Three Portlands · Teleportation Plaza.
The weather in Three Portlands was always rainy.
Raindrops pattered down from the barrier overhead, each refracting the strange sights found throughout the city as it fell.
A restaurant near the Portal.
"Camille, why do you always come all the way from Deer College to eat here? The set meals aren't even that good!"
Ushas, the Three-Eyed Girl, chewed her awful sandwich without tasting much of anything. The restaurant's owner was a green-skinned orc with two tusks. It was hard to imagine an orc wearing an apron and making sandwiches.
But they really did taste terrible.
"Mm..." Camille ate halfheartedly, her gaze constantly drifting toward the Portal ahead. She seemed distracted.
"We've already had three days of classes, and who knows where Xiu's been all this time? We still haven't sorted out the club thing, either..." Ushas grumbled endlessly at Camille.
"Hey, where are you going?" In the middle of Ushas's complaints, Camille suddenly lit up with delight. She opened her umbrella and headed toward the Portal.
At the Portal.
Xia Xiu appeared on the Magic Circle, cheerfully carrying his suitcase. He looked up at the rain pouring endlessly down from the barrier and planned to stride straight back to the Anderson Dormitory.
Just as Xia Xiu stepped into the rain, an umbrella slipped over him.
"Welcome back, Xiu."
The familiar voice reached Xia Xiu's ears, and he instinctively turned to look at the girl holding the umbrella.
"...Camille?"
The girl before Xia Xiu had an exquisitely beautiful face. Her hair was braided and draped over her right shoulder, and the smile on her face made passersby turn to look.
Camille had changed so much that, if her prominent curves hadn't been so memorable, Xia Xiu would have struggled to connect this radiant girl with the dowdy Camille he had known.
And that hairstyle looks a little dangerous, Xia Xiu thought inexplicably.
"Well? Pretty, aren't I?" Seeing Xia Xiu momentarily stunned, Camille tilted up her face and smiled smugly.
"You really are beautiful. Even a torch couldn't outshine you now."
Xia Xiu felt no embarrassment. He smiled and looked straight into Camille's lovely, bright eyes as he complimented her.
"...Xiu, if you ever become a playboy, it'll be a disaster." Faced with the boy's golden eyes looking directly into hers, Camille lost once again. Her face grew burning hot.
"???"
Xia Xiu looked in bewilderment at Camille, who had turned into a steam engine. Sometimes he genuinely couldn't understand her words and actions. Why would a perfectly normal person suddenly become a steam engine?
"Hey, what are you two talking about?" Ushas approached them with her umbrella. Standing behind them, her two-meter-tall frame sheltered them from quite a bit of rain.
"N-nothing," Camille replied.
"Camille, are you stuttering?"
"No!"
"Come on, let's head back to Deer College. It's so boring here."
"Mm. I'll walk Xiu back under my umbrella."
"Just give him your umbrella, and I'll..." The Three-Eyed Girl stopped halfway through her sentence when she noticed Camille glaring at her, cheeks puffed out. She instinctively swallowed the rest of her words. Her intuition told her it would be better to keep her distance from Camille right now.
"Ahaha, I just remembered I haven't finished the cake in my dorm room. I'll go ahead!" Ushas, the Three-Eyed Girl, ran off into the distance.
"Honestly." Camille watched speechlessly as Ushas ran like a child.
"Let's get going, too." Camille turned to Xia Xiu with a smile.
"Mm."
And so the two slowly walked through the rain toward Deer College. The rain reflected their smiling faces as they moved through the crowds, bursts of cheerful laughter rising from them now and then.
The girl kept smiling as she talked, while the boy listened quietly, his golden eyes seemingly always gentle.
Talking and laughing, they once again reached the Douglas Fir at the boundary between the Anderson Dormitory and the Blackwood Dormitory.
"...We're here," Camille said, sounding a little dazed.
"Mm. See you tomorrow, then," Xia Xiu said with a smile.
"...Yes! See you tomorrow." Camille froze for a moment at his words, then broke into a dazzling smile.
Anderson Dormitory · Room 404.
Xia Xiu put away his suitcase, then went into the bathroom for a quick hot shower. After changing into comfortable clothes, he came out and summoned the Red Book again, briefly reviewing the three thaumaturgic techniques he had obtained from the Book of Preaching.
[Sine Wave Interference] ++ARad field: sharp◇--{Interference Sigil} ++Loudness: 6 dB ++Frequency: 400-450 Hz (hertz) Effect: releases a sine wave to disrupt the laser phase of [laser]-type weapons and thaumaturgy, scattering the beam into ordinary light. (Note 1: an essential skill for cutting down the [Gear Orthodox Church].) (Note 2: novices are forbidden from firing sine waves indiscriminately in the Monastery. Violators will be fined 10 Standard Thaumaturgy Stones.) [Laser Phase Positioning] ++ARad field: sluggish△--{Concealment Sigil} ++Loudness: 2 dB ++Frequency: 10-110 Hz (hertz) Effect: laser phase ranging is suitable for medium- to long-distance measurements. Common measurement ranges include 50, 150, 300, and 500 meters. Accuracy is high, generally to the millimeter. (Note: if you don't even know where the person you want to cut down is, how are you supposed to get anywhere out there?) [Octant Light Wheel] ++ARad field: sharp◇--{Surge Sigil} ++Loudness: 10 dB ++Frequency: 500-1,000 Hz (hertz) Effect: the Octant Light Wheel consumes little energy and can be fired continuously. Commonly used to slash and severely injure opponents, it can be thrown or held in the hand for close combat. Highly practical, with freely adjustable power. (Note: throwing it has no soul. True warriors always hold their light wheels to slice up heretics!)
Whoever originally edited the Book of Preaching must have been a veteran inquisitor. They really understood every aspect of cutting people down.
Xia Xiu silently snarked to himself.
Xia Xiu had two thaumaturgic techniques he intended to undergo Entry Formation. Once they had undergone Entry Formation, casting them would no longer require a Lineage Book.
The task of a first-stage Measurer was to perform Entry Formation on the thaumaturgic techniques they favored. Entry Formation in a normal state lineage relied on various exercises and rituals, while an anomaly spectrum granted traits directly. The flesh supremacy lineage Xia Xiu possessed, for example, provided traits right from the start, without cumbersome rituals or practice.
Only thaumaturgy converted into [traits] truly became a thaumaturgist's own power. Different [traits] could then be combined to form the authority required by a second-stage Manifestor-a [module].
In short, a thaumaturgist's tasks during the first two stages were:
Stage one: Entry Formation for thaumaturgy.
Stage two: trait Modularization.
If you enjoyed this book, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you won't lose track of it next time.
Before you continue