Chapter 121: Seeing Red (1/2)

Melinda finally concluded the class after each of them had proven capable of conjuring several small objects in a row. She gave Mike a rather serious glare when he started participating effectively, showing that he was capable of using conjuration despite the spell he'd used to summon Red. He wasn't surprised when she had him stay after class.

She stared at him for a good minute before speaking. ”I've decided that I don't want to know any more information about you, so I'm going to pretend our conversation from earlier never happened. For now, I think we should concentrate on figuring out what to do with your dragon. Keeping him here any longer will only make others suspicious.”

”Are you done experimenting already?” Mike asked, surprised that she was willing to let her valuable research subject go like that.

”No, but I've learned about as much as I can without knowing the specific chant you used. Since you seem to have forgotten it,” She gave him an exasperated look, ”I'm going to have to figure something else out.”

”Anyway, I believe your best bet is to have him hide outside of the University. There are some woods to the northwest that would be a good fit. Since he can fly, it will be a simple matter to get him across the bay. Of course, I would like a chance to study him every so often. Maybe you could call him back once a week. I need to track his progress in self manifestation, after all.”

”That should be fine, but aren't there defenses that will trigger with him just flying over the wall?”

”As a summoned creature, your dragon shares your mana signature, so you might have to answer a few questions if you have him come back too often, but overall, it should be fine.”

Mike nodded, ”Sounds like a plan then.” He paused to consider a couple of possibilities. ”How should I go about contacting him if I need him?”

Miranda blinked, before laughing. ”Sorry, sometimes it's hard to remember that you're still a newbie when it comes to Summoning Magic. As a conjured creature, you should have a mental link with him, allowing you to give him commands from a distance. It should work a bit like your familiar bond, but more informational and less emotional.”

[Right…. There was that. I don't remember having any kind of mental connection to Audra, at least that I could feel. Do I just…think at him?]

Mike tried to mentally tell Red to look at him. He felt accomplished when the dragon regarded him questioningly.

”I would suggest having him move at night, that way we can avoid any problems that might arise from him being seen.” Melinda commented after watching the proceedings.

”I'll take care of it tonight, then.”

Mike said his farewells, and after recalling Audra, who had gotten tired and spent most of the last half of the lesson curled up into a ball on Red's back, headed to his next class.

He sat through another round of excruciatingly painful pronunciation practice in Chanting, before heading over to Alchemy.

It was a little less crowded this time. From the sounds of the muttering going on around him, if a student failed to unlock the skill in the last class, the University would forcefully kick them out of the class. Apparently it was considered a waste of resources to try and teach individuals without the talent for the skill.

The course of instruction today was on making Crystal Salt, an alchemical material that saw high demand among blacksmiths. It could dramatically increase the durability of steel when mixed with it during the forging process. As such it was another staple alchemical product.

He quickly succeeded in making a bowlful of the substance, which mainly involved mixing the blood of an Ironhide Boar with the diluted resin of the Crystalshard Tree. The resulting solution formed a pinkish sediment that, once dried and heated, formed into Crystal Salt.

The whole process reminded Mike of chemistry class, and he had genuine fun mixing the fantasy materials, but he wondered when they would be allowed to choose their own projects. He had a feeling that, given the chance to do a little experimentation, he could come up with some interesting things.

Lily, of course, barely succeeded in creating the Crystal Salt, after going through four separate flasks. Two of them exploded in her usual fashion, but the third actually imploded, creating a vaguely condensed block of pinkish material with shards of glass embedded in it. Mike was so confused by this process he used Appraise on the product, in an effort to figure out what happened.

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Sedimentary Crystal

Material (Tier 1, Rank 1)

A byproduct of a failed alchemical process. Has no intrinsic value, but may function as a paperweight.