Bookbound Bunny

B4 - Chapter 21 - Dual Crests

When Arakil finished his explanation and demonstration of the inscription, it was time for Lily to reproduce the results herself. One thing she hadn't realized when drawing with her wand instead of pen and ink until now was that you could actually, for lack of a better word, the balance of the emerging spell.With how often Arakil had continued to stress and emphasize the importance of equilibrium in an inscription, Lily had thought it would be a much more laborious task. Yet, in her opinion, it seemed to almost be happening too easily, so much so that she was beginning to actually doubt herself and quickly brought it up to Arakil, thinking she was accidentally doing something wrong.

Arakil chuckled and shook his head. "You're doing nothing wrong; in fact, you're doing particularly well for your first legitimate attempt at a dual crest inscription. I've been instilling the basics in you over and over again for this very reason, so that your foundation would be rock-solid. If you had rushed to this point, you would certainly be singing a different tune."

Once again, Lily was astonished by how much Arakil had prepared for the future and by how perfectly it lined up. At this point, she wouldn't even be surprised if, ten years down the line, he suddenly brought up that making her go to bed at a particular time was somehow crucial to the current hypothetical situation they were facing.

"As for feeling the equilibrium in the inscription, I have to admit that I'm a little surprised you are already experiencing that," Arakil continued. "Usually it takes much longer to hone those instincts, and either you are simply a natural when it comes to inscriptions, or maybe it's due to you being more emotionally sensitive? Another plausible theory is that without any natural Mana of your own, you're without outside influence and can sense the purity from each crest."

"I see…" Lily whispered, unable to hide her happy smile and ultimately just glad she wasn't accidentally doing something wrong.

In very little time, the inscription was finished, since Lily could draw with her mind here. Despite Arakil saying this was a simple inscription, it was actually more complex than the flying one because of its dual nature, yet she had completed it in less than half the time.

Thinking back to how she had rushed to complete the inscription during their race to the third floor, and now how she had almost leisurely completed this brand new one and easily beaten herself was eye-opening. It only further fueled her desire to experience drawing with her mind in the real world, outside this mental landscape, and she almost wished the interschool tournament would come sooner so she could hopefully make that a reality.

"Excellent work," Arakil said after scrutinizing it. "I believe this will aid you greatly in exploring the third floor. Now, why don't we work on making some alternate versions, such as a larger one that could contain you and your companions together."

"Yes!" Lily replied enthusiastically.

"But before that, you should activate the spell so you know what you are working with."

Lily nodded and, with a mental nod towards the inscription, activated it. The glowing inscription enveloped her, and then water was drawn in around her, forming a small protective sphere around her. It had also gathered air, but that wasn't visible to the naked eye.

Overall, Lily was very pleased with the results, and Arakil even temporarily changed the layout of his library, suddenly filling it with an ocean of water up to the rafters. Seeing the entire building suddenly flood with water was startling at first, until she realized she was safe and dry within the protective bubble. She even used her Magesight to examine the expenditure of the magical construct, and saw that there was minimal difference whether she was in the water or out of the water.

After that abrupt experience, Arakil snapped his fingers, and the water immediately vanished as if it had never been there, with not even a drop left behind. Arakil himself had been entirely unaffected despite not having a protective bubble of his own, but she had come to expect such unbelievable displays from him ever since the dryad attack.

With that demonstration out of the way, they moved on to tinker with the same base inscription while configuring the sigils in various ways. Thanks to Lily's unexpected sensitivity regarding the balance, it proved to be a far more insightful experience than she originally thought, as she got to see how even a minor change in a sigil could tilt the equilibrium.

As their time together neared its end, Lily asked if Arakil had any suggestions for traveling in or on the water. He paused for a moment to think about it and gave Lily a response she probably should have expected by now.

"I think you should try to solve this one yourself. I've shown you several water glyphs on their own before today, and I think you are capable of using them in conjunction with your existing knowledge and today's lesson on inscriptions."

"Okay," Lily agreed, happy to accept the challenge.

Then, much to her regret, time had run out, and it was time to say goodbye to the ancient library once again. Lily hugged Arakil tightly, profusely thanking him for everything. He seemed to accept her gratitude with a small smile and simply gave her a gentle pat on the head, carefully minding her ears. The scenery gradually faded, and Lily woke up, blurry-eyed, to the familiar sight of her room.

After rubbing her eyes and a few sniffs, she got up and stretched, getting ready to get some food and then maybe go for a bit of a walk. Her mind felt exhausted and her body stiff, but she wanted to make sure she had enough energy for another night under the stars. After seeing the Astral Mana thanks to Arakil, her enthusiasm toward it had been fully replenished.

For clarity, this text came from the author's official page without permission; reading the chapter at that page supports them.

***

The next day Lily returned to the third floor of the dungeon, except this time it was just her and Arakil. In a rather unexpected turn of events, both Hana and Lotte had been dragged into other activities today, and as much as they wanted to join Lily, they couldn't.

Hana had spent most of the previous day with Arthur on the second floor practicing their flying together and had apparently made quite a breakthrough, so much that they had promised to continue throughout the next day. Lily knew how much flying meant to both of them, so she quickly told Hana not to feel bad and wished her good luck.

Lotte, on the other hand, was even more unfortunate, as she had been caught up in one of Professor Sylwel's crazy ideas. After she showed the professor her progress with both the Bubblebelly Tonic and Mermaid Lotion, he gave her another task, and from there things escalated.

Being immune to the lesser poisons in the alchemy lab, Sylwel had started showing her how the hazardous ingredients could create cheaper or sometimes even better results than ordinary potions. While in most cases the finished product would be thoroughly detoxed, the same could not be said during the brewing process, which was why most abandoned such notions. Sylwel was very clearly not lumped in with those alchemists, and Lotte had unfortunately been drawn into the insanity.

Thankfully, she was enjoying it, and despite everything the crazy professor did, he was still at the top of his field, possibly even higher. Getting personal lessons from him was worth their weight in gold, even with the eccentricities, and so she had chosen to return to the lab again today.

Lily didn't really hide her glyph or inscription abilities from her friends anymore; that ship had especially sailed once she revealed the flight inscription to them, but she couldn't help but be considerate of them. Yes, Lily could solve their problems, but she didn't want to have them waiting around twiddling their thumbs while she was drawing.

Once she could draw with her mind, that issue should be alleviated considerably, but even then she might not use them for . On her own, most definitely, but when in a group, it was good to spread the tasks appropriately so that nobody felt like dead weight. She had already feared she was stepping on toes with Hana and flying, but that had fortunately been resolved amicably.

Even Rose, as prickly as she could be from time to time, knew to give others a chance; or at least she did when around Lily. When they were in the dungeon together, she could have swept everything away in an effortless blaze, but she had instead allowed Lily to also have her moments.

Regardless, Lily hoped she never became arrogant enough to solve everything herself. She liked working together with her friends, and she suspected that in the interschool tournament she might even need to work with people like Clarissa.

But that wasn't worth worrying about now; she had glyphs and inscriptions to try out and some shallow waters to explore. Lily still had her own unenhanced tonics remaining in case of an emergency, as well as a spare shell to leave. She also had some Mermaid Lotion, but she decided not to try it until the next time she was here with Lotte, so the two could see the results together.

Walking out to the beach, Lily took a moment and focused. She briefly tried to see if she could manifest something with her mind, but after several minutes and nothing to show for it, she reluctantly took out her wand.

As Lily began to draw the inscription from yesterday, Arakil floated by her side as the pages in the grimoire began to unfurl to the illustration reference from the day prior. While she could mostly recall all of it, it was still safer to double-check something she might have forgotten.

By the time she had finished drawing it, she had kept her glances at the help to a minimum, feeling a hint of pride at being able to recall so much. After all, technically, it was almost all pieces she had already known, and it was just the arrangement she was required to perform.

With the inscription ready, she activated it, and once again the magic enveloped her before surrounding her in a bubble of water. What was interesting was that rather than collecting from the moisture in the air, it instead grabbed it from the more readily available seawater at her feet.

[When not dealing with manifestation spells, a good thing to be aware of is the path of least resistance within the targeted area. If you had activated this inscription from further out, then the sea would have been out of reach, and it would have proceeded with pulling it from the air. Of course you could have also designated a collection area, but if left to its own devices it will pick the lazy option.]

"Lazy? Magic can be lazy?"

[Sorry, it was something an old colleague used to say. While I don't necessarily believe that magic has feelings one way or another, it's hard to deny that the path of least resistance could be readily equated to laziness. Why collect moisture from the air when there's plenty at your feet?]

Lily nodded. It made sense and, depending on how you went about it, could potentially even be used to your advantage. What first came to her mind was casting a water glyph to dry her clothes, but then she realized she was being silly, as she had already used this to her advantage!

Back during the festival's final event, she had dug trenches to stop the students from progressing and then used the rubble to build walls. For spells around earth and rock, it had just seemed totally normal for her to do that, and if not for water magic usually "just happening," she wouldn't have realized it was the same concept.

She was curious, but with a magical bubble around her and an underwater dungeon to explore, it obviously wasn't the right time. She mentally filed the idea away and then started walking towards the water. As she had expected, the bubble came into contact with the gentle waves and began to part them, allowing her to continue walking forward without issue.

When Lily was waist-high in the water, she was still bone dry, and in no time at all she kept walking until the water was about to reach her head. She found herself instinctively holding her breath as she took the final steps, until she and her bubble were fully submerged.

[Lily, you don't need to hold your breath…]

"Sorry!" Lily said, releasing it. "I just… Couldn't help it. Seeing the water going over me."

[I suppose it can be hard to fight those bodily instincts. Anyway, with this you should be able to walk along the floor and collect all sorts of underwater plants and coral.]

"What if I need to swim up?"

[Well, you could draw another glyph to form a current or something to try to lift your bubble, but there is a far simpler solution.]

"Oh?"

[Just quickly draw a Lift Rune and step on it.]

"Huh… Actually, that makes perfect sense, but what about landing?"

[Water is much thicker than air, and even with your bubble creating a barrier, the bubble itself will slow your descent. If you were going to drop like a rock, I wouldn't have suggested this method. Just make sure you don't stack any, as you don't want to be sent above the water, or it be quite a splash landing.]

Lily gulped.