Fate Alchemist - A Regression Academy LitRPG

Wulf awoke the next morning feeling overwhelmed. There was still so much to do, and he figured he'd probably just made things worse for himself.

And now, he had to think about doing perfectly in the tournament so he could face whatever champion Terrence picked.

The Field pact had gone alright. Terrence made one, and from what Wulf had seen, it would be effective.

When he wandered the hallways, heading to the gym to pick up his early morning routine, he noticed significantly less posters on the rules boards already. A step in the right direction.

After their morning run, and after sparring practice between the four of them, they rushed to the mess hall. They were almost late, but they ate quickly, then split up for the next classes of the day.

His first class of the day was an option course: Gardening and Herbalism. Some of it was intended as first aid knowledge, while others were just to prepare Ascendants for life outside of crewing Oroniths. Not everyone was going to end up on a crew, but if you had knowledge of other professions, you could be useful elsewhere—like in a garden.

Wulf was interested for his own benefit. If he could learn some tricks for his own garden, it'd be for the better.

After that, his next class was Advancement Manipulation, a class all students had to take—and which he shared with Seith, Irmond, and Kalee.

The point of the class was to learn how to guide the Field, to push yourself in a cohesive direction, so your Marks and Skills aligned, and your purpose was clear—and it came too late for many of the students. It should've been a first year class, not something they took while they were breaking into Iron.

But Wulf kept those thoughts to himself. He'd already been doing that, and he'd been making sure his teammates were at least going in the right direction. He paid attention to the class, of course, taking notes and jotting down most of the information, even if he already knew it. There was no telling when it might become useful down the line. And he still needed to know the arbitrary terminology the Academy used when it came time to take the test.

Afterwards, they had lunch. In the mess hall, most of the guild kids were staying away, and Terrence's presence was nonexistent. There were a few associations, but ever since the Lions had been busted—and notably torn apart from the inside out—none of them were getting too uppity.

For the first time in a few months, Wulf heard a few of the other independent Ascendants at the table talking shop with each other, discussing their advancement progress and their aspects and classes without much concern.

Perhaps the academy was starting to heal.

But after lunch, his mood soured again. He had his second option class: Codex Cores with Dr. Tallari. It was a small class, and all the other codex-related studies he'd taken beforehand were a prerequisite.

The class was small, and it took place in a small classroom in the basement, right next to the Centralis Academy's main codex room.

According to Dr. Tallari, "We're here to study the specific make-up of Codex Cores, what their types are, and how they can transmit and receive information through arcane links. It's old magic, and the ability to build codexes existed, on a much smaller scale, before the Field. They weren't as strong, but we must have a grasp on some of their…less rigid ways."

It was just the first day. Wulf wasn't exactly sure what he was going to get out of the course, but since he'd started down this path of learning about codexes, he could at least keep going a little farther.

After class, there was a lab component—or there would be, had it not been the first week. It was also only once a week, unlike Dream Links. They would enter the main codex room and perform analyses of the codex's core, practice linking to it, drawing information, and accessing texts from books in the library.

A powerful Ascendant didn't need to visit the library if they had enough mana behind them. All the library's books were registered in the codex, and more important than just their names, all the text stored within them could be accessed and drawn on—with some restricted sections, of course.

But today, instead of attending the lab, Wulf walked with Dr. Tallari, racing to catch up with the man.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Ah, just who I was hoping to see," Dr. Tallari said. "When I saw your name on the class list, I admit, I was excited."

"Is there good news?" Wulf asked.

"Not particularly, but you can come along to the workshop, and we will see."

Wulf's heart sank. Not particularly good news about Mantri? "Why were you excited?"

"Because last semester, you were one of my best students," he said. "You aced your final exam."

"I'll admit, sir, I was a little distracted."

"You didn't check your grades?"

"I…uh, didn't really feel the need to. I was thinking about other things."

The main codex room was beneath the Academy's great hall, but the codex workshop was beneath the hangar, and that was where they kept Mantri.

"Thank you for looking after him," Wulf said.

"I've been doing the best I can."

"Is there a reason why?"

"I've…always had a fondness for Messengers," Dr. Tallari said. "My own Messenger, well, I only saw him once—"

"You have a Grand Mark?"

"Oh, yes, many of the professors do. Azanthius, I believe, has two."

Wulf nodded. He'd partially been under the assumption that the professors wouldn't all have Grand Marks, but then again, they needed something to distinguish themselves.

"Regardless," Dr. Tallari continued, "in my brief conversation with my Messenger, I couldn't help feeling immense pity. Trapped in an alternate realm for all eternity? Only getting to venture out once in your life? It must be terrible."

"Yeah…" Wulf muttered. "Mantri said it was. But he also seemed to think the other Messengers didn't mind as much."

They arrived at the codex workshop, having taken a long underground hallway and passing through a few thick wooden doors. When they reached the last door, Wulf asked, "Why do they keep the codexes underground, anyway?"

"Keep them out of the thoughts of anyone who might wish to tamper with them," Dr. Tallari said. "And less risk of damage."

Wulf nodded. He'd somewhat been under the impression that there was a more important reason. "So a codex could be anywhere?"

"Yes." Dr. Tallari walked into the workshop. The crystal-encased messenger at the center of the room, Wulf had learned, wasn't the main core of the Centralis Academy, but rather, the backup core. "Of course, it would take up a significant amount of space."

"Could you use a spatial storage construct to store one?"

"I suppose," Dr. Tallari said. "Though the act of folding the Field over on itself would…well, simply put, it would cause problems when trying to get information out of the codex."

Wulf nodded. "I see." He didn't fully grasp the difficulties, the why, but there was plenty of time to learn.

As more time went by, the more he wondered how much of a codex he would need. If he could gain unlimited access to the Academy's codex, or simply access at all, then he could have all the knowledge he'd need at his fingertips.

But he couldn't just steal the Academy's codex and chuck it in a storage construct. He'd need a massive construct for that.

Not that he completely wrote off the idea of borrowing their codex…if necessary.

They walked along the edge of the workshop, until they reached the bench where Mantri's bed lay. They'd gotten him a proper bed, a heating construct, and one of the healers had set up a 'supplement tube.' It was a construct in of itself, a big, blocky box that partially digested food and pumped it into a patient's body through a tube. Wulf didn't think he wanted to know how it worked, only that it'd saved a few human lives in the past, and was helping keep Mantri alive.

"Is he healing?" Wulf asked.

"Same as last time," Dr. Tallari said. "We've patched what we can, but the Field keeps trying to call him back. Whatever it's doing, and whatever the little guy is resisting with…well, it's causing a breakdown in his form. His body is struggling just to keep up, not fix the wounds he sustained in the past."

Wulf grimaced and lifted the blankets slightly. Mantri's body was wrapped tight with bandages, and blood seeped through.

"What happens if the Field does call him back?" Wulf asked.

"It's a natural response for Messengers to get called back," Dr. Tallari said. "But when they're injured? That's where we start having problems. As far as I can tell, the Field doesn't heal them. It simply replaces them if they are damaged beyond repair."

"So much for the arch-wizard who set up the Field liking cats," Wulf grumbled. "But if we let him go, he dies for sure?"

"Precisely."

Wulf sighed. "Alright. I'll keep looking for a solution. I'm…not sure what we can do. You're sure healing potions won't work?"

"The potions we tried did nothing," Dr. Tallari said. "We tried one of the strongest potions we had."

"Thanks for trying, anyway," Wulf replied. "I'll be seeing you, professor."

"You as well. Study hard, my boy."

Wulf nodded, then set off back through the hallways. He didn't have any ideas on how to fix Mantri, not yet, but that didn't mean he'd stop trying.

But for now, so he felt like he was accomplishing something, he went looking for Seith. They needed to get those storage constructs finished.