act more friendly today, even if it means faking it a little. (will still go through school)
>>
>>6130281
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?"
Would it be a cliche if i said she might have come to resent outsiders so much because Atlas chose them over her?
>>
>>6130283
+1
>"It's like I'm third-wheeling your magic obsession sometimes! And that's fine, because I still like to talk to you, and do stuff with you, but if you're just going to leave me behind without a thought, of course that's going to piss me off!"
How does this relate to Table? Because she herself is magic, she is never the third wheel? ...If Table was completely de-magiced one day and was as unmagical as the average human is, would Atlas still care for her?
>>
>>6130289
>How does this relate to Table? Because she herself is magic, she is never the third wheel? ...If Table was completely de-magiced one day and was as unmagical as the average human is, would Atlas still care for her?
Not really. Like, obviously, by now, Atlas cares about Table, but like, the entire reason they came together was because she basically served as his willing mana tank. Atlas wasn't even interested in her romantically until the teacher basically said "Stop being a pussy and do it" and he tried it.

I don't think it's something so simple as just that. That feels too obvious. Maybe the coin is taking a broader approach to 'the people he cares about'? Maybe it's not Table who needs saving this time, but Claire. I mean, from the description of the first loop, they were *really* close. Like, 'playfully used to pin her down and feed each other' close.

I guess it should be remembered that Atlas was just ridiculously obsessed with magic when the quest started. He ended up mellowing out now that he is actually doing it, but he pretty much didn't spare a single thought to stuff that wasn't magic. Maybe this will sound cold, but i don't think Atlas would have ever got in a relationship with her if she never started to bridge their gap by being his mana tank. Sure, he didn't quit on her the moment they were able to do it separetly, but by then she already spent a bunch of time with him.

I mean, remember how we were kinda getting friendly with Aroth at the beginning but then pretty much forgot he existed when we got paired up with Table and she was able to give us mana? It wasn't even until the princess stuff happened and Charlotte became part of the 'group' that we actually bothered to do stuff with him again.
>>
>>6130283
>+1
>>
>>6130283
+1

>>6130289
>>6130294
One thing I'll put out is that for all the criticism of other people about Atlas going out the city to learn magic they were...completely right. Atlas quite literally only succeeded because of a ridiculous amount of luck. Just think about it. We found for our partner a lonely , isolated girl that craved attention, had nothing else to do other than to spend time with us, and had a ridiculous amount of mana to spare. Without her, we would have never even been able to increase our mana because our entire method was using our magic until it was spent and then refilling it to the mana limit amount. And without that, we would have never gotten to learn short-cut and gone to the forest to find the bunker, which would mean we would have learned none of Jack's spells either, or even found the seeker spirit. Atlas would have been left with a shit learning rate, no citizenship, and no card to get back in the city like he did this time. And I think I already discussed this before, but imagine how much more frustrated Atlas would have been given his reaction during stuff like his duel with Rin. He might have come to hate outsiders himself, seeing how easily they had it without someone to make up for it like Table.

We pretty much landed a royal flush with our luck. But there was no way to know we would. So I don't blame Claire for not wanting to give up her citizenship and move out, or for not liking outsiders.
>>
>>6130323
Urgh, my ID changed again...I'm >>6130204 btw
>>
>>6130281
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."

>>6130294
>>6130323
Atlas is just autistically non-meme version fixated on his special interest. He isn't necessarily selfish or emotionally-dead, he's just gt a very specific passion in life that he can't stop thinking about, and anyone who wants to be with him has to accept that. It's easier for Table because she, herself, is a magical mystery to unravel. Once unraveled, though, I seriously doubt he'll abandon her. he's discovered his libido, and they have other interests in common.
>>
>>6130412
It's true, but i think the point was that the only reason Table even got to have the chance to kickstart his libido or get interests they both had was because of how much mana she had.
>>
>>6130416
I guess i should specifiy. I'm not saying that Table is only Atlas's girlfriend because of her magic. I'm saying that it was the fact that she had so much magic and is herself a magical being that allowed her to even breach through his wall of magic autism. If she didn't have so much mana AND was so desperate for interaction that she basically just followed him around all day giving him mana, they would have never had the time and closeness to interact and eventually become a couple like they did. That's just a fact. If he had chosen literally anyone else, he wouldn't have even known who Table was.

From Claire's viewpoint that must kinda suck, no? She had a childhood friendly she clearly liked, was the only one who liked magic as much as her (even more so), and then she loses him because he likes magic so much he cares more about the outside world than he does about staying with her. And while you could say she could have followed him into the outside, as anon pointed out in >>6130323, there was zero reason to believe this 'school' was anything more than a pipe dream that would have ended with him destitute, desolate and alone in the outside world.
>>
>>6130281
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."
I want to take advantage of the safety of loops to see what secrets lie in the dangerous parts of the city.
>>
>>6130412
>>6130303
>>6130289
>>6130283

"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?" You ask.

"Shouldn't we figure out how to cast ONE spell before learning new ones?" She remarks. "Aren't you still on that rune? How is that working out?"

"I... think I know how to do this one, it's a rune that lightens the weight of things, pretty nifty," you say proudly. Not like it's impressive compared to the stuff you can actually do in your proper timeline, but that doesn't make the rune any less cool.

"Wait, really? Show me, show me now!" She grabs your shoulders and shakes you back and forth.

"Okay! Okay! Hold on, so the process is a little weird cause it's not just the shape of the rune, but the way you infuse it with mana too." You get a book out of your bag, and scribble the rune. You manage to get it right on your first try, you're getting a little bit better at manipulating your mana in this weird looped state. You give her the book, and she's surprised at how light it has become.

Curious, she throws the book upward and it... gets swept up by the wind, landing on some building's roof out of reach. "Sorry, I didn't think it'd actually- but that doesn't matter, it's real magic! You did magic!" She throws herself at you, wrapping you in a hug. "Teach me! I want to do that too!"

You don't return the hug, but you don't push her away either. "Alright, but we're going to need to skip school like I said."

"Okay, whatever, let's do it! Let's go to the gaming bar, everyone will be too busy looking at the arcade machines to care about us doing magic." She looks so happy, despite everything, she loves magic almost as much as you do.

You go to the arcade, turning off your phone so your parents don't interrupt your magic session. You wouldn't call yourself a model student, but you've still never skipped classes before, and neither has Claire, so the teacher will absolutely call your parents as a result.

The gaming bar still allows kids, and the only rule is that as long as you pay for a drink, you can play anything in there. There are non-alcoholic drinks, so you just pick some weird energy drink cocktail. You try to teach her the basics of the Lighten rune, but of course that's nearly impossible to learn within a day, especially with all the misconception a human might have about magic from growing up in the city. That doesn't dissuade her in the slightest, though, and to your surprise, she picks up on magic concepts even faster than you. Either you're a fantastic teacher, or she's more talented than you. You're not sure how you feel about that, on one hand, you're proud of her, on the other hand, you're a tiny bit jealous that even among humans, you might not be the most talented when it comes to magic.
>>
>>6130607

"So, am I doing well?" She asks, failing another rune. "I think I'm getting closer."

"You're still a long way off, but you'll get there soon enough." You take another sip of your overly sugary cocktail. "You're honestly pretty good at this, better than me even."

"Really?" She says with genuine surprise. "But you study that stuff way more than me, there's no way I'm as good as you."

"I mean that you're learning faster than me, but you're not on my level. I'm not quite beat just yet."

"Okay, how about that, if I learn the spell in a month, you owe me a favor."

You freeze at the word 'favor'. "What kind of favor?"

"Pizza! Or lending me one of your games, wait, no, grind my dailies for a month, that's a good one."

"Oh, yeah, that kind of favor, sure." You clear your throat, hoping that she didn't catch that.

She did.

"What do you mean by 'that kind of favor', Atlas? You weren't thinking of weird favors, were you?" Her tone isn't playful at all, as a matter of fact it's quite serious. It's VERY out of character at this point in time for you to think of anything 'weird' as she puts it, so she caught your slip up immediately.

"I thought you were going to torture me a little more, that's all," you lie.

She holds her chin in her hand pensively. "Maybe I will. Maybe I will... Wait, no- I did!" She presents one of the rune she was making, and it's... perfect?

You tear the piece of paper away from her hand. It's perfect, it's not just functional, it's optimal. Objectively better than what you were making even at the school. How? Talent? No, even talent wouldn't be able to just conjure perfect shapes out of thin air from your incomplete instructions.

Claire is elated, she's holding the rune up like it's a trophy. Your eyes are not leaving the rune, no matter what theory your mind conjures up, none of them hold up. The only explanation would be that the loop has had a malfunction, it tried to emulate a rune and accidentally made a perfect one, somehow. Even that theory isn't perfect, because you're pretty sure that rune would work in real life too, would a bug really make something this well made?

"Okay! Do whatever I say for today, that's my favor! Anything!"

You groan, you really don't want to, but...

>Ignore her and try to figure out more about that rune.
>Just go along with the favor, what's the worst she can do?
>Tell her to make more runes first to make sure this one isn't a fluke.
>Write in.
>>
>>6130608
>Just go along with the favor, what's the worst she can do?
>But try to study the Rune after that
How interesting. You know, if Claire truly was more talented than us, i wonder what would have happened if she decided to go with Atlas to challenged school.
>>
>>6130611
+1
Claire could have made it bigger than Atlas ever did... or could she? Would she be able to find that bunker and keep it secret like we did? Would she be able to get anywhere without some other nonhuman to help her with mana, like Table did for Atlas? Even for all her evident talent and affinity for this kind of stuff with how rapidly she got it perfect beyond even our protag, it doesn't mean anything if she was as beholden to dumb luck and random events as Atlas has been this entire quest to make it to now. It means nothing because she's been stuck in the human city so she abandoned magic in favor of her hatred... but I think there's an instability even there. If Atlas confronted her one on one, the Claire that Atlas knew and liked as a friend for so long might resurface beneath the bitch exterior?
>>
>>6130416
>>6130426
That's fair, but she took being friendzoned PREETTY bad. Reacting to rejection by ranting about genocide is a bit of a red flag.

>>6130608
>>6130611 +1
>Just go along with the favor, what's the worst she can do?
>But try to study the Rune after that
>>
>>6130608
>Just go along with the favor, what's the worst she can do?
Assuming she's indeed more talented than us, since I'm not buying the bug thing yet, how come she never got something out of internet magic like we did ? granted we spent a lot of years and later we learned that it wasn't even remotely correct and we ended up with the lighten rune by accident.
>>
>>6130617
>Claire could have made it bigger than Atlas ever did
Not necessarily. Even if you were to say Table gave them both mana, she may have even had more talent, but Atlas's efforts to learn is clearly greater. At the start he wasn't even sleeping.
>It means nothing because she's been stuck in the human city so she abandoned magic in favor of her hatred
To be fair to her, there was literally no way to know that Atlas would find the world's cutest mana backpack. I mean,fuck, he basically ended up carryng out her plan anyway. They split over a plan to use outsiders as mana batteries, but Table pretty much did it willingly for him. And there was no way to know that would happen.

At the beginning of the quest, Atlas had like 10 mana. Without a mana battery he would have only been able to use like 2 mana per day if he wanted to get Mana Up. He wouldn't have even been able to practice.

> If Atlas confronted her one on one, the Claire that Atlas knew and liked as a friend for so long might resurface beneath the bitch exterior?
Who knows. Maybe? Maybe the coin will let us retcon the past so Claire can be saved. Or maybe not. I'd wager the fact that he's dating Table doesn't help, since she obviously had a crush on Atlas.

>>6130625
>Reacting to rejection by ranting about genocide is a bit of a red flag
I'm pretty sure it was the other way around. She wanted to use Outsiders as batteries which is what made them "break up", but she was also angry that Atlas cared more about practicing magic than about her, which is...fair. Even Table was worried about that.
>>
>>6130608
>Just go along with the favor, what's the worst she can do?
>>
>>6130608
>>Ignore her and try to figure out more about that rune.
The metal supposedly is trying to tell us something. Maybe this rune is in the future (or from the metal's point of view in the present-future) on the armor? A high quality lighten rune would be nice and might allow thicker armor to be worn comfortably.
>>
>>6130767
>>6130626
>>6130611
>>6130625
>>6130617

You keep the rune, and tell her you'll go along with the favor. Claire might be a little much sometimes, but you still trust her to not go too far, and if she does... well, you can always restart all of this again, not having to worry about consequences is nice.

She brings you to her parents house, who are both out at the moment, since the last thing you want is to deal with your parents badmouthing you for skipping school. You sit down on her bed, and stare at the rune some more as you wait for whatever 'favor' she can come up with. Claire paces around the room, mumbling to herself, until she stops and raises a finger with a 'aha!'.

"Make me a sandwich!" She orders, a big grin on her race.

You shrug, and get to the fridge. You probably would've done that for her even without the favor, but she's acting as if it was something devious. You go the extra mile and prepare something more akin to a proper meal than a singular snack, when you come back to her room she looks surprised to see how much effort you've put into it.

She lifts the bread at the top of the sandwich. "You've put a lot of ingredients here, thanks." She bites into it voraciously. While you were making the sandwich, she started up her game console, the disc inside it humming as the RPG she must have played a thousand times now fades into the screen.

"Now, massage my shoulders!" She gives another order. She's kicking her feet as you hesitantly put your hands on her shoulders, you think she's enjoying this more for the control she currently has over you than the actual massage. "This is heaven. I'm taking full advantage of you today." She leans back into you a little too hard. "You know what? I deserve this, don't you think? I work so hard all the time, and it feels like I never get anything for it, you know? I wish I could..." She whispers something to herself you can't hear.

The massage lasts a little bit too long, she's enjoying her food and the game she's playing, but you can tell that's not where her attention is. She'll occasionally turn her head to look at you, before going back to the game. It's like there's something she wants to say, but doesn't for some reason.

"Hey, do you really want to leave the city?" She asks suddenly. "Even if that might mean we'll never see each other again?"

You're not sure how the conversation led to this AGAIN, but you don't have much choice other than to answer. "It's just that there's only so much you can learn here. Even the anti-magic force only knows surface level stuff."

"How would you know that? Besides, the anti-magic force still allows you to do magic, right?"

"It's not the same, Claire."

"Atlas, what if something happens to you? What if you get mind controlled, or get into an accident, or attacked by bandits or something, do you know how I'll feel? How your parents will feel? That's... selfish, you know?"

"It won't happen."

"You don't know that."
>>
>>6130805

It's true, you don't know that with certainty. There's generally speaking a lot less safety checks outside. The school itself is a lot safer, but illegal as they are, mind spells are still terrifying to deal with, and you did meet more than your fair share of dangers in the forest.

"Atlas, I want to do something very selfish too right now, even if I'll end up regretting it later." She leans back deeper into you, her breaths become slow and heavy. "Because if you're going to leave anyway, why shouldn't I? Why shouldn't I take advantage of you while I still can?

"If you do something you know you'll regret, it'll just hurt more in the long term than it'll feel good in the short term, you know?"

Since you're facing her back, you have nothing better to stare at other than the rune that she made in the arcade, which was a fatal mistake. She turns back around and pushes you down against the bed, strange how that keeps happening.

"Even now, you're still just staring at those runes, is that the only way to get your attention? To just be so good at magic, you have no choice but to look at me? STOP.LOOKING.AT.THE.RUNE." She grabs the piece of paper the rune was made on and crumples it before throwing it away. "Look at me, that's all I ask. Please."

The piece of paper uncurls behind her, it starts floating unnaturally up into the air, even with Claire's order, you can't bring yourself to not look at it. A figure flickers in and out of existence, a wide smile present on their face.

It spells out words you can't hear but can read on their lips. 'Which is it?'

Claire notices you aren't even looking at her anymore, and instead of doing something drastic, she...lets go of you. The figure has disappeared like a mirage, the paper rune still oddly floating in the air at its own pace. "Go, look at the rune, I don't care anymore." She slams her fist rhythmically against the soft fabric of the bed, it hurts to see her like this but... it'll all reset anyway, so it's not like it matters, right? The rune on the other hand, is knowledge that could even extend to the real world, no matter how you look at it, it's the better choice, and yet...

>Stick with Claire, ignore the rune for now.
>Go look at the rune.
>>
>>6130807
>Stick with Claire, ignore the rune for now.
I feel bad for her.
>>
>>6130807
>Stick with Claire, ignore the rune for now
Friendship is more important than a slightly better lighten rune.
>>
>>6130807
>Go look at the rune.
Fake Claire gets none of my sympathy. She's not even real.
>>
>>6130819
Actually anon...i'm not so sure about that. I think that our coin messed up the 'loop' in some way. It might not be merely just a memory anymore.

And anyway, why shouldn't she get sympathy? She's not the claire that became part of the anti-magic force, she's the claire that fed us fruit and was our best friend.
>>
>>6130820
"why shouldn't she get sympathy?"
>She's not real
>She emotionally blackmails us over pursuing our dreams
>She wants to be in a relationship with us when it's pretty clear we don't want to be in one with her
>There's a super cool Perfect Rune right there
What's there to be sympathetic about?
The magic's more interesting, breh
And the magic won't bitch at us for looking at other spells. I think. Unless this place runs on Discworld logic, and the spells are sapient...
>>
>>6130822
>She's not real
Again, we're messing with time magic, not dream magic. And it's clearly it interacted with our coin. We don't know the consequences of our actions.
>She emotionally blackmails us over pursuing our dreams
And she's completely right. Literally everything she said about the outside is right. We ended up getting really lucky, but there was no way for her to know that.
>She wants to be in a relationship with us when it's pretty clear we don't want to be in one with her
From her viewpoint, her childhood best friend who was perfectly friendly with her one day just randomly became sour overnight.
>There's a super cool Perfect Rune right there
It's a LIGHTEN rune, bro. It's not even a cool spell.

And anyway, if this were to somehow help real life Claire, then i'd much rather prevent the creation of a crazy anti-magic who would probably end up creating some messed up experiments than to get a slightly better version of an extremely basic spell.
>>
>>6130823
Shit dawg, you're free to your interpretation of how the timeloop might work, but I don't personally subscribe to that idea as of now. It feels like a stretch to me.
Personally, I think it's just trying to teach us the lesson related to this choice that will ultimately help us realize our goals and priorities better. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to focus on our One True Love (Magic) in this case.
>>
>>6130825
You can say that, sure, but like...what lesson would that be, really? Atlas obviously cares about Table.That's not something he has to learn. He's not in some sort of position where he has to choose between Table and Magic. I feel like the fact that the loop ended up being about Claire of all people is what means it's not so simple.
>>
>>6130826
I'm not entirely sure as of yet, but I've got a few ideas spitballing.
The cost of pursuing a dream.
The sacrifices that one has to make, to satisfy one's self or others.
The mistakes that lead to the present outcome of Claire.
The realization of what we actually mean to one another.
Maybe trying to understand Claire's true goals? This one I'm a little more iffy on.

I don't have enough yet to get a solid conclusion, obviously, but I think they're pretty decent theories. We'll have to see more of how things play out to tell if any of them are close to the lesson it wants to teach.
>>
>>6130828
Well the issue with it being just a thing of pursuing his goal is that it's kinda what he's already done? He already knows he abandoned the city. And it turned out fine. And Table is like the main reason he's pursuing. So unless something drastically changes, it's not like Atlas even has to choose between pursuing his dream and Table.

I think it's probably something to do with Claire, and thus, i'd rather spend time with her than to seek out some random rune from a fucking Lighten spell. Like, it's not even a cool spell. It's fucking Lighten.
>>
>>6130828
Forgot to add "The impact our decision had on others". There might be more interactions needed with Mom and Dad to see if a Choice Moment crops up with them.

>>6130830
Keep talking shit about my boy Lighten and we're gonna throw hands.
>>
>>6130831
>Keep talking shit about my boy Lighten and we're gonna throw hands.
It's a ridiculously simple spell, we don't need a magic time loop to get better at it.
>>
>>6130807
>Stick with Claire, ignore the rune for now.
>>
>>6130833
I'll have you know that wars are won with Lighten. It ain't easy to convert 800 tonnes of raw material into 80 pounds worth of shit to haul across the country with a single mule to restock your army on the go. That takes, like, mastery or some shit.
>>
>>6130836
If we wanted to win a war we'd have joined the anti-magic force.
>>
>>6130837
The idiots that can't take down a human mage with half a year of experience in one on one combat? Sheeeeit.
The only war they're winning is against an army of normies that know prestidigitation at best.
>>
>>6130838
So then why would you care about winning a war?

Anyway, i feel like we're losing track of the point. My opinion is pretty simple. It's not worth it to choose this perfect rune over our childhood friend. It's not a good mindset for Atlas.
>>
>>6130839
Blud, I don't actually want to win a war. You gotta get better at intuiting an air of non-seriousness.
>>
>>6130840
You're missing the point.
>>
>>6130841
No, I got your point. I just don't agree with it as per my original vote and subsequent arguments.
>>
>>6130807
>Stick with Claire, ignore the rune for now.
memory or not, our friend is more important than the rune
>>
>>6130885
>>6130835
>>6130819
>>6130815
>>6130809

The rune is tempting, everything about it intrigues you. Yet you sit there, unable to bring yourself to leave the bed, this is stupid, you can't change the past, you can't change what happened, talking to Claire won't fix anything.

You lay back down on the bed. "Eh, it's a just a rune, there's plenty of those around," you say.

"You don't have to pretend, Atlas."

"You matter more to me than some spell, come on."

She hides her face, and throws her head into her pillow. She screams into it for what feels like a solid minute. "Whyyyy. Why are you like this! I hate you! You get on my nerve so hard, but then you pull me back in. The worst part is I know you're not doing it on purpose, you're just too oblivious for it!" She takes her head out of her pillows to face you. "Let me hate you or let me love you, stop making me pick one or the other- ah." She covers her mouth, but it's too late, you heard her already. For some reason you're surprised, you always figured it was a possibility, but hearing it come from her is something else entirely.

"...since when?" You ask, staring at the ceiling.

"I don't know. I don't even know if I really like you anymore, honestly. You... you used to be different, you know? You didn't talk about magic all the time, you were nice, you were considerate, but it's like the more we grew up the more you started... I don't know, ignoring me. You'd space out whenever I'd try to talk about anything that wasn't magic. I found it cute at first, the way you nerded out about it all the time, but there's a point where it just becomes tiring."

"Hey, if I were to leave the city, and come back a few years later, and you were mad at me after coming back, would there be anything I could do to become friends again?"

She closes her eyes, and lays down next to you. "I want to say 'violently make out with me', but since I doubt that's an option in this hypothetical, hanging out would be fine."

"...just that?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't mention magic too much, or the outside, just try to have fun doing random stuff together, just the two of us. That'd be enough for me."

"Even if I came back, and you knew I dated an outsider?"

She lifts the pillow and strikes you with it. "Don't test your luck jackass, I'm shooting you on sight if you pull that." She laughs, she probably thinks you're kidding. It might be for the best that she thinks that. "Sometimes I wish I was as focused as you were. I've had you so long in my life, whenever I think of you leaving and never seeing you again... it's just hard to think of what my life would be like, it scares me. You don't care, though, you could lose everyone, and as long as you have magic, you'll keep going."

"Hey, I do care. There's someone I'd miss a lot if they were gone."
>>
>>6130922

She rolls on her side to face you, smiling. You feel kind of bad, because you weren't talking about her, but... you were talking about...

You sit up from the bed. You meant someone important, someone important to you, someone from outside. Aroth? No, it was someone else. It's someone you spent a lot of time with, it was- it was-

You know you've done a lot of things together, the memories are clawing at you trying to get in, but it keeps escaping your grasp.

A coin falls out of your pocket, the sound it makes when hitting the floor is deafening.

-- -- -- -- -- -- X

You wake up, a familiar yet insufferable alarm sound coming from a digital clock. Table. Your memory of her is still muddy, but it's there. Bad, this is bad, you don't have access to your notes, and anything you write will be reset. Still, you note whatever you can remember of her on a piece of paper, it will no longer be here tomorrow, but maybe you can re-read it right before the loop to jog your memory?

Your dad opens the door with a disappointed look. "Did you stay awake all night? You'll age twice as fast if you keep this up, I mean, look at your mom."

You hear a 'like you're any better' from the kitchen. You don't care, their banter is a distraction, it's all a distraction. Claire offers the brush like last time when you open the front door, you snatch it out of her hand and brush yourself with it, she looks offended.

"Grumpy today, huh?" Claire remarks.

You hand her back the brush, and put back on your usual act. It's fine, worrying about this isn't going to make this any easier, you just need to figure out what the loop wants from you. Sure, it's bad that you're somehow already forgetting very important info about the most important person in your life after only two days, but you'll manage.

On the way to school, you know the drill.

>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?" (Previously picked)
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."
>Go through school.
>Ignore her, keep focusing on Table, you can't forget her again.
>>
>>6130931
Wait, no, i just remembered - chances are, if we're going around the city, we probably won't get the time to remember Table, right?

>>6130924
>Write reminder about Table
>Go through school
We need to figure out what the loop wants from us. Remembering Table is extremely importnat, but no amount of it will help in the long term if we can't break out. We need to think what the loop could want from us.

It's probably something related to Claire. But what specifically? It said we had to choose, but choose what? I don't think it would be something as dumb as 'choose between Claire and Table' when we already made that choice a long time ago.
>>
>>6130934
+1 because I dont have any other idea and I think the school is our best bet at remembering Table.

Maybe the point is that we're supposed to choose between our search of magic and the people we like? So first we ended up choosing Claire over magic, now we have to show we also care for Table by remembering her.
>>
>>6130934
+1
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit...
>>
>>6130979
We should have the safety backup of Table calling a teacher should we take too long, but who knows what's the comparison of looptime to real time? For all we know it's only been like, a few minutes.

I definitely don't want to forget Table, though...that's the issue of having a Forgotten girlfriend, I guess. I don't know what'll happen if we forget. We'll still know we need to get off the loop, though, so there's no chance of getting stuck for like a thousand loops.
>>
>>6130988
If we forget Table, though, we could dream-cheat on her, which would devastate her if she learned of it (if nothing else because if the possibility of something like that happening in the waking world, and her deeply-ingrained neurosis).
>>
>>6130992
That would be a worst case scenario, though I don't think it's that likely.
>>
>>6130994
If we forget her and are trapped in a time-loop wherein Claire is on the verge of confessing to us, I think it's a real danger.
>>
>>6131011
True...but the entire reason she's confessing is because Atlas is acting very hostile to her touch when he wqs usually fine with it because he doesn't want to cheat on table. So if he forgot her, he wouldn't?
>>
>>6131013
I don't think it's the whole reason, because they've already had the fight about him leaving the human city, and she's already afraid to lose him. We have to keep this in check.
>>
>>6130924
>write and memorize reminder about Table
>>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and learn new spells?" (Previously picked)
> this time:actually inspect the rune.
The whole world we're in is sth similar to an illusion, no need to be sentimental. The rune really behaved weird, a clear hint that we should look at it.
>>
>>6131052
+1
>>
>>6131052
I don't know about that. When we were about to choose between comforting Claire and reading the Rune, some figure said to 'pick'

I think trying to go after the rune is probably a bad route
>>
>>6131079
Well we picked Claire and got looped again...
Unless...

>>6130924
>-- -- -- -- -- -- X
7 things needed to break the loop?
>>
>>6131081
Hmm...you might have a point; in the first loop, where we accomplished nothing, it was

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

Since that loop was a total failure, it can't be that the "X" is an "Failure" marker. So you're right. Maybe it is.
>>
>>6131084
Or maybe the loop is in 7 parts, and on part 7 we got it right? Or maybe the 7th loop is when we got something right? I dunno, figure it out
>>
>>6131086
Huh? That wouldn't make sense. We're in the third iteration of the loop, currently.

Well, i guess we'll see. If nothing happens this loop and it still gets another X then that'll mean my hypothesis is wrong. Of course, unless the 'challenge' of this loop is to remember Table, in which case, i dunno.
>>
>>6131079
It's basically a lump of metal communicating with us. It doesn't care about adolescent drama or our willingness to conform to institutional pressure. It said "Which one is it" which can also be interpreted as a pick between getting caught deeper in the illusion or taking something useful back to the real world. Getting caught in the illusion is bad for our later memories, especially those concerning Table.
>>
>>6131098
>It doesn't care about adolescent drama or our willingness to conform to institutional pressure.
It's literally magic, anon. Magic that specifically got applied to us after we said we wanted power only for the sale of our loved ones
>>
>>6130924
>"Hey, Claire, want to skip school and explore the city? It could be fun."
new option since we're still stuck
>>
>>6131073
>>6130979
>>6130934
>>6130961
>>6131052

You go through school as normal. Same classes, same light bullying, nothing of note is happening, with the only exception being that the teacher is interrogating you more than the rest since you're obviously not paying attention. That doesn't matter, the classroom itself helps you remember bits and pieces of times you spent with Table, and you write what you can remember of it in your notebook.

Lunch comes, but you're busy trying to stay focused on Table, and it's tiring. You hate to say it, but it's boring to think about her, you are forcing your brain to think about something it couldn't care less about, and it drained your mental battery already only halfway through the day. It doesn't help that you haven't had actual sleep in this loop for a few days now. You're not as tired as you should be after staying awake that long, but that doesn't mean you feel as sharp as you were in your first loop.

Claire pokes you with today's lunch carrot. "Not going to eat it?" You snap back to reality, or well, an approximation of it at the very least. Her hair is still wet, you know what happened, she also gets bullied badly, probably dropped a bucket of soap water on her head.. Girl's bullying is more insidious than the way guys tend to do it, if what Claire told you is anything to go by. You can't just beat up other girls to earn respect, the only way to rise up in the social ladder for them is doing some bullshit politics by becoming friends with the right people.

She pokes you again. It doesn't look like she cares about her soggy hair, she's used to it at this point. You bite the carrot as to not ring any alarm bells, and she continues eating as normal.

You asked her about what kind of guy she likes last time, but didn't that end badly at the end of the day? Something else...

>"Hey, you want me to take care of these bullies for you? I'll beat up girls, I don't care."
>Try to feed her too.
>You're too tired for this, just hide in the restroom and take a quick nap until lunch period is over.
>Keep focusing on Table, mental exhaustion be damned.
>>
>>6131117
>Keep focusing on Table, mental exhaustion be damned.
>>
>>6131117
>Keep focusing on Table, mental exhaustion be damned
>But otherwise be friendly to Claire
Let's try to just hyperfocus on this in this loop. If we want to make it less tiring, then maybe we can begin fantasizing about Table? Try to begin imagining stuff like stuff he wants to do with table. Lewd, normal, doesn't really matters as long as its about Table.

It might work. It might not work. The point is trying it out. Claire seems cool with it so it should be fine, right? No reason not to try. I want to test if anon's theory about there being multiple "challenges" we need to go through 1 by 1 is right.
>>
>>6131117
>Try to feed her too.
do you anons have a plan to exit this shit ?
>>
>>6131127
My current idea is to try anon's idea in >>6131081 of "7 things necessary to break the loop"
>>
>>6131117
>"Hey, you want me to take care of these bullies for you? I'll beat up girls, I don't care."
I for one am fine with this time loop arc
>>
>>6131135
So am I, anon. Past Claire is pretty nice, and her relationship with Atlas hits some notes Table doesnt, but I obviously don't want Atlas to forget Table. She's the girl we actually are with, after all.
>>
>>6131134
>7 things
I see that the teacher will get to us before we break this loop on our own
>>
>>6131140
Time magic is fucky.
>>
>>6131137
If we fuck Claire in the time loop, does that still count as cheating? I feel like it does
>>
>>6131145
Yes, and Table would view it as such and feel insecure, so we shouldn't. If we forget her, it's more forgivable, but would make Table even MORE insecure.
>>
>>6131145
Pretty much, yes. I'd say that fucking her after we forgot is even worse given how Table often worries we'll just forget her and get with someone else.

Ah, it really is sad, isn't it. To have two girls who basically end up in a bad ending timeline when you don't choose them. I think I finally understand the threesome anon from curse carrier. Even if the chances of such were 0, you can't help but wish you could help both of them.
>>
>>6131148
>>6131152
>I think I finally understand the threesome anon from curse carrier
For the nth time... That's me... You nigger...
And yes, I feel shit about this scenario too, but I imagine that's the idea. There is some lesson to be learned and yes it can help the individual, but these things always have said lesson be as vague as possible for the victim in question to suffer over until they arbitrarily "get it". I know from irl experience. It sucks.
On a more relevant note, if fucking Claire is not the goal here that we want to achieve, then what is? Is it the relationship between Atlas and Claire? Do we go full mask off and tell time loop Claire everything and see what happens? How could this affect real Claire in the real world? Can it or won't it, since this is just a divination-magic induced simulation? That weird mystery figure that asked Atlas "Which is it?"... Is that a hologram of the mystery shop owner? Is it the coin itself manifesting and exerting control over Atlas in the timeloop inflicted on him by the looped metal?
>>
>>6131153
>
There is some lesson to be learned and yes it can help the individual, but these things always have said lesson be as vague as possible for the victim in question to suffer over until they arbitrarily "get it". I know from irl experience. It sucks.
Well I meant more in the sense that Claire obviously had a long history with Atlas and losing him to magic and the outside obviously took a toll on her for the very bad and in a way i dont think is reversible with Table as our girlfriend, but obviously that's not a reason to abandon Table who pretty much only got to begin experiencing a normal life because of us. So you have two girls who pretty much needed Atlas to get their happy ending, and even though you know it's not realistic you can't help but think "I wish they could both get their best endings"
>On a more relevant note, if fucking Claire is not the goal here that we want to achieve, then what is? Is it the relationship between Atlas and Claire?
I wish I knew. I suppose we'll have to find out through trial and error.
>Do we go full mask off and tell time loop Claire everything and see what happens?
I mean, I guess if we have nothing better...this loop is the "Remember Table" loop, though.
>How could this affect real Claire in the real world? Can it or won't it, since this is just a divination-magic induced simulation?
Time magic man, stuff is crazy. While the basic loop inflicted by the looped metal might not have, we don't know what the coin changed. Our teacher said we'd have to use it "When things looked Grim and we had to cast a spell with a high chance of failing". I don't think it's the Lighten Rune, though. If the coin is even supposed to be used here at all.
>>
Would it help our table-remembering efforts if we specifically recalled all the moments during which Table was using her bracelet to delay the curse? I think it has potential.
>>
>>6131182
Worth a go!
>>
>>6131118
>>6131125
>>6131135
>>6131127
>>6131182

You keep thinking about Table, it's hard, but you've done this for a while now in the real world, so you know a few tricks to make it less exhausting. The main difference is in the real world you could always rely on your notes to remind you every morning, here you can only use your fuzzy memories to keep her in your brain.

This doesn't work as well as you wish it did, as a matter of fact, thinking of her for this long makes you...despise her. It's illogical, but just like we can remember an event being better or worse than it is, your general state of irritation is twisting your memories of her into something she's not. Little flaws and annoying quirks of hers manifesting into what's supposed to be nostalgic.

This isn't working, you'll get out of this loop despising Table at this rate, you need a process that's easier on your mind. You focus on moments where she put on the bracelet. It's still hard to remember, but it doesn't have the same boring feel to it. It does help that all your memories of her in that state are...

Claire snaps her fingers in front of your face as you walk to class together. "What's up with you today? You've been out of it since this morning. What are you-" She looks down, then back up. "Nevermind."

"Hey, listen, it's just morning wood!" You unconvincingly try to justify yourself.

"At 1PM, interesting definition of morning." She laughs. "I guess puberty hits all of us pretty bad."

You hide your face in embarrassment. Didn't Table do something similar before you got together? Tease you constantly? You take quick note of that.

"What are you writing?" She reaches for your notes, but gives up at the last moment. "Whatever, I don't care, probably homework."

It looks like the boringness of Table also extends to other people in the loop. That's a good thing, that means there is very little chance of Claire getting your note and freaking out for what looks like some fantasy about an outsider she never met.

Claire isn't entirely wrong, puberty does make Table's erotic memories easier to palate, it's just that you never had time to think about sex back when you were younger. The only problem with this technique is the fact you're now a lot more self-conscious about the way others--especially Claire--sees you. The rest of the day is agonizing, because for the first time in forever, you have to deal with being horny without Table around to take care of it. This wouldn't be THAT bad in and of itself if you didn't have to walk Claire home right after, and if she still sees the state you're in...
>>
>>6131318

You try to think back on the more 'boring' memories you had with Table, you manage to get just enough control to get back to your regular, non-horny state. Claire's waiting for you, but you can see her eyes glance down for a split second, she isn't as subtle as she thinks she is; at least this time there's nothing to see.

"Hey, Atlas, do you want to do a sleepover toni-"

"No." You cut her off. "I have something very important to do tonight, sorry."

"I could help?" She asks innocently.

You scan her face. She's blushing. Maybe not such an innocent question after all. "No, it's something I have to do alone, sorry."

She gives you a thumbs up to say she doesn't mind, but you can tell she's suppressing a laugh. At least she won't remember any of this tomorrow. You say goodbye, and enter your apartment so fast it must look like you really need to go to the restroom. It's not too far off, you do need to relieve yourself in another way. Quick and fast, your mind finally clears. This wasn't a terrible way to remember Table, but you're not a huge fan of the fact it made your body remember its hormones.

You have dinner with your parents tonight, you didn't get to eat with them without Claire around in the previous loops, so maybe it's time to ask them something while you're at it.

>"Hey, I've been thinking of leaving the city."
>"What do you think of Claire?"
>"Dad, mom, I can cast a spell now, look!"
>Stay silent and go to sleep, you're too tired for this.
>>
>>6131320
Uhhh you know what, better not. Better just
>>6131319
>Stay silent and go to sleep, you're too tired for this.

Just to be sure, right? This loop is just a test.
>>
>>6131318
>You focus on moments where she put on the bracelet. It's still hard to remember, but it doesn't have the same boring feel to it. It does help that all your memories of her in that state are...
>"What's up with you today? You've been out of it since this morning. What are you-" She looks down, then back up. "Nevermind."
>"Hey, listen, it's just morning wood!" You unconvincingly try to justify yourself.
lul
>>6131319
>"Dad, mom, I can cast a spell now, look!"
showing them we had some results may lessen their worries
>>
>>6131324
>Just to be sure, right? This loop is just a test.
>>6131324
bruh, we need to do discover more stuff before we get outta here, so why not talk with them ? I'm not planning on waiting for the teacher
>>
>>6131320
>Let's hope we're not uh....doing this in our real body too.
>Well i guess Table wouldn't mind, but it'd be real awkward if there was someone else there.
kek
>>
>>6131327
>bruh, we need to do discover more stuff before we get outta here, so why not talk with them ?
I guess, but i don't know if it's a test. We didn't seem to have a trouble remembering Table in the first two loops, so why suddenly in the third?
>>
>>6131330
>We didn't seem to have a trouble remembering Table in the first two loops, so why suddenly in the third?
we also weren't feeling tired in the early loops
>>
>>6131331
That's kinda why i wanted to test if it was a test, so to say. If we could truly stay on guard and remember Table for a whole day without her.

Sure, i could be wrong, but still, i don't wanna really risk it...
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6131333
1 - Show them magic spell
2 - Don't say anything

Rolling because I'm not sure.
>>
>>6131319
Okay I'm voting for
>Stay Silent
>>
>>6131319
>"Hey, Atlas, do you want to do a sleepover toni-"
>"No." You cut her off. "I have something very important to do tonight, sorry."
>"I could help?" She asks innocently.
Damn, Claire was down BAD.

Anyway...
>"What do you think of Claire?"

>>6131330
Time still passes for us. The longer we go without a reminder, the harder it is to remember her.
>>
>>6131349
>>6131347
>>6131326
>>6131324

You stay silent, which isn't weird for you to do during dinner. Your parents may be a little much sometimes, but at least they don't force you to talk when you don't want to when you're eating, not like you'd have much to talk about in the first place.

You leave the table early, and come back to your room before crashing on the bed. This is exhausting, if it was just staying sane during the loop, that'd be fine, but having to spend so much brainpower thinking of Table is agony. You pull some of your notes, and re-read them. Boring, so boring, they always were, but you always read your old notes in the morning, having to rehearse those at the end of the day makes you want to procrastinate and put it out for later.

But there's no later, there's only today, and today. You'll get out no matter what, but you hope you'll stay the same person as you were before you came in.

You slap yourself. It's only been a couple of days and you're already starting to panic, you're an idiot. You got this, just stay focused on finding a solution to end the loop early, that's all you need to do.

Your phone makes a ping sound, you should turn it off, but you decide to pick it up anyway.

[Done with your 'important thing?' lol.]

[Still doing it, it's boring homework. I can't focus with you around, so I needed to do it alone.]

[u cant focus w me around? Am I distracting?]

[You pace around the room like crazy when you think, mumble to yourself a lot too. Hard to focus with that.]

[sry, I just don't like standing still, lol.]

Claire is typing...

Claire is deleting her message.

Claire is typing again.

Claire is once again deleting her message- wait, no she's sending it.

[When I said I'd help you, I knew you meant homework, btw.]

[I'm going to sleep, sorry. Good night.]

[gn!!!]

You turn off the phone and drift off to sleep. You'll just think about Table tomorrow.

-- -- -- ? -- -- X

You wake up, you didn't sleep for long, but that nap was welcome nonetheless. What were you supposed to do today? Writing something down? Must have been homework, then again, do you even want to go through school again? There's only so much you can do here.

You leave your room, stretching your arm as you sit down at the dinner ta-

You bolt back to your room and jot down whatever you can remember about Table. Damnit, that was close, but what matters if you caught yourself before it was too late. The bad news is your notes are... lacking, to say the least. It's only one page long, and even with it, it's still hard to remember what she was actually like. The notes don't feel like memories, they feel like words on a page that conjure no images in your mind.

No time to worry about that. Another stupid day is waiting for you.

>School
>Spell
>Explore town
>Something else.
>>
>>6131462
Hmmm...so that theory was right. There are in fact seven 'somethings'. But the question is, what exactly does an question mark mean? Does it mean we didn't complete that 'route'? Was there something we were supposed to do we failed?
>Explore town
Let's go for this, i guess. And remember to write down anything about Table we can think of, but maybe don't spend the whole day doing it?
>>
>>6131462
>Explore town

>>6131471
+1 to this approach. Remember the bracelet-off instants, too, if we can. They may give us a half-chub, but they also are our clearest memories of Table.
>>
>>6131462
>Explore town
>>6131471
>But the question is, what exactly does an question mark mean? Does it mean we didn't complete that 'route'? Was there something we were supposed to do we failed?
considering we used the entire day to remember table and didn't even talk with our parents, that's expected
>>
>>6131540
>considering we used the entire day to remember table and didn't even talk with our parents, that's expected
Sure but...the fact that it was a question mark means we did *something*. But what was it? An incomplete route? Maybe we need to find a way to get Claire to *not* come so we can talk to our parents alone.
>>
>>6131471
+1
>>
>>6131462
>Spend the day seeing if you can find a way to contact your Spirit friend. It's always right next to you in the real world, and a version of it definitely exists in the loop. Maybe its spiritual nature can help it to bypass the limitations of the loop and help you find what you need to find here.
>>
>>6131705
..Would that actually work?
>>
>>6131705
...I could back this.

>>6131462
Adding this to my vote here: >>6131482
We can try reaching out psychically the whole time we're exploring. If Claire asks why we're spacing out, we can even say we're trying a new technique we heard about online.
>>
>>6131705
+1

If there's one thing (other than sex) that will remind us of Table, it's that she helped us truly pursue our love of magic.
Isn't that what helped us remember her in the first place?
>>
>>6131462
Change from >>6131676 to backing >>6131705
>>
Not adding onto or altering my vote or anything, but do you think the Divination teacher gets information from Looped events? I feel like that would be really annoying. I'd probably filter it out of whatever spells she uses to know everything she needs to know.
>>
>>6131802
My understanding is that looped events are closed simulations rather than real alternate timelines, maybe? I imagine there's a risk of accidentally following one for a few rotations before you realize you locked on wrong if you're divining a specific individual... Interesting notion.
>>
>>6131838
Imagine realizing that you're in a loop, and you're not the central individual of the loop. That's gotta have caused more than a few existential crisises among diviners before...
>>
>>6131916
Now that I've thought about it more, they probably actually have a solution to the exact problem of "This iteration of me only exists in a loop and will cease to exist after it's complete."
I imagine there's a spell out there that just automagically fetches the knowledge from Looped Instances of yourself and adds it to the Realworld instance. So if somebody is messing with you in loops, you can tell.
>>
>>6131784
>>6131712
>>6131705
>>6131676
>>6131545
>>6131540
>>6131482
>>6131471

"Hey, Claire, want to go explore? Don't feel like going through school today."

"What do you mean, explore? Besides, won't your parents get mad if we skip school? Doesn't sound worth it."

"You don't have to go with me, if you don't want to."

She tilts her head to the side and closes her eyes. You can almost hear her internal monologue as she moves her head left and right thinking of the pros and cons of exploring with you. "Fine, it could be fun. Explore where, though? Like new places?"

"Wouldn't be exploring if I knew where we'd end up, now would it? Come on, let's go."

You look up a map of the city on your phone, and pick a spot that you've never been to before. On the way there, you also try to contact your spirit, and even though you aren't technically linked, you still feel a feint connection with it. You're pretty sure that if you could figure out how to cast the spirit link again, you could talk to it even here. The main issue is that it isn't a Material spell, so you can't count on your memory of the rune's shape to cast it, you need to readjust your current mana to cast the spell, which wouldn't be that much of a problem if not for the focus requirement, focus that you should use to remember...

You read your notes. Table, that's who.

"Atlas? We've been running in circles for a while, now. Are you sure this is the right way?" Claire points at your phone's GPS.

"Sorry, I was distracted, I was trying to cast a new spell."

"Shouldn't you try to figure out how to cast that rune before learning a new spell?" She asks.

"How about YOU draw it since you're so good?" You rip a piece of paper and give it to her, the irritation in your voice is obvious.

"...I never said I was, geez, sorry, you can learn two spells if you want, it's whatever." She throws her hands up.

"Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind today, okay?" You try to apologize, but you still sound mad. It's hard to stay calm when it feels like you have so much to do at once, trying to cast spirit link, remembering whatever her name was, figuring out the loop, and figuring out what you're even exploring for.

"You know, if something's going on, you can tell me, right?" She puts her hand on your shoulder, it's supposed to be reassuring, but it's pissing you off now. You strain a smile to show her you're okay, but she's not buying it. "It's fine if you don't want to tell me, I get it."
>>
>>6132056


You check your phone again, there are a few places you've never checked before, but you're not sure how helpful they are in that loop.

>Clarity pods: A service where you stay in pods full of fumes that help clear your mind. Not comparable to the magic clarity spell, but that doesn't mean it can't help you think better.
>Theme park: Exactly what it sounds like, although nearly all the attractions are underground for safety reasons.
>Zero zone: A dangerous place with no rules. Who knows what you'll find there? Probably death, but it's not like you can die in those loops, probably.
>Outsider Store: A place that sells stuff from the outside, allegedly. Most of it is probably fake, and you highly doubt they actually sell magical items here, but you could always take a look anyway.
>>
>>6132057
>Clarity pods
Worth a go...
>>
>>6132057
>Clarity pods: A service where you stay in pods full of fumes that help clear your mind. Not comparable to the magic clarity spell, but that doesn't mean it can't help you think better.
>>
>>6132057
>Clarity pods: A service where you stay in pods full of fumes that help clear your mind. Not comparable to the magic clarity spell, but that doesn't mean it can't help you think better.
Use the clarity pods so we can remember Table enough to write enough about her that we can cast the link spell without worrying about forgetting.

Our goal is to cast spirit link and get some help.
>>
>>6132057
>Clarity pods: A service where you stay in pods full of fumes that help clear your mind. Not comparable to the magic clarity spell, but that doesn't mean it can't help you think better.
>>
>>6132080
>>6132059
>>6132065
>>6132067

You stop in front of a clarity pod rental service. You've heard of those, they're quite expensive to buy, so most people prefer renting them for an hour or two instead. You check the prices, and then your cash. You have just about enough for you and Claire, it's basically all your money, but who cares, it'll come back tomorrow-- or today, depending on how you look at it.

"Is that what you wanted to show me?" Claire asks. "So expensive though..."

"It's fine, I'll pay." You push open the door and go inside. It smells very nice inside, but those aren't the fumes you're going to pay for, it's just regular scented incense. You rent two pods for two hours, not that long, but it should be enough to make some progress on casting spirit link. The pod itself looks like a green, fluorescent space pod with a comfy looking couch inside. You're allowed to use your phone or bring books inside, although it's recommended to keep them away from the top of the pod where most of the fumes congregate as it might wet them.

The pod closes on you, and you breath in the strange colored air floating near your head. You already feel calmer, it's not like the clarity spell at all, but it feels like your emotions are more distant now, but not in a bad way. Table doesn't necessarily feel easier to remember, but it feels less irritating at least. As for the spirit link spell, manipulating your mana feels a lot more natural in this state, you wouldn't want to be like that in a fight since your body feels lethargic, but right now it's perfect to practice your spells again.

Unfortunately, you're already out of mana. You try to see if you can trigger your overdrive to get your mana back, but it doesn't work, that's a problem. You spend the rest of your time in the pod memorizing whatever you can of Table until you're let out by the staff. You greet a distraught looking Claire that also just left her pod.

"Hey, Claire, is everything okay?" You ask.

She stares at you. Slowly, she reaches up for your cheek, and lets her hand slowly slide off of your face, before grabbing both your hands. "Are you real?" She asks.

"What? I mean, yeah, I guess?" You try to escape her hands, but she holds your palm tight.

"Y-Yeah, stupid question, sorry. I think... I think the fumes got to my head, that's all. It wasn't relaxing at all, I might be allergic."

"Really? How did it feel? It was nice for me."

"I don't know, it felt... existential? I could think better, but it felt like nothing made sense. It's like, you know when you're trying to sneeze, and you stop at the last moment and it feels bad and frustrating? That's how it felt, it's like I was about to sneeze knowledge but every time I was about to crack the code it poofed!"
>>
>>6132155

"Yeah, maybe you're allergic, or something, I wouldn't worry about it- can you stop holding my hands?"

She lets go of your hands, embarrassed. She's still staring at you as if you were a mirage, it's a little weird.

>Tell her the whole truth, there's no telling how she'll react though.
>It might be possible to teach Claire to give you some mana so you can practice spirit link a little more.
>You could always check the zero zone now, it's not like you have enough cash to check any of the other places.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6132156
>Tell her the whole truth, there's no telling how she'll react though.
We're out of mana anyway, right? Might as well...next loop we'll focus on getting spirit link. This seems like an opportunity.
>>
>>6132156
>Tell her the whole truth, there's no telling how she'll react though.
Might as well see how she reacts. probably poorly. But... Maybe that's important? I think it's very, very vital we don't "use" her.
>>
>>6132156
>Tell her the whole truth, there's no telling how she'll react though.
>>
>>6132156
>Tell her the whole truth, there's no telling how she'll react though.
>>
>>6132187
>>6132166
>>6132158
>>6132157

You tell Claire you want to tell her something important, alone. You go back to her house since like before, her parents aren't home and as such won't yell at you for skipping school. You're both silent on the way to her home, you sit her down on her bed, take a deep breath, and talk.

And talk, and talk.

And talk. Until everything you know has been said. She listens to it all, she doesn't break eye contact, or interrupt you, or laugh, or cry, she takes it all in, until she sees that you're finished, that there's nothing more to be said.

"Ha. It's not your kind of humor, is it? It's all so specific, and it feels like it almost lines up with what I felt in that pod." She extends her palm outward, and fakes a smile. "I'm not real! Ha. Haha. Or maybe I am, and this is some timeline you're messing up? Wouldn't you feel stupid if I woke up tomorrow, and you ruined another Atlas's relationship? Or maybe you wouldn't care." She plops back down on her bed. "I'm going to die, or maybe I was never alive at all. I don't want to believe you, but I can almost feel it. Whenever I try to remember something, there's this sense that it's twisted, fabricated, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense."

"I didn't... I didn't want to put you through this, sorry. I thought it'd just repeat a recent day, not this."

"But you hate me, right? You said it yourself, that who I become later is no longer your childhood friend, or best friend, or regular friend- hardly an acquaintance. A coworker at best that you get to see once a year, so even my real self doesn't have it great!"

"I mean, it looks like you're doing pretty well for yourself in the anti-magic force."

"Am I? Atlas, I'm not like you. I don't have some kind of grand dream and passion that makes me want to keep on living. I survive, I eat breakfast, I get to school, and I hope tomorrow I'll suddenly get an epiphany that will make it all make sense. Hey, that's great actually, you just gave me that epiphany! I'm not fucking real! And my real self is living day by day wondering how it all went wrong, I'm sure, because she got cucked by a fucking outsider you've known for 2 months! What? Was she that much hotter than me? Was it the mana? Was I so boring that a being cursed to be more boring than anyone else was more fun to hang out than me!"

"Claire, you didn't want to go outside with me, it was- it would've never worked out between us."

"Well you know what? If you at least TRIED to get closer to me, then maybe I would have!"

"Maybe if you didn't think of outsiders like cattle to be used as batteries, I wouldn't-"

"BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU DID! How the fuck did you get to where you were, huh? If anything, this just proves future me right. Do you even love her, or is it all about your magic again?"

"I do love her. I wouldn't go through all the trouble of remembering her if I wasn't."
>>
File: TheGreatM.png (762 KB, 543x642)
762 KB
762 KB PNG
>>6132335

She pulls out her phone, and stares at the screen. "I'm going to die, I'm going to die soon, and I'm wasting it arguing pointless bullshit. Why do you even care? Why did you even bother telling me this? Do you want me to squirm, is that it? Do you want me to cry, and beg and hurt myself just to satisfy your curiosity?"

"I wanted you to know because I care about you, fake or not. It felt cruel to not let you know, at least once."

"Shut up, I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear your half-hearted apologies, it just makes it worse. It's pointless, for you, and for me. I'll just wait to die, and forget all about it, sure, let's do that."

You turn her head around so she's forced to look at you. "It's not. Listen, I think talking to you like this, it helps me understand you better, and I guess I want to reconnect with your future self more now, even if it'll be hard."

She gets her head closer to yours, until your forehead bumps. "I... I hope you can be friends again with that future me, then." She plays with your hair, and sniffs them. Weird, but you suppose you owe her that much after what you told her. "Maybe... it'll all be okay."

The sound of a coin hitting the floor punctuates her last sentence.

You hold her tight as the flash envelops you, but this time, it lingers, and what looks like a small kid with a bored expression waits for you at the end of the light.

"Is that really what you're getting out of this?" They ask. Their voice hurts your head. "You of all people should know what I'm getting at, right?"

You feel like you shouldn't ask, but you do anyway. "Who are you?"

They get closer. You can't move, because they're everywhere around you. "Here's a hint, Divination is answering a question, but did you ever try to figure out who is answering it?"

An eye of unknown colors rise from their forehead. "Just because I accept your solution does not mean I approve of it."

-- -- -- ? -- X X

...

The alarm rings. It keeps ringing. You turn it off.

You forgot her name, but you remember what she was like, it will have to be enough for today.

>School
>Spell
>Explore town
>Something else.
>>
>>6132336
Let me think about this, for a while. So. What exactly is the hint supposed to mean. "Who is answering it", what are we supposed to get from that?

And his words, 'Approve of the solution', is that related to our idea of calling our spirit buddy or of telling Claire it's a loop? Would there be a problem if we were to call the seeker? I'm not sure.
>>
>>6132348
Okay so, I got an idea. I think he's saying that HE is basically divination itself. When you use a divination spell he's the "entity" that gives you an answer.

Hmm, that still doesn't answer what we're supposed to do. I want to call on our spirit link but not sure if that would mess up stuff.
>>
>>6132336
>Spell
>>
>>6132358
Do you have an actual plan of what to do? I want to use spirit link but I'm not sure if that'd be "Approvable" by the M
>>
>>6132336
"A coin falls out of your pocket, the sound it makes when hitting the floor is deafening."
Do we have the coin with us in the loop? I know it keeps appearing to end the loop but if we can use it as a focus during the loop that should help us cast spells.

"Is that really what you're getting out of this?"
Yea, it sucks that Claire and Atlas drifted apart but we can't make amends here. The only thing we can get out of this loop that will help us in the real world is knowledge, I think we've expended all the information we will get on our relationship with Claire.

>Spell

Have we tried mana feel, analysis, Mana tracking, Spirit Sight? any divination spell that might give us a lead? we haven't used Garbled Truth if we want another convoluted vision
>>
>>6132382
If we want to cast a spell we should try spirit link. I guess since it's a divination spell, it would only work if it was allowed, right?
>>
>>6132336
>Spell
I think Garbled Truth with the keyword 'divination' might do it?
>>
>>6132336
>Explore town
>>6132348
>>6132351
I'm thinking either the god/embodiment of magic or at least a powerful spirit
>>
>>6132610
>>6132411
>>6132382
>>6132358

You check your pocket to see if you can find that damn coin, but it's not there. It makes sense for it to not be here this far back in time, but that doesn't explain why it just shows up whenever. You had the coin on you when you started the loop, so maybe it entangled itself within it somehow? That's worrying, the last thing you want to do is make the loop even more potent.

"Let's do spells today," you tell Claire.

She tilts her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

There is a moment of silence. She's back to the way she was, everything that happened before might as well have never existed, it was a fabrication, you could do anything to her right now, say anything, and it wouldn't matter. Well, no, of course that's not true, it would matter to your mental health, just because everything you do here doesn't affect the real world doesn't mean it won't change the way you think. You have to care, you have to treat her like she's real, because once you cross that line, there's no telling what you'll do.

"Skipping school to learn spells," you finally answer. "Do you want in?"

"Uh, skipping school, really? Our parents will get really mad, you know? You can always practice them in class while no one's looking, right?"

You can't even muster a smile. You just show her the Lighten rune and tell her you'll teach her, she looks happy when seeing the result of the spells, but the moment she sees your face...

"Are you okay? You don't look excited about this- this is a big deal isn't it? You've been trying so long to make a spell work, and now you have! What's going on? You know, if something going on, you can tell me, right?"

You laugh. Yeah, because that went so well last time. You look at your notes, it just says 'You have a girlfriend that you love very much and that you have trouble remembering. She likes it when you brush her hair.' You have a feeling that this list was much longer before, even the erotic moments you spent together are becoming blurry.

You inhale, then exhale. You're overthinking this, this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, just keep going and it'll work itself out eventually. Claire is still staring, waiting for an answer, that's what happens when you go off script.

>Get back into the script and convince her to learn the lighten rune again, you want to see that perfect rune again.
>Just lead her to school and then sneak out to learn by yourself, she'll get in the way.
>You wonder if she can also learn spirit link? It's worth a shot.
>Something else? (Write in)
>>
>>6132764
>Something else
Teach her Give Mana so you can try to do spirit link. But do tell her what you're doing so you're not just using her. Say you need mana for a big spell and that you need her to give hers.

Hmm, I guess she could say we're a hypocrite for wanting to use her as a battery, but at the same time, I guess we could turn it around and say that she should be okay with it if she's okay with using outsiders for it.

Man, not sure how we're gonna manage to get 7 before completely forgetting table like this...we've only got 2 so far.
>>
>>6132773
Worth a go... Supporting, or
>You wonder if she can also learn spirit link? It's worth a shot.
if that doesn't work.

>>6132764
>>
>>6132773
>+1
>>
>>6132773
+1 why not
I'm starting to feel that we'll have fully forgot Table by the end of the loops. Fucking Claire seems inevitable. We better embrace the drama and suffering
>capcha GAYKYS
>>
Huh, you know, now that I think about it...couldn't two people grind out Give Mana all day long by passing mana back and forth, trying to improve it each time?
Or is that kind of gay?
>>
>>6132989
It's the perfect amount of gay.

>>6132984
I choose to believe QM is not railroading us in into NTRing bestgirl.
>>
>>6132912
>>6132826
>>6132773

"I'm just bummed because I can't cast the spell consistently with the mana I have. I think I figured out a way for you to give me mana, but I'll need to teach you."

"Sure, it's not like I'm using that mana for much. Maybe this weekend, though? Skipping school doesn't sound worth it."

"Please, it's very important to me. I'll do something to make it up to you later, I promise."

It's an empty promise, there will be no tomorrow for her to remember what you said today. It feels a little manipulative, but you don't want to waste time arguing with her.

She stops walking, sighs, and turns back to you. "Fine, I'll hear you out. What do I have to do?"

You explain to her the basics, but nothing compares to practice, so you go to the arcade to show her how to cast the two necessary spells, Give Life and Mana Feel, that you'll then need to mix. Theoretically, it's possible to learn Give Mana right off the bat, but you don't know how, so you'll teach her the way you've been taught, by mixing.

At first, the task looked impossible, teaching her essentially three spells in a day that you yourself can hardly cast in your current state should be far beyond your abilities, but you've discovered that mana feel alone actually does share a small amount of mana with enough pressure. Normally, the amount of mana would be negligible, but because humans have such low mana to begin with, even this little makes a difference when it comes to casting a spell.

There's one problem though, skin contact. Her version of Mana Feel is inefficient, it's been taught in a day after all, and not only does she need to touch your skin, she needs to press against it for the mana to transfer properly, a lot of it. You try to think in your head of the least awkward position that could still supply you with mana, but it might be outright impossible to get this right without making it a little weird.

On one hand, it's not like Claire has ever crossed that line, but you were always fully clothed, and in a pretty tense state of mind. She's bound to get the wrong idea if you tell her to basically strip down to her underwear and hug you as hard as she can. There might be some better way, though...

>Abort. Teach her Spirit Link instead, maybe she'll figure it out faster than you.
>Do it, even if it's awkward. you'll stop her if she goes too far.
>What if you also used Mana Feel on her? You'll have to remember how to cast it though, which means practicing on her too.
>You don't NEED that mana to cast it, right? You don't remember the mana cost, but you're sure you can cast it yourself with enough practice.
>>
>>6132990
Speak of the fucking devil. It isn't railroading but it's certainly tempting with how repeated it has been. I assume that's the point, the alluring call of time loop simulation abuse.
>that last option
Spirit Link is still listed as unknown in the rentry. Speaking of which PLEASE update the rentry and PLEASE archive the thread we are on page 10!
>>
>>6132912
>Fucking Claire seems inevitable
That wouldn't be a pretty sight. Not only does Table get depressed and believe she'll probably be forgotten (which is the actual part that would depress her, rather than just the Claire part), the real Claire doesn't even actually get fucked out of becoming an anti-magic goon. Like at least if it happened in the past, then you would have the silver lining of Claire getting a "Happier" route, but that wouldn't even happen.

Sad!

Honestly, i don't know what the hell the coin is trying to 'teach us', but it better be worth it...gonna get real pissed at that storeowner if all that happens is that we learn some lesson like "Claire is fucked up permanently, too bad bro"

>>6132989
What do you mean 'grind out'? I don't think you can get mana up in a way that isn't "Once a day"

>>6132997
Oh damn, this is not gonna be easy to choose...if we try to teach her spirit link and it doesn't work, we'll end up losing a loop and probably forget even more about Table.
>>
>>6133003
I was thinking about out-of-loop training of it, sorry for not clarifying.
Not really an issue for us thanks to table, but for like, two humans? It's a great way to practice. Maybe something to consider teaching the antimagic force as a training tool.
>>
>>6133002
>I assume that's the point, the alluring call of time loop simulation abuse.
I agree, but at the same time, i'm worried that being too afraid to do it will lead to us failing, forgetting Table, and then ending up doing it anyways.
>>
>>6132990
All I'll say is that not banging Claire is very much avoidable, but not forgetting Table will be a lot trickier.
>>
>>6133008
But we'll still know and remember her after we wake up from the loop, right? We have all the notes in the waking world, right?
>>
>>6132997
>What if you also used Mana Feel on her? You'll have to remember how to cast it though, which means practicing on her too.
Try that. We're forgetting Table, but not what we learned about Claire. Stripping down and hugging each other is NOT a cool thing to do to a friend who you know has feelings for you, if you can't or won't reciprocate.
>>
>>6133011
I sure hope so. Poor Table doesn't deserve that much suffering.
>>
>>6133012
Anon, did you miss 'practicing on her too'? That means we'll have to touch her. "Mana feel" is literally how we first banged Table.

>>6133014
None of 'em do, really. Atlas doesn't deserve being stuck in a loop. Claire didn't deserve getting cucked out of her childhood friend crush. And Table doesn't deserve being forgotten by her boyfriend.
>>
>>6133002
Yeah, I'll get to updating the rentry too, I just kept putting it away because I'm lazy. Also yeah I should archive it, it auto updates as you said, right? No harm in doing it now I guess.
>>
>>6133008
I meant banging Claire is very much avoidable, not NOT banging Claire.
>>
>>6133014
I fully agree. I am not against Atlas doing the actual unironic Fate/Stay Night style "mana transfer" with Table at some point. Yes I know with her fucked biology and being a borderline walking infinite mana cheat that she doesn't need Atlas to Give Mana to her, but I still want them both to do it for the fun of it.

>>6133017
Yeah go right ahead and do it, but be careful of typos as you enter the info to archive it. If you fuck up then you need to go contact LordLicorice to fix it manually on his end of the site

>>6133016
>"Mana feel" is literally how we first banged Table.
Ah, memories... It'll be hilarious when they try to explain this to their kids in the future

>>6133003
I dunno but that "M" guy LARPing as Truth from Fullmetal Alchemist is an asshole
>>
>>6133020
>spoiler
Well if we want to get to that, we'll have to figure out what to do; do we risk causing a situation by touching her (she could very well take it the wrong way and get pissed off when we don't bang her) or should we risk losing an entire loop and forgetting even more about Table?

Honestly, i feel like we might have no choice but to bite the bullet and just do it while we still remember Table in the first place. If we end up having to do it again when we've forgotten her there'll be no stopping Atlas from banging Claire.

Hmm, what is less likely to lead to lewdity? Claire touching us, or us touching claire?
>>
Unfortunately, it looks like the archive is down once more. I'll probably end this thread after this loop, by the way, hopefully the archive gets fixed before then.
>>
>>6133016
>Anon, did you miss 'practicing on her too'? That means we'll have to touch her. "Mana feel" is literally how we first banged Table.
But not full body contact, right? Handholding or over-clothes touching is a lot less weird.

>"Mana feel" is literally how we first banged Table.
Only 'cause we started feeling her up, on purpose to provoke a conversation about sex.

>Claire didn't deserve getting cucked out of her childhood friend crush.
I have the least sympathy for her frankly because while that sucks, she is genuinely a little entitled and over-aggressive about Atlas given they never, ever actually dated.

>>6133023
>Hmm, what is less likely to lead to lewdity? Claire touching us, or us touching claire?
Us touching Claire, because we have full control of where and how we touch her, and when we stop.

>>6133019
Both, technically are true, kek

>>6133033
You can still archive until even the locked thread is gone from 4chan, anyway.
>>
>>6133036
>But not full body contact, right?
I dunno. Maybe? The vote didn't specify if that would be less.
>I have the least sympathy for her frankly because while that sucks, she is genuinely a little entitled and over-aggressive about Atlas given they never, ever actually dated.
Well from what we learned, she started becoming like this only after Atlas started to fall completely into magic autism to the point he basically started to completely ignore her (and really anything that wasn't just magic, really)
>>
>>6133037
>I dunno. Maybe? The vote didn't specify if that would be less.
Hm, you're right. I guess that was an unsupported inference on my part. Still tempted to stick with it to make the most of this opportunity while we still remember we have a girlfriend we love, but that's cruel to Claire, so...

>>6132997
>Try with minimal skin-contact, and if that fails, teach her Spirit Link instead, maybe she'll figure it out faster than you.

>>6133012 changing to this.
>>
>>6133050
By 'minimal skin contact' do you mean 'Try using mana feel on her as well'?
>>
>>6132997
>Do it, even if it's awkward. you'll stop her if she goes too far.
Try this while we still remember Table and have a reason to stop ourselves.
Sidenote when we get out of this loop we should get a tattoo of a table, wouldn't of helped here since we are in the past but will help us if we are ever away from table for an extended period.
>>
>>6133058
Yes, that.
>>
>>6132997
>What if you also used Mana Feel on her? You'll have to remember how to cast it though, which means practicing on her too.
>>6133003
you tagged the wrong anon
>>
>>6133061
What if the tattoo is also boring and cursed because it's a physical artistic depiction?
>>
>>6132997
>Try with minimal skin-contact, and if that fails, teach her Spirit Link instead, maybe she'll figure it out faster than you.
What >>6133050 and >>6133058 said
>>
>>6133134
No, I mean a literal table. This way, we at least remember her name. Even if we forget her, we can look at the tattoo and think about why we got it. We'll hopefully remember it was of someone important to us.
>>
>>6133212
It couldn't hurt. it's why she picked that name, after all.
>>
>>6133337
>You should ask it for a way to remember that important person through loops. It's your only worry after all.
If we remember Table, we can relax and go through the loop as necessary.
>>
(I wanted to delete the first post to change the grammar of some stuff but it only deleted one and now I can't delete the second for some reason so i'm reposting it)

>>6133050
>>6133037
>>6133036
>>6133012
>>6133002

You're going to have to practice mana feel on her, and the best way to do that is by touch. You explain it to her, and to no one's surprise, she doesn't mind. You go back to her room, and start the very annoying process of locating her 'mana points'. At first, finding them is enough, but you now need to interact with it, which means skin contact, the hands, face and even shoulders are fine, but anything around that becomes risqué. It doesn't help that manipulating mana has a tingly feeling that even if it's not inherently erotic, it certainly doesn't help make this situation any less weird.

You'll give props to Claire, she isn't trying anything or making any weird comments. She stiffens up to your touch occasionally, but that's to be expected. When some of her mana points get into dangerous spots, you ignore them until they relocate somewhere else. It's very annoying to have to sometimes wait 15 minutes for one point to go into a better spot, only for it to go straight to her upper thigh, but at least you're still making progress, and it gives time for Claire to calm down.

That's enough practice for today, anymore than that, and Claire would either collapse or say something very stupid. You both use mana feel on each, holding both your hands tight. Unfortunately, it's not enough, you press against each other, you can feel the mana flow into you--actually, it's more like you're starting to share the same mana pool right now, a little bit like an Anbee.

The good news is since you're holding her hands, you can make sure they don't go anywhere they aren't supposed to be, not that it makes focusing on casting that spirit link spell any easier. Looking at her face is becoming risky, so you decide to rest your head on her shoulder instead. Her heart is beating like crazy, and you assume it's taking a lot of discipline on her part to not act on her impulses right now, you're sending a LOT of mixed signals after all.

Alright, back to spirit link. First you make a rope, and then you- wait, that's not the same link as you had with the seeker spirit, it's a brand new one. The link wanders around the room like a snake, searching for something, then it descends on... Claire?

She freezes, and the spirit link is rejected. That's because she isn't a spirit, and you accidentally cast it on her, right? But the spell shouldn't lock on people in the first place, maybe it considers the whole loop a spirit?

"W-What was that?" Claire leans back from the hug to look at you. "It's like... I don't know, I was someone else for a second? I don't know how to explain it, it's as if I saw my entire life flash before my eyes, but it wasn't MY life? Weird, so weird."
>>
>>6133339

That's...strange. You don't think you have enough mana to cast that spell again, but you'd hardly call it a waste of time, you think you got the hang out of casting mana feel in the loop anyway. You gaze into her eyes, as if you expected to find something other than her pupils, but she misunderstands your intentions, and gets her face closer to yours, which you interrupt by putting your hand between the two of you.

"A-Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to! You were just, uhm, never mind. A-Anyway, we figured out a lot of spells today, isn't that great?" She changes the subject, but it's not hard to tell how disappointed she is by this turn of event, you'd be a little annoyed too if you misinterpreted the mood like that too. What bothers you the most is you had a split second of hesitation before putting your hand up, a moment of weakness. How much of that weakness is due to hormones, and how much of it is trying to give her the happiness you never could, you're not certain, but maybe it doesn't matter, you shouldn't give in either way.

A voice in your head interrupts your musing.

"Despite your failed attempts at [contacting/summoning] me, your wish to be found was clear. Our time together cannot extend past this [iteration/cycle/sentence], make your demands quick."

You can't see it, but it's unmistakably your spirit talking to you. it's implying it will only be here for this loop, and it will end soon, so whatever you ask of it, it better be important.

>Ask it to get the help of a teacher as soon as possible. You might not develop proper looping tolerance if you get out early though.
>You should ask it for a way to remember that important person through loops. It's your only worry after all.
>Maybe it could modify your looped body to work the same way as your real self? It would make things way easier.
>Ask it of the best way to 'solve' the loops, that's what you're trying to figure out yourself, after all.
>>
>>6133338
(for clarity's sake this vote was technically posted AFTER the two posts above because of deletion fuckery. Mostly posting that so I remember it myself when counting votes later)
>>
>>6133340
See >>6133338 i guess

You know, I guess this is sadly out of the capabilties of the loop, but I wonder what would happen if we managed to convince Claire to come with us. I think that Table could have still ended up meeting us, with how we'd have the same issues, the teachers would have probably told us to take different partners, right? So things could have gone similar. Meeting Table...Aroth being pursued by the demon Princess and leading to the Charlotte situation...funding the Forest bunker

I guess it's a dumb thought. But it's nice to think of a reality where Table and Claire could have even been friends. Table likes it when we brush her hair, and Claire seemed to enjoy brushing ours.

Ah well, no use in thinking about a fantasy.
>>
>>6133345
(I forgot if I mentioned it before, but Claire was originally supposed to be part of the magic school class, however she wasn't a childhood friend, but instead just another human who shared your love for magic. She still kept her disdain for outsiders and mostly wanted to learn magic to serve humans first and foremost. I scrapped the idea because I thought that having another human just so happen to be in your class the moment you showed up made it seem like humans learning magic seriously was more common than it actually was, especially since she would've also came from the city.)
>>
>>6133346
I suppose that makes Atlas more unique, yeah. Still, it's a nice thought of what could have been. I can't help but feel bad for Claire, I guess. I'm a sucker for the childhood friend archetype.
>>
>>6133346
I think it was a wise decision.

>>6133340
>You should ask it for a way to remember that important person through loops. It's your only worry after all.
>>
>>6133340
>You should ask it for a way to remember that important person through loops. It's your only worry after all.
>>
>>6133345
Who knows anon, maybe we'll still be able to save Claire. With magic, anything is possible.
>>
>>6133340
That's a hard choice but seems like we will need help remembering Table
>You should ask it for a way to remember that important person through loops. It's your only worry after all.
>>
>>6133347
I'm actually writing what ifs scenario for how your first time with each girl would've potentially gone, mostly to get it out of my system. Claire route was basically only possible if you didn't end up with anyone before coming back to the city, and even then it would've been a very hard relationship to kickstart again since you can't talk to her in the school easily.
>>
>>6133431
It's very hard to imagine anons rejecting romance entirely in a setting with as many interesting and well-written characters as this, for essentially a whole IRL month.
>>
>>6133431
I'll look forward to seeing that.


>>6133433
Only because we only even found out how close we were to Claire in the literal start of this loop. If we knew from the beginning we had a childhood friend who brushed our hair and hand-fed us, i would have definitely been a lot more patient. I didn't know about it, of course, so i went for Table.
>>
>>6133434
I guess it reflects Atlas' own ignorance/obliviousness/autism about what Claire was feeling.
>>
>>6133440
Well that's a bit diferent, isn't it? Atlas still knew that she did those things. Just like we knew that choosing to continue to spend our time with Table and Table alone would lead to romancing her even though Atlas didn't figure it out until later.
>>
>>6133442
>>6133440

Atlas really hardly paid attention to her, and what stuck out most of her in his memories was the last argument they had. He says he didn't want to think about her, and he can get pretty obtuse. It's good to note that while it's hardly fair since you didn't know much about Claire, it would've taken much longer to romance most of the other girls, giving you probably more time to get to know Claire in the meantime if you decided to check the human city during vacations (or if you checked the video files of the moment you spent together with Claire on your laptop.)

I wouldn't say it's the player's fault for not knowing, Claire was voluntarily made obtuse and an unappealing option in general, probably because she's so different from the rest of the cast in how you'd interact with her.
>>
>>6133460
I'm personally fine with having a tragic ex-bestie one-who-got-away in our past. Though I guess Atlas himself is actually the one who got away?
>>
>>6133460
>it would've taken much longer to romance most of the other girls, giving you probably more time to get to know Claire in the meantime if you decided to check the human city during vacation
True, but like i said, it was more so that the fact that we never even knew Claire was an option resulted in someone else being picked before she became available to pursue.

I mean, of course, i still like Table. I don't particularly regret choosing Table. But i probably wouldn't have rushed things so quickly if i had known such about Claire. In the end, it's a bit irrelevant because, of course, there's not exactly a way to fix what happened.

>>6133463
You know how Oda from One Piece sometimes draws "Bad Future" versions of characters that show how their lives would have gone if they never joined the cast? That's pretty much what our current day Claire is, i suppose.
>>
>>6133340
>Ask it of the best way to 'solve' the loops, that's what you're trying to figure out yourself, after all.
>>
>>6133472
There's nothing to fix IMO. if Claire went evil-incel because her childhood crush didn't date her, that's on her.
>>
>>6133340
>You should ask it for a way to remember that important person through loops. It's your only worry after all.
Forgot to vote
>>
>>6133594
If my childhood friend got consumed by an obsession to the point they basically stopped caring about anything that wasn't that obsession I'd probably be pkssed off too. Especially if I found out they basically did the exact thing they discarded our lifelong friendship over.
>>
>>6133597
I won't cast judgement on you personally, anon, but I don't feel that bad about Claire.

> Especially if I found out they basically did the exact thing they discarded our lifelong friendship over.
Except we asked permission, and it's reciprocal because we're trying to help alleviate/cure her curse, rather than taking her hostage and forcing her to be our personal battery. I don't imagine Atlas' issue was having outsiders provide magic so much as the whole genocidal concentration camp lab experiment proposal.
>>
>>6133607
>Except we asked permission, and it's reciprocal because we're trying to help alleviate/cure her curse, rather than taking her hostage and forcing her to be our personal battery.
Sure, but he still needed to use an outsider as a battery. That he ended up finding some perfect match that had near endless mana and was willing to give him mana all day everyday is pretty much an insane, irreplicable stroke of luck. He still needed an outsider to use as a battery.
>>
>>6133619
But that isn't what the fight was about. It was about the weird, bitter places she went with that idea, out of possessiveness.
>>
>>6133624
Isn't it though? She was right that humans needed an outsider as a battery to be able to learn magic. Even Jack needed his Anbee wife. That she didn't know that there was some perfect outsider that had both the capability and acceptance to be a willing mana battery is hardly her fault.
>>
>>6133633
If you have a disability or handicap, and the only way you know of to compensate it is by kidnapping non-disabled people to strap them down in a lab to use them as unwilling test subjects and sources of experimental material... And the conclusion you draw isn't "well, I guess I better get used to my disability and adjust my expectation" but instead "well, I guess we'll just have to make concentration camps for those lucky fuckers so I and my bestie can be my best self," you aren't a reasonable person. You're a Batman villain. Mister Freeze, specifically. if you do it for someone your'e not even in a relationship with and who specifically doesn't want you to do that because of a one-sided fixation, you're new 52 Mister Freeze, the worst and least likable version.
>>
>>6133651
You're missing the point that the only reason Atlas is able to say her plan wasn't necessary was because he was basically fucking gifted by the heavens with a perfect girl who had the cure for all your issues.

We saw how pissed Atlas got when he was defeated by Rin and later Ivy, imagine how he would be if literally every day of magic school was like that. If he never even got past the first dungeon because he didn't have enough mana. If he never got to learn past Seal because, again, no mana. If he never got to increase his mana count through mana up because he had to use whatever pitiful amount of mana he had to try to learn instead of only using like...2 fuckin points a day.

Claire's plan may have been fucked up, but do you really think Atlas would have been able to stand so "morally superior" if he didn't basically get bailed out by a deus ex machina?
>>
>>6133659
>You're missing the point that the only reason Atlas is able to say her plan wasn't necessary
I'm not. I'm saying "well, the only way to pursue my passionate hobby/career path is with horrifying crimes, so I guess I have to commit crimes!" is a weird path to follow.

>Claire's plan may have been fucked up, but do you really think Atlas would have been able to stand so "morally superior" if he didn't basically get bailed out by a deus ex machina?
I personally wouldn't have voted to turn into a weird magic vampire victimizing our classmates, but I do admit it would be an interesting quest concept in and of itself.
>>
>>6133695
>m not. I'm saying "well, the only way to pursue my passionate hobby/career path is with horrifying crimes, so I guess I have to commit crimes!" is a weird path to follow
I'm not saying that her plan is right. I'm saying that Atlas moralizing when he's basically been given a one in one billion solution to a problem that consistently made him very pissed off whanever he met it makes Claire's reaction perfectly understandable.

Claire doesn't have her own table, she never will have because Table is unique. Even Jack, with an equally lucky Anbee wife, needed years to learn what we learned in half a month thanks to having an essentially infinite wellspring of mana.

All im saying is, try to see things from Claire's point of view.
>>
>>6133659
>>6133700
Rin literally pulled super saiyan bullshit to win against the disabled kid, that was an understandable short outburst to his first real loss after getting so close to winning. It's not like he held it against them either. And I head-canon that the whole Ivy fight didn't go down the way it did. OP even said Atlas in character would know the write in plan wouldn't work.

While they ended up at a similar proposed solution, the path they took to get there is waaaay different. Atlas' character has shown since the start he doesn't care to be the best mage ever, he just wants to do magic. But he's not going to enslave people to do it.
>>
suptg is back again, so you can archive the thread
>>
>>6133808
>Rin literally pulled super saiyan bullshit to win against the disabled kid, that was an understandable short outburst to his first real loss after getting so close to winning. It's not like he held it against them either. And I head-canon that the whole Ivy fight didn't go down the way it did. OP even said Atlas in character would know the write in plan wouldn't work.
Alright, so, you're missing the point again...yes, sure, Atlas didn't decide to hate all outsiders after that (though he certainly did hold it against them, he's hardly a fan of Rin or Ivy), but he still got pretty pissed off.

Don't you get it? This is the best case Atlas. He still had Table from day 1, still had her as a mana battery, and he had other victories. I'm saying that without Table he wouldn't have managed a single damn thing. Do you really thing he would have been so chipper if he literally still only had like 15 mana and like 1/10th of the spells he had?

>While they ended up at a similar proposed solution, the path they took to get there is waaaay different.
Yeah, because Claire didn't get handed an extremely convenient willing mana battery. Because Claire ended up having to deal with her childhood best friend get consumed by an obsession with magic that they couldn't even act on in any realistic way.
>>
>>6133826
Archived!

>>6133857

Also while Table is in fact arguably the best case scenario when it comes to learning magic when it comes to mana, the other options weren't necessarily useless. Your teachers will usually encourage students with low mana to find their own solution, but after seeing a month of low progress they would give you enough mana during classes to practice. This would still overall be less efficient than Table because you wouldn't be able to practice as much on your free time when teachers aren't available.

As for other routes, Rath is a very strong contender as a second mana battery. He can easily replinish it with blood, and he's easily bribable with snacks, Aroth is also decent enough at Life magic to give you his mana if needed. As for girls, Dill and Rin don't have that much mana, but they're both smart enough in their own ways to find workaround your limitations (although Rin's workarounds are often a little unhinged, but hey, they work.)

Claire's justification is based on a lot of things. Part of her thought that it wasn't viable to keep outsiders inside the city as anything but prisoners, and that Atlas only wanted to leave the city because he couldn't practice it properly here, as such, the mana battery idea made perfect sense to her to keep him inside. It doesn't help that humans before turtling down were subject to a lot of persecution from other more magical races, which left them all pretty bitter. This isn't saying Claire is justified, she's not, and her solution has in fact a lot of issues both ethically and practically. She essentially bit into extreme propaganda ideas because she felt lost and alone and she needed something to blame.

Anyway, in short, without Table the early game would've been much harder, but not insurmountable. I reckon most spells would've taken maybe twice as long to figure out until you found a way to maximize your mana. I don't mind the discussion on characters, and even though I'm the author, you're free to discard everything I say here if it doesn't quite line up with what you interpret it as, death of the author and all that.
>>
>>6133876
>As for other routes, Rath is a very strong contender as a second mana battery. He can easily replinish it with blood, and he's easily bribable with snacks, Aroth is also decent enough at Life magic to give you his mana if needed.
That's true, but they wouldn't be as willing to be accompanying Atlas everywhere to do that, no? Especially in places like the bunker...
>Anyway, in short, without Table the early game would've been much harder, but not insurmountable.
Sure, but my point was about how Atlas would have felt if he had to deal with learning magic totally alone.
>>
>>6133877
Totally alone, it would've been a nightmare, and while I wouldn't say he would've turned evil, he would've at the very least been disillusioned by his grand dreams of the outside and how much easier it would've made learning magic. Assuming he got little to no help mana wise, you'd probably end up a one trick pony, keeping only a few very cheap spells that you master as hard as you can to solve most problems.
>>
>>6133891
>Totally alone, it would've been a nightmare, and while I wouldn't say he would've turned evil, he would've at the very least been disillusioned by his grand dreams of the outside
True, but he probably wouldn't have been as offended by Claire's idea as he was, even if he still vehemently disagreed with using outsiders unwillingly.

It's a bit easier to understand where she comes from if you had to deal with being a no-mana one trick pony like she is.
>>
>>6133524
>>6133595
>>6133386
>>6133361
>>6133352

You ask it to help you remember...that person, the one you forgot the name of.

"Her. I see. Are you certain? You will wake up and interact with her soon enough, none of your actions here will follow you to [Reality/Backstage]"

"It's just that I'm afraid I'll do something I regret if I forget her." You look back at Claire, she thinks you're talking to her, but she has no idea what you're on about.

"Your life. Your choice. I will alter a piece of paper on your desk that you will be able to write upon. The text will remain even after a new [iteration/cycle/sentence]. Do not take the paper off the desk, do not erase anything you write on it."

You feel its presence fade as it supposedly go to your apartment to give you a loop-proof piece of paper. You tell Claire you have to go, you see her raise her hand, only to lower it later. You don't have time for her, you need to write what you remember on that piece of paper before you wake up again.

You rush back home, your parents yell at you for skipping school, whatever, who cares. You enter your room and close the door behind you, there's only one piece of paper on your desk. Using mana feel, you can tell this one's special, there's no doubt about it, it's been altered. You note only a few sentences on the page, but it'll have to be enough, and you might remember more over time, it's fine, it's okay. It's like a huge weight was lifted off of your shoulders, you can stay here for as long as you need and that paper will be here...hopefully.

"I must go," the spirit says. "M might notice me."

"Who is that?"

"Great power, knowledge, and immaturity. That is M. Do not listen to them, only you can find your own solution."

You feel its presence fade, and once again, you are alone in this damned loop. You look at the paper on your desk; this time, you have an ace up your sleeve.
>>
(also yes, that's the last post, I would've written a longer one, but it's better to finish this while we're still in page 10

Here's a bonus what ifs with Rin: https://rentry.org/7sdahuae . Of course none of the what ifs assume you're with Table, just assume an entirely different path.
>>
>>6133908
Nice! Thanks for the thread

Which of the others are you planning to write for? Other than Claire, that is...
>>
>>6133925
Probably Ivy and Dill. Charlotte and Aroth I've already gotten out of my system with uh, each other, so it'd just be retreading old ground. Parasite/Mirabelle and Fet are unlikely to be done, but you never know.
>>
>>6133926

>Probably Ivy and Dill. Charlotte and Aroth I've already gotten out of my system with uh, each other, so it'd just be retreading old ground.
Huh? Are you saying you thought of doing something for Aroth? Anyway, fair enough. A bit of a shame we won't get that threesome, but oh well. One day we'll earn it.
>>
>>6133928
I should specify, by threesome, i mean Charlotte.
>>
>>6133908
Haughty catgirl is a gooder.
>>
>>6133908
>Rin write-up
Nice. It's still not going to count as a sort of happy ending for our boy until the bitch catgirl devolves to curling up against Atlas at night, or waking him up by literally sitting on his face, for starters. This is a good start and a good scenario however.
>sucks the venom out with the help of a spell before swallowing it. "Now I'm resistant to that venom."
But too bad she'll NEVER be resistant to you-know-what :^)
>easier if that parasite was there
Interesting that even here, the parasite is gone/removed. Maybe it happened much earlier, or maybe the parasite asked him for his help due to his proximity and he somehow convinced Rin to go along with it?
>too ashamed to admit that something like that might have turned you on, especially from Rin of all people.
I like how in this what-if timeline, Atlas' "preferences" and such are also altered due to his closeness to the girl in question. Interesting how he reads way more tsundere in this. Probably got that way in response to Rin or mirroring her.

Also ignoring the nsfw, the what if does make us justified in having learned Juggernaut in this main timeline. I wonder where that jungle ruin that expedition is taking place in is located. It isn't the old human bio-lab bunker we got as a potential location from the spirit lizard in this timeline. I'm very curious how those mimics even exist in nature, or how they became that way.
>>
>>6133979
Well, any time Charlotte sleeps with someone, it'd be a threesome. What else could it be?
>>
>>6134008
Rin's relationship with Atlas in that timeline is basically just that of associates. Rin respects Atlas's drive, and is willing to help him because she knows that someone this dedicated to magic will come in handy later. They wouldn't hate each other like with Ivy and Atlas, but Rin rarely opens up about how she feels, which would make the relationship evolves at a snail's pace, it wouldn't be as fun if the cold character melted too fast, I suppose.
>>
>>6134031
"Don't read so much into it. it's just a bro-job, bro. A homie handy. An associate a-sucking."
>>
>>6134036
>glares at him
>silently takes Atlas' hand and places it on the back of her head
>silently locks fingers with Atlas' other hand
>glare never falters once
>>
>>6134020
Well, if you counted Charlotte as one person, it could come off as saying that i meant a threesome with Charlotte and Aroth,which obviously wasn't what i was trying to say. Or would that count as double teaming...? Anyway, kinda losing track.
>>
>>6133908
nice
>>
>>6134043



[Advertise on 4chan]

Delete Post: [File Only] Style:
[Disable Mobile View / Use Desktop Site]

[Enable Mobile View / Use Mobile Site]

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective parties. Images uploaded are the responsibility of the Poster. Comments are owned by the Poster.