Volume 3 - Chapter 18 - Foreshadow of

Previously on EC…

Atonement shows up, escorting on behalf of the Sardonians, to the Academy as the school term is starting. Admission took place, where the Sardonian Prince took care of a small incident. The admission was followed by a quickly put-together exhibition to show off the Academy’s offerings, including food and martial demonstrations. The reward from the Sardonian King in regards to the incident with the two guilds quietly arrived at the smithy. After the festivity, Till was left to deal with the wrap up, before her adopted siblings ask for festivity to be annual thing, while she coyly agrees to.

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“Damn, think we’ve got ourselves a small whale here. Oy! Someone grab Ken quick!” An office worker in the cubicle yells to his colleagues as he types rapidly into the terminal, contacting the other departments.

[T/N: The term used here involved “coastal tuna”, a prized fished, kinda rare for pole fishing. But we now have a term of for people who spend a lot of money in something, they are known as whales. Hence a complete substitution for the “We’ve caught a coastal tuna” used.]

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“Is everyone here?!” A bland looking man in a dull blue suit and graying hair asks while he’s going through the paperworks prepared for him. Four other people are in the small conference room with him, a communication expert, an analyst, a digger (Information Researcher) and a general assistant - a typical response team for any large economic transactions. This is one of the defenses to ensure stability and that no situation will run out of control, allowing Leviathan time to prepare a response. By default, no government or government affiliates would be able to purchase gold, as Leviathan does not wish to be a party to a proxy war. Nor would any notable commercial enterprises be able to do the same, since Leviathan can’t be sure if the companies involved wouldn’t target Leviathan with their actions.

[E/D: In the 90-early 2000ish where people place way more importance on tracking large transactions than compare to what happens nowadays, especially people on the top of the money pile that have SO MUCH MONEY that they throw huge amounts of it at their hobbies.]

“EXLA is doing a full background check on the buyer, preliminaries are in the pile. Sales is probing her with incentives, so the line is still Live.” A young man answers as he continues to hold one side of a headset over his right ear, listening in on the phone call.

“Analysis?” The man turns to the woman tapping away at another terminal.

“Our current rate is 0.389 AGC:$1 Chizen, current exchange rate is $1.13 Bav:$1 Chizen, 0.389:1.13, she’s exchanging for 292,610 AGC, 61 ASC and 95 ACC with $850,000. Projection: establishing a new township, expansion for a guild or preparing for a short war.”

[T/N: AGC - Amoaltzan Gold Coin, Chizen seems to be Leviathan’s host country’s currency, Bav seems to be the currency for whatever Bell is paid in. ASC - silver coin, ACC - copper coin.]

“Karen, new info, user info indicate no affiliation to any guild, she’s located in the Eastern regions.” The man in the terminal across from her quickly relays the information.

“Norman? Sardon?”

“No, no man’s land.”

“How large is her friend list?”

“Nineteen.”

The woman frowns before closing her eyes, none of the information matches well enough for any of the scenarios she mentioned.

“Hmm… Marigold, Antarctica… where did I hear that before…” The man in the suit goes over the paperwork again. “Kalata, anything on Marigold?”

“One moment.” The *tatata* of rapid typing temporarily fills the room.

“Sir, the client is going to hang up and have someone else contact us again later today, since Sales seems to have caught her attention with something.” The communication expert drops his headset and informs the team leader.

“Alright, keep an eye on it.” The suited-man turns toward the lone person standing away from the terminals. “Check if EXLA has anything yet, and get everyone here some refreshments.”

“Got it.” The young woman quickly left the room to complete her tasks, making her way to the External Liaison and Affairs Department, a specialized department that has both a light and a dark side within the company.

[T/N: It’s hinting at espionage and shit, remember Rick’s little adventure? :3]

* * * * *

*Ring Ring* *Ring Ring*

“Good morning…? Barthos speaking.” A gruff voice answers the phone that roused him from his sleep.

“Hey, Bart, what’s up with the vo-…. Oh shit! Sorry! I forgot about the time zones.”

“Wha…? Oh… Isabel.” *koho* “Don’t worry about it, what’s the matter? Give me a sec to get water.” The man quickly lays the phone on the side, dangling off its cord, as he gets off the bed and retrieves a cup of water from the table, taking a drink. “What happened?”

[T/N: Nothing important… I just wanted to say I blanked out TLing this part cause I temporarily forgot telephones originally came with a cord. *facepalm*]

“Welllll, when I called the game company to buy the gold, they told me about various discounts if we were to buy the materials from them.”

“That’s… strange… is there a catch?”

“That’s what I asked too, they said it’s satisfaction guaranteed or money back, they will even send me a contract for examination before signing.”

“Hm… well, they are the host company, they probably have their own reasons. But this isn’t it, right?”

“Heh, you are quick, apparently they have a warning about just using anything for construction as the game is ‘made to reflect reality, yet maintain a sense of unfamiliarity’, so there are various limitations when it comes to construction materials. So…”

“So you are wondering if I can go take a look, right?”

“Yep!”

“Alright, 55%.”

“What? No! 10%.”

“45%.”

“15%.”

“Fumu… We all know where this is going, let’s just split down the middle with 33%.”

“That’d be 32.5%!”

“…” Barthos becomes speechless at that haggling. “It’s a waste you aren’t a purveyor, you know that?”

“I got sick of doing that ages ago I’ll have you know!”

“Doesn’t make it any less of a waste!”

“Bah! You sound just like my mom. Here, I’ll send the contact info over email, contact them later, eh… um… Sorry about waking you up, gotta go now, leave a message in my email if anything comes up.”

“Yeah, yeah, leave the tiresome work to the old man.” Barthos hangs up the phone while a charming laughter can still be heard over the line.

[T/N: The percentage thing is referring to the money they’d save from the discount, if you haven’t caught onto it. Barthos’ haggling for his consultant fee since this is extra work.]

* * * * *

A harpy-esque demihuman guides a diminutive gnome down the hallway, while another with a bushy tail follows along, carrying a tray of various goods. The trio quietly makes their way to their destination, with the humanoid peeking into the rooms with curiosity as they pass by. Before long, the harpy-esque demihuman quietly opens a small door, leading to the rear of a classroom, ushering the other two inside. The area is partially obstructed with a beehived wall with a solid door, all of which are blocked by racks and class materials. The room is about a third the size of the classroom, it was initially designed to be used as one of many emergency shelters against bandits, but the arrival of the demihuman battalion made it moot.

[T/N: Had a lengthy discussion with zee editor. This style of construction seems to save on material while retaining the original strength. It has been used in fencing and some fancy buildings. The description doesn’t explain what material it’s made out of. So it’s either super-advance architect in a medieval time construction mindset, or a really elaborate woodworking. It can be used like arrow slots, so maybe it’s used to bombard any bandits that enter the classroom?]

“Stand. Bow. Greet.” A demihuman student leads the group of students inside the plain classroom within the main Academy building.

“““Good morning, Bell-sensei.””” Following the student’s lead, the rest of the group greets the figure in the front of the class with a unified voice.

“Good a-eh, good morning class. Sorry for introducing myself so late, I was awfully busy setting up everything recently.” Bell apologizes to the students with a quick bow from behind her table. “Welcome to the Logic class.”

“Eh, eh, eh, sensei?!” A delicate, young boy raises his hand.

“Yes, eh… Leris?” Bell looks down onto the seating plan to make sure she has the right name.

“Isn’t this the class for learning Magic?” A lot of the new students of various age and appearances turns their head at the question, a few of them double checking the classroom door, some with worried expressions.

“That’s correct!” The felinoid answers energetically, her stance shifting to shoulder width apart.

“Then wh-”
“I’m sorry, sensei, I think I might be in the wrong class!”
“Me too!”
“Ah, ah, m-me as well!”

Before the first student can finish his question, the other students interrupt and try to figure out where their proper class is.

“Everyone! Sit down!” Bell’s voice carries a strict tone of severity as she leans on her hands, pressing her weight onto the table, calming the situation, the students timidly sitting back down and stopping whatever they were doing. “Magic, Trade, Agriculture, Military and so forth, if you are going to study in those classes, you need to pass this class as well. This is the foundation with which all your different pursuits will build upon.”

The various students sit attentively, now that they know they are in the right place.

“Sensei.” A teenage youth with an upright back and a scholarly appearance breaks the silence. “Wouldn’t it be better if we just learn the skills directly? What’s the point of someone like me working on the foundation again when we only need to learn the skills necessary for our chosen study?”

Bell looks at the vellum pinned to her table before looking at the youth. “What are you studying for, Ethaniel?”

“Magic.”

“Good, sounds like you have a pretty solid foundation, correct?”

“Yes, sensei! As the Eldest Son of the Lorezi House, I’m already able to cast some spells!” The youth answers with pride, a hint of arrogance in his eyes as he puffs out his chest.

“«Ice»!” Bell summons a block of ice the size of a fist and places it on her table. “Here, completely destroy this without wetting or destroying anything else in the room.” She walks away from the table, giving the youth some room to work with.

The youth scrunches his eyebrows as he picks up the block of ice. After turning it a few times. “«Fire»!” A ball of flame engulfs the translucent piece of ice, melting it.

*PARIN*

Unexpectedly for the youth, the block of ice cracks and shatters, sending small pieces flying about. “This isn’t fair sensei, this would takes advance Fire «Spell»s to do this properly!”

“Oh? Really? Anyone else want to take a shot?”

“Oh!”
“Here!”
“Let me try, let me try!”

Three demihumans raise their hands, two of them are in their early teens while the last one is amongst the youngest in the Academy.

“Come on up!”

“““Yes!”””

“«Ice», «Ice», «Ice»!” Three more blocks of ice are made and get placed onto the table. The two older demihumans immediately pick up a piece.

“«Sand».” The first one surrounds his with a thick layer of sand, carefully molding it into a ball using his magic. “Crush!” The ball of sand starts spinning in the air between his two hands, the sounds of sharp grinding can be heard along with the soft *pakin* sound of the ice crunching. After a few moments, he dusts his hand and shows a triumphant smile at Bell, who gives a nod in return.

The majority of the class nods in admiration, using the sand to both absorb the moisture and destroy the block of ice in one move is very efficient. Even those that don’t practice Magic have to acknowledge the simplicity and logic of using it. The youth from before has a perturbed face that’s screaming “why didn’t I think of that?!”.

The next demihuman takes out a set of utensils as well as some fruit, causing some of the students to have various expressions. Bell has to stifle her laughter as her body shakes visibly. With practiced hands, the girl slices and crushes the fruit, before scraping the ice block with «Metal Claw» and then using the flakes of ice to grind the rest of block into pieces over a small tray. The processed fruit is then squeezed or placed onto the ice, making a dessert. “«Frozen Javelin»… And done. It will be destroyed when it is eaten~~” The time it took to make the dish was merely two minutes, not much longer than the first demonstration.

“Can… can she do that…?”
“They did say conjured water can be consumed here, in the pamphlet…”
“Hey…! Is this also taught in the Cooking class?!”

The human students murmur amongst themselves, a few are even drooling a little. As for the demihuman students, they start thinking about what they want for their snack break. Ethaniel’s face starts twitching, wanting to complain, but the perfectly controlled «Frozen Javelin» is keeping the entire tray frozen, thus nothing is wet. He could argue that the ice will melt into water when it’s eaten, but that’s just semantics and even he would be ashamed to argue on that point.

*koho*

Bell makes a light cough. “What do you want to do with this, Sherry?”

“Ummmmm… I can bring it to the kitchen I guess?”

“Sure, go do that.”

The monkey-tailed girl exits the room with the tray, causing some of the students’ eyes to follow her, staring at the retreating tray.

“Oh! Oh! Is it my turn?! My turn?!” The hamster-like child asks excitedly as he hops near the table.

“Go ahead.”

The child picks up the block of ice and then presents it to Bell. “Dismiss it please!”

The felinoid staggers a step, almost falling over from shock. The observing students also nearly fall out of their seats, with a loud *kon* sound from one of the tables as one of the student’s head lands on their table. Muffled sounds can be heard from the back of the room as well, but no one really noticed due to the commotion.

Bell recomposes herself before waving a hand, causing the block to shatter and fade into nothingness. She rustles the child’s head with a half-joking chide. “You little rascal. Go, take your seat. You two as well.”

The older demihuman rustles the hamster-like child’s head as they walk back to their seats. The human youth drags himself to his seat in a daze; wide-eyed, mouth slightly hanging, a fog shrouding his consciousness. The demihuman girl pops in unexpectedly at this point, also making her way to her seat.

“As all of you can see, there’s more than one solution to any given obstacle. Normally, I wouldn’t have accepted Demi’s solution, but it was my fault for not stating the rules clearly. That said, this can be used for things like Trade contracts, so make sure everything is written clearly. This can also be used in Strategizing, sometimes the most obvious and easiest solution is overlooked by overthinking. Also, to make this clear, even though the first two attended this class previously, the solutions they came up with are their own. As for Demi, he only had a few classes more than you guys. Now I’m going to be outlining some methods to be used, let’s start off with the Scientific Method. For…”

The class continues without disruption, ending peacefully. After the students exit the classroom, the hidden door at the back opens up, revealing Isnic and a gnome.

“Isabel, I didn’t know you had it in you to be a teacher.”

“Y-y-you! What the hell were you doing back there?!” Bell points at the gnome with shaking hands, a notable redness rushing to her face. “You weren’t supposed to be here yet!”

“I had time and I got antsy, I decided to come take a peek! This lady here did a fabulous job showing me the place and feeding me, no wonder you kept saying the food in the game is great, that iced fruit thingamajig was really refreshing! Aaarrrrgh, why didn’t I join sooooooner?!” The gnome clenches his fists next to his head and scrunches his face in regret. Abruptly, he loosens his fists and whip his two index fingers, pointing them towards Isnic. “By the way, who is this beauty? Someone you hired? Someone from Marigold?”

Bell puts her hand on her face before dropping the hand, waving to Isnic to return to her duties, smiling a wry smile. The blushing girl -obviously not used to such compliments- scoots off hurriedly with a bow, before closing the classroom door as she exits. The gnome waves his hand in farewell with a smile, before turning to the thrice as tall felinoid with a questioning look.

“Eh… she’s part of the game.”

“Oohhhhh, so she’s from Leviathan?”

“Eh, no, she’s PART of the game.”

“No, she isn’t. Just say you don’t want to tell me if you don’t want to tell me, don’t have to lie about it.” The gnome makes an unhappy expression as he says the last part.

“Why the hell do you think I’m lying, George?! She really IS part of the game, she was here along with this building and the rest of the demihuman kids when I arrived here, and they never log out!”

The gnome shivers visibly, a confused look on his face, his eyes rapidly bouncing left and right. “This… this isn’t possible, an AI this advanced can’t possibility exist… A single AI with that much depth would require terabytes of storage… Casual astronomy… This building… petabyte… but research… gigabyte… even leading technology… networking connection…” Long strings of incoherent mumblings comes out as George starts to hyperventilate.

[E/D: Current guess is in the petabyte range required for AI storage.]

“Um, George? George?!” Bell gives the gnome a rough shake with her hand. “What’s wrong?!”

The gnome rattles from the shake, snapping him out of the trance. “Isabel, if I give you $5 million more, do you think you can help me set up a lab here?”

“Eh…” This time, it’s Bell’s turn to have a confused look on her face. “WHAT?! Why?! You are scaring me here. Why don’t you just play the game for a while first? Wait… aren’t we supposed to bring you flying, in the first place?”

Silence fills the room for a few moments. “Right… Right, you are right! I don’t have to rush this, we can just enjoy ourselves!” George starts laughing happily. “This is why you are the ‘Boss’, Boss. Let’s go! Errr, where are we going to go flying anyways?”

Bell snaps out of her solemn mood and smiles a mischievous smile. “Follow me! I already got everything set up, although I might have to change the person that’s going to carry you. Isnic, that girl just now, was supposed to bring up you in the first place.”

“Oh.”

* * * * *

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

On this particular day, a new sport was born. A gnome’s shrill scream was heard across the Academy before a loud splash echoes in the air. This was repeated numerous times, causing various people to come check out what was happening, only to see an exuberant midget having the time of his life being carried into the air before being dropped into a deep pool of water. It didn’t take long before the instructors under Kun’s employ wanted a shot as well, followed by members of Atonement that paid the tuition fee to use the Academy as a base of sorts, the off-duty guards, and the students that couldn’t fly. The reservoir eventually had to be condoned off due to the frequency of use for airdrop landings, not that anyone was complaining.

* * * * *

*kan* *kan*

“Damn it! Where the hell are the guards?! Head foreman! Go get your leaders or superior or whatever! We will hold them off as long as we can!” A bearlike demihuman roars at a muscular, sunburnt human two third his size as he fights back against a bandit whose face is covered by a red bandana.

“B-but…”

*kan*

“Go!” The bearman thrusts the head of the hoe into the bandit’s saber once more, before smashing his large fist into the man’s gut, sending him flying into his comrades who were fighting another demihuman.

“Fucking bastards…! You lot better not die on me, I’ll be back soon!” The human foreman grits his teeth, cursing at the Norman army that’s nowhere in sight, dashing off into the jungle, away from the plantation.