Chapter: 717

Knowing your cage was half the battle.

– – –

Sylvia stood in her own private laboratory, prodding the exposed spine of a slowly-breathing mist wanderer; a grotesque creature with a humanoid body, though it was much taller with the black frog-like skin of an amphibian; it’s limbs were disturbingly long, it’s hands long and slender ending in skinny, needle shaped claws.

“It worked on the first human trial… now…” she tapped a nerve through a gap in the spine, and one of its hands legs spasmed for a moment, “let’s figure you out…”

– – –

Anya had needed time to recover after leaving Losla, but as she joined her first classes with the other students, she still wasn’t herself – not that anyone could tell.

Her cold, diligent and distant temperament only became more detached and elusive. One the surface, she would seem like Smiley; at least to the students at the academy.

For now, the teachers had paired her up with two other students a few levels below her. One specialized in a sort of barrier magic which reflected attacks back with twice as much power, though they couldn’t be directed directly back which sometimes caused some problems.

The other variant had a form of micro-magic which could reassemble matter near his body into different structures. He was usually coated in a metallic, crystal-like coating which seemed impervious to most damage types, but was lacking in the offensive area.

Both of them were.

So Anya joined them, making up for the damage in some easier dungeons.

It was easy for her, but with the death of her father still sinking in, she needed an easier ride, even if she didn’t realize it.

The theory classes at the academy were optional and varied, and included military strategy, mage hunter tactics, injury prevention, history of the academies, and the resistance.

Of course, there was also weapon theory, weapon arts and martial arts classes too.

A few classes specialised in other cultures and languages too, such as the dimerkin language; it was in this class where Anya learned that the dimerkin that were secretly supplying the resistance with needs in exchange for dungeon drops, similar to the adventurer association.

Out of the three dimerkin clans, only one seemed to hate humans. The other two clans viewed the variant resistance as a useful tool to keep the other humans, namely the mage hunters, ‘busy’.

To the frustration of many students, they were all required to train with using a ranged and melee weapon, to make them proficient in more forms of combat – even if they could use mana.

While the students were variants with incredible and random powers, they were taught not to reply on them, to use every tool at their disposal.

Unfortunately, not every variant was safe to keep at the academy, and were kept in different mirror realities, some of them even having their personalities changed.

Others could hardly be called humans anymore, not that the students knew of their existence.

– – –

~Losla~

Linc, Vanderby and Estra had gathered in the Snakeraven inn, discussing their next moves as they were looking for clues of Jay’s whereabouts – namely, his bed.

You would think it would be an easy task to find someone’s house in a village, but it was not the case.

Unfortunately, since he was a fugitive, most people were not willing to talk about Jay in fear that they would ‘know too much’ and be accused of hiding him, or even punished for leading people astray with false information.