Bookbound Bunny

When Lotte returned to her room, she was feeling quite giddy with excitement. She was carefully cradling the scroll she'd been given by her new friend, and even if it didn't have significant value, she would have cherished it, as she didn't have too many friends growing up.

There were many superstitions surrounding Serpia, not on the level of prejudice, but enough to put most interactions on the back foot from the start. Her unusual bloodline had also done her no favors, amplifying that inherent superstition to an extreme. That, coupled with the fact that she was frequently ill from poisoning herself, meant that she couldn't exactly play around with other kids.

I've had wolves and bears creeped out by me, but the cute little bunny barely blinks an eye. I guess with her big sister being a dragon, I'm not scary at all.

Lotte sighed and shrugged, placing the scroll carefully on her small table. While she wanted to read it as soon as possible, she needed to deal with a particular troublemaker first—Jade.

Lotte went through the steps, trying her best to picture welcoming a dear friend. Although instead of opening the door and letting her in, she kept imagining Jade barreling through. Whether it was luck or the gremlin lizard was feeling generous, she accepted the invitation and was summoned back into existence.

"You damn scoundrel," Lotte sighed.

Jade flopped on the floor, giving a performance that was either guilt or sulking. Lotte couldn't tell which and shook her head, returning to her desk.

She began reading through the scroll in more detail and was shocked at the amount of detail poured into the ancient document. Her father had secured a few spells for her to practice with the hope that if she routinely emptied her Mana, it would help fight against her bloodline trying to kill her.

Sadly, that didn't help her predicament, but it meant she had experienced receiving a scroll or textbook before and trying to learn it by herself. This scroll Lily found in her magic book made everything else look like it was written by a toddler.

Why can't every mage write spells like this? It even has suggested imagery! I guess that's dungeon treasures for you.

Lotte began reading through the entire spell multiple times. She read the enunciations in her head first before whispering them to herself. There were a lot of magic words she'd never come across before, but if she repeatedly chanted, she could probably overcome that hurdle like Thomas had done.

Well, let's give this a shot, shall we?

Lotte began trying to cast the spell for real. Her first genuine attempt did nothing but waste Mana. She chanted again, trying to imagine the hardened rock coating her skin like armored scales.

As Lotte tried again and again, repeating the chant to try brute force a casting, something inside her blood was resonating. Lotte immediately stopped trying to cast the spell and stared at the thin layer of rock that was on her hand.

"That's weird…" Lotte mumbled, she flexed her hand, and the thin layer of stone cracked and fell to the floor like molting scales.

"Skree!" Jade made a noise, staring at Lotte with apparent concern.

"Weird in a good way, I think," she explained. "I've only ever felt this when I cast my poison or acid magic. But this is supposed to be an earth spell, isn't it?"

Jade made a strange yipping noise, as if saying, "Beats me."

Lotte sighed and stared at the scroll. It's almost as if the spell was somehow tailor-made for her and her bloodline, fitting like a glove. But wasn't that impossible?

It has to be a lucky coincidence, right?

Lotte wasn't sure. She didn't want to doubt her friend, but now she was very curious about how much of her story was true and how much was not. Wanting to give Lily the benefit of the doubt, the only thing that made sense in her mind was that the book Arakil was inhabiting was some legendary dungeon artifact. Not only did this artifact have a catalog of hundreds of spells, but it could somehow pull out the ones best suited for each individual.

It would explain how the heck Lily got her star magic. I know bloodlines give hints and intuition to spells that have never even been heard of before, but it's supposed to be quite rare. Heck, I've only ever experienced it once before, and I'm the one with the ancient extinct bloodline. Yet Lily has experienced it three or four times?

That definitely conflicted with Lotte's worldview. Either Lily was fortunate and her newfound bloodline was "chatty", or she was being fed spells from the legendary dungeon artifact on the regular.

Well, whatever it is, I don't want to betray my friend. Especially since she was willing to give me a spell from this artifact. I'm sure she will tell me the truth eventually.

Having made up her mind, Lotte continued trying to practice the spell. Each time she spoke the incantation, she felt it resonating with the Mana flowing through her blood, further solidifying that the spell was somehow explicitly made for her.

She did her best to try to ignore those bubbling thoughts and eventually succeeded in a partial casting of the spell. The result was that her entire right arm was encased in the protective layer of stone scales. It was a strange, greyish-green tint, and Lotte was unsure of how protective it actually was.

Lotte shrugged to herself and slammed her arm against the table, causing it to dent and splinter. Lotte cursed loudly, staring at the damage she'd inflicted on her furniture.

"Good news, this is quite protective. Bad news, I might need a new desk," Lotte groaned.

"Kra!" Jade cried out in agreement.

"Also, I just realized I don't know how to turn it off," Lotte said, pointing at her stiffly encased arm.

"Kekekeke…" Jade responded, as if laughing at her plight.

Lotte's eye twitched in irritation, and she pretended to swat at the gremlin lizard with the stone-encased arm. Jade let out some yipping noises before scurrying to hide under the bed.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

To Lotte's relief, the petrified scales began to eventually crumble and fell to the floor once the Mana in her arm began to settle down to a more dormant state. Magic teachers had always emphasized the importance of being able to focus your Mana around your body, and now she finally understood why.

Smiling happily, she began practicing late into the night until her Mana was drained and she could barely coat a single finger in protective stone. If this was somehow related to her bloodline, then by working on mastering it, she could not only increase its efficiency but also eventually reduce the incantation.

With a new goal in sight, Lotte eventually retired to bed and began wondering how she could ever repay such a wonderful gift.

And hopefully I'll get my revenge on those damn bees!

***

The next day, Lily, Lotte, and Hana met up in the cafeteria. Since the three of them had all succeeded in passing the headmaster's evaluation, they were now free to go to Kaeling. Each of the girls wanted to do some shopping, either for some furniture their rooms were lacking or supplies.

Lily and, by extension, Lotte wanted some more mundane herbs for practice, as Lily had run out, and the ones supplied by the school were all of the magical variety and thus quite pricy.

Lily was taking the alchemy tutoring slowly, never going further than some salves and herbal remedies for Lotte. Lotte also wanted to buy some flasks and a small cauldron for herself, after seeing what Lily had available.

Hana wanted some new linens and furniture. She was appalled by the state of her room and couldn't accept the bare bones arrangement. While she claimed not to have been raised with a silver spoon, it was evident that she did have higher standards than the other two.

Hana had rented a cart for the three of them to use, and they planned to do some shopping. Lily and Lotte had offered to pay a portion, but Hana rejected the offer, saying she had plenty of money from her family.

They had tried to extend the offer to Thomas and Arthur, the former rejected it, saying he had too much studying to catch up on after the disaster of trying to dismiss Yona, and the latter couldn't be found. Lily had also tried to invite Rose, but apparently, after their last meeting, she'd gone back down into the dungeon.

I wonder if every senior student basically lives down there now?

So it was just the three of them today, and when they went to fetch their cart, they were surprised that it was one of the arrangements with a makeshift sail.

"Are you planning to use some wind spells?" Lily asked.

"Were you expecting me to pull it?" Hana asked jokingly.

"I heard it's great for cardio," Lotte chimed in.

Hana couldn't help but laugh at that, slapping her knees and beaming with a big smile.

"If I weren't planning on buying quite a bit of furniture, I would have loved to have jogged there. Maybe next weekend we can do that for lunch?" Hana asked expectantly.

"Uh… maybe after I've got a few more monster kills under my belt," Lotte rejected with a reasonable excuse. "I can't afford to risk it until I've enhanced my constitution a bit."

Hana turned expectantly to Lily.

Lily shook her head. "I'm one of those not running rabbits. Although I might start doing morning walks or something."

Hana sighed. "Guess I'll have to find some other running friends. I thought Arthur would be up for it, but he's all burst and no stamina. He can't go the full distance."

Lotte snickered before jumping up onto the cart.

Lily followed after, not really understanding what her friend had found so funny. Hana also seemed perplexed before taking the driver's seat. Once everyone was settled, she conjured a small vortex of wind, and in no time, the cart began moving.

"I wish I could cast wind magic. This seems pretty fun," Lotte said.

"Maybe you can get a wind artifact from the dungeon?" Hana suggested.

"I'd rather get my hands on one of those storage bags. Then I wouldn't even need a cart, I could just rent a horse or something."

"Yeah, I could just run then. Assuming I get one that's big enough."

"I'd love one to put all my alchemy and glyph supplies in," Lily agreed. "Although I don't want to get my hopes up."

"You should ask Alice to give you one," Lotte suggested. "Milk that relationship with her."

"I'd rather not," Lily admitted. "Plus, I think she's angry at me for some reason."

"Really? I thought she was happy after you won the little competition," Hana asked.

"Before that, she seemed mad that I destroyed the skeletons with my cloak. I'm really not sure."

"Yeah, it was pretty weird. Like, I bet if someone made a fire shield and it destroyed the skeleton on contact, would she complain?" Lotte asked.

"That's what Rose did, and apparently she got top marks throughout the class," Lily answered.

"Maybe she's just jealous she doesn't have magic," Hana suggested. "I can imagine most of the class is jealous after seeing what your cloak did during PMC and now the dungeon."

Lily could only shrug. She had no idea, and she didn't really want to ask what the problem was, hoping it could be swept under the rug.

They continued making small talk on the way there. When they arrived, they were startled by how much more friendly everyone was. They had all experienced the cold shoulder treatment during the secret Familiar summoning test, but now that it was over and all the tourists were gone, the town had come to life.

Other students were also roaming the streets, although none that they personally recognized. They went from shop to shop, buying some furniture first and stacking it on the cart before resuming their shopping.

Lotte ended up buying a small cauldron while Hana bought a bookshelf, a plush chair, pillows, blankets, and a few other random trinkets to decorate her room.

Seeing someone so recklessly spending money nearly gave Lily a heart attack, and the lack of any haggling almost brought out her inner Camilla to complain.

Lily bought a few bottles of ink, as she needed to keep herself topped up. The shopkeeper tried to upsell Lily on some bundles with parchment and ink, but she easily rejected the attempt thanks to her infinite supply.

They browsed a few clothing stores, but nothing caught their attention. Then they had a late lunch at the inn, where Lily was recognized by the innkeeper and a few of the staff. Lily was initially surprised by them remembering her, but was promptly reminded that she was quite literally the first lagia mage.

"You're going to eventually make a splash when it gets out. Better brace yourself for when it does," Hana warned her.

Despite that souring Lily's day a little, they still had a delicious meal before doing their last purchases. Lily and Lotte both bought a variety of mundane herbs from one of the small apothecaries, with the latter also acquiring a few basic supplies, including her own mortar and pestle, along with some flasks.

They were about to leave when they caught a small trading house and curiously investigated. Nothing inside had any uniformity, and there was everything from jewelry to groceries to potions. The only order to the chaos was that one half of the store was labeled as "student exports" while the other was "imports".

Apparently, students would drop off items here to sell to traders. When they inquired about it, they discovered that there were even small auctions for the more valuable items, such as dungeon loot.

Being locals, the owners were deemed trustworthy and had a formal agreement with the headmaster to not screw over the students. Since dungeon resources could be pretty hard to come by, it was an arrangement they dared not besmirch.

The three girls browsed both sides of the shop, although the high prices on the objects that caught their eyes even left Hana frowning. There were even a rare few storage bags, although the price was atrocious, and these were apparently the ones with the smallest internal size!

"I should have brought more money…" Hana lamented.

The "imports" section was strangely more interesting, as it appeared to be mostly adventuring gear. Backpacks, lockpicks, camping supplies, and a lot of the stuff that Alice had frequently suggested during her classes. Evidently, people outside wanted to encourage the students to brave the dungeon depths as often as possible.

"I bet it's the adventurer's guild," Lotte suggested. "Probably some agreement with the school. Or they just want more exports from the dungeon they don't have access to."

Lily and Hana both nodded in agreement. Regarth's exclusive dungeon was certainly something to be coveted.

The group happily bought a basic supply kit before finally leaving the store. One of the owners waved them goodbye while saying he hoped to sell their future treasures for them.

Overall, it was a rather fruitful day, and they had obtained nearly everything they wanted. After securing everything in the cart, they began the trek back to Regarth.