TWO HUNDRED NINETY-TWO: When Wishing Was Having III
Next Chapter: May 2 (approximate)
“Haoyu! You’re suspiciously quiet in there.”
Alden rapped his knuckles against the door to Haoyu’s room a couple of times. A muffled response that sounded like “mup” was all he got in reply.
Alden had his doubts about that answer, but he headed to the kitchen anyway. He and Lexi had been awake for a few minutes. Alden’s gym bag was on the floor by the table, ready to go. Lexi was searching through the fridge with feline assistance.
“He says he’s up, but it sounded like he was saying it from underneath his pillow,” Alden reported, taking a cat treat tube from the drawer where he stored them. He added some to the food that was already in Victor’s bowl.
“We’ll probably have to drag Kon out of bed, too,” said Lexi. “He sent his last message at one. There’s not much in here.”
“Those gross-looking brown nuggets are mini dark chocolate almond energy bars. They’re not sure if they want to be health food or candy, but they’re a decent gym snack.”
Lexi pulled out the plastic deli container full of bars. “These?”
“Yeah. You can have some. Actually, we should just take the whole thing with us.”
Lexi tossed the bars onto the counter, then bent to nudge Victor away from the fridge and toward his food dish.
“It’s not bugging you having him around?” Alden said.
“How many times are you going to ask that? I’ve told you he’s fine.”
“Now that I’ve got him here, I realize he’s more of a fifth roommate than I imagined. He’s obsessed with following people into the bathroom—which is new—and he sometimes sounds like he’s fighting ghosts all by himself in here in the middle of the night. That’s not new, but I worry it’s more annoying to other people than it is to me.”
“Victor’s quieter than ninety percent of our neighbors. And you shouldn’t have to lose your pet on top of everything else when you get selected. He’s fun to have around, but even if he wasn’t…”
“You’ve gotten more sympathetic to my globie woes!”
“I was always sympathetic except for a couple of mistakes.”
“You were,” Alden agreed. “You’re pretty understanding about me bringing knights in through the window to eat leftovers with us, too.”
“I wouldn’t say I understood that one.” Lexi glanced toward the living room window like he thought a stray Artonan might be waiting to come in. “By the way…your friend over there… ”
“I’m not sure if you’re talking about Esh-erdi or Stuart, now,” said Alden when Lexi trailed off. “Or a human you associate with windows.”
“Your friend. Stuart. Do you two practice magic together?”
Alden had been reaching for the shaker bottle he liked to carry on gym days. He froze with his arm stretched up toward the shelf. “Huh?”
“I mean does he help you practice your skill?” Lexi asked. “Or does he tell you what talents might be good for you in the future? Ever since you said you wanted to volunteer for ‘baby level chaos zone’ work, I’ve kind of been hoping your friend knows what he’s doing…or worrying that he doesn’t. He’s not a real summoner yet. He gave you those rings. Those aren’t the only protection you get before an enthusiastic Artonan kid puts you on a list to go be a human shield for his second cousin, are they?”
Lexi was scowling and shrugging simultaneously.
“Anesidoran Social Dynamic,” he added, “I’ve never heard anyone try to pass off a chaos assignment as ‘baby level’. I realize you know more about that type of thing than me, but…just tell me you have plans and proper channels, and your friend is a solid person who won’t do something like forget he signed you up for whatever it is a Rabbit does out there if you two drift apart in the future.”
Of course he’s talking about practicing my skill. Thank goodness I didn’t jump into denials about wizard practice. It’s way too early in the morning to scare a guy like that, Lexi.
Alden grabbed the shaker, the rest of what his roommate was saying registering as he set it down and scooped in some protein powder. He was wearing his armor rings right now. He’d take them off for class soon.
I know Lexi can be a worrier, but imagining that these will be all the protective gear I have after a flaky wizard unfriends me…is actually not something I can criticize, considering how much time I’ve spent coming up with doom scenarios in which heartless summoners just straight-up drop me into chaos with nothing but the clothes on my back.
Stuart had to talk me out of that. More than once. The only reason I’m not still in that headspace is because of him.
“Lexi, do you want to talk to Stuart? He’d like that. The next time he calls you could say hi!”
“Who said anything about that?” Lexi protested. “I was just checking on you!”
“Stuart’s rock solid. Like stubborn stone. We’re not going to have a falling out, but even if we did, he’s not the kind of person who’d ever forget a promise or a responsibility. He’d fight a more powerful wizard for me, and I know that for a fact.” The memory of Stuart threatening to skewer Ro-den with the walking stick was still vivid and would remain so forever, he hoped.
“I’ll believe you.”
“Do. And he is the proper channels in this case. Or he will be. He’s not adding me to some list he’ll forget about…he’ll be on the list, too. Thanks for caring enough to check, though. And, yes, we do practice together when I’m over there.”
“You do?” Curiosity replaced some of Lexi’s awkwardness.
Alden popped the lid onto the shaker and carried it over to his duffel bag. “It’s not like he knows a ton of secret wizard hacks for my skill or anything. He has a different perspective and way more magical knowledge. But, mostly, practicing my Avowed abilities with him has been the same kind of stuff I could do with you guys. Only he’s more likely to cast spells than throw a punch, and one time, he got me some disposable armor and this thing that’s called a hazard mimic to try my shields and trip lines out on.”
The wizard hacks Stuart did know were pretty difficult to explain without saying too much. The bolstering of Alden’s authority when he’d made the puddle shield and the recent insight into entrustment weren’t going to be helpful to Lexi in any way.
“I can ask him for his thoughts on Mind Writhers if you want. Or you could ask him. Or if you wanted to ask an adult wizard instead, we could invite Hn’tyon Esh-erdi over for dinner agin, and Lind-otta this time, too.”
“I’m not inviting Artonan military over for dinner to ask them for weapon advice!” Lexi said. “You’re joking right now, aren’t you?”
“I’m not trying to force you, but I think it’s an option you should consider before they leave Earth. Esh-erdi really enjoyed it. Kon could come.”
“No dinner guests!”
“But if we did invite them, I’m sure they could help you with— ”
A knock on their apartment door interrupted him before he could make a serious case for hosting knights at their kitchen table.
“I’ll get it,” said Lexi. “Don’t do or say anything weird.”
“Do you imagine the normality police are out there ready to arrest me for putting protein powder in a cup at four thirty in the morning? It’s probably just— ”
Lexi opened the door.
“Good morning, my brother! Are you ready to whip our enemies?”
“Why is this apartment so much better than ours?”
“It’s probably just our team,” Alden concluded.
Kon was already slipping under Lexi’s outstretched arm, and Mehdi ducked after him. It was like the body language suggesting that they should stay out in the hallway was completely meaningless to them.
“You have carpets and good furniture.” Mehdi gasped. “And a cat!”
“None of that came with the room,” said Alden. “You could have it, too, if you bring it in yourself.”
He watched the Agility Brute closely to make sure he didn’t do something that would scare the crap out of Victor, but Mehdi just moved to look down the hall toward the bedrooms.
“Didn’t you see our place when you brought food for Matadero Thanksgiving?” Lexi asked. “It hasn’t changed except for the cat.”
“You wouldn’t even let me use your bathroom that day. Why does the polar bear wear sunglasses?”
“Your own toilet is upstairs.”
“Where’s Haoyu?” Kon asked Alden. “Jeffy and Ignacio are waiting down in the community kitchen. We’re all walking over together, aren’t we?”
“I thought we would. I talked to a uni student about Ash last night. Got some advice. I don’t know how much it’ll help but I thought I’d share it with all of you.”
“Exciting. Haoyu?”
“He says he’s up. But…”
“Understood,” said Kon. “He needs my help.” He strolled toward Haoyu’s room.
Alden and Lexi looked at each other.
“Shouldn’t we stop him?” Alden asked. “Kon’s got a worthy cause, but he’s a trespasser. And Haoyu’s a liar, but he’s our guy. Huntski Lodge loyalty?”
“You have a point.”
Scuffling sounds came from Haoyu’s room. They were followed by Kon’s voice saying something about sunshine and Haoyu’s saying something about death and blankets.
“We took too long to decide,” said Alden.
******
They picked up Jeffy and Ignacio from the community kitchen, and the whole team was on their way to the MPE building within five minutes.
It was chilly, and Alden was glad he’d thrown on a sweatshirt instead of something lighter. Haoyu was chewing tooth cleaning gum while they walked. Ignacio had a piece of toast with tomato on it that Alden wanted.
Jeffy reported that Vandy’s team had left Garden Hall twenty minutes earlier.
“We’ll leave even earlier than them next time,” Mehdi said. “We can’t let them get ahead of us.”
“They probably just wanted a warm-up since they know they’re running today,” said Alden.
“Doesn’t matter.” Kon turned around to walk backwards. “You have insider knowledge to share with us and give us an edge.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s more than nothing, at least. Last night, I talked to this guy named Rahul about Ash’s personality, and he said… ”
He told them all of it and finished up as they were passing the Wong building. A few people who he thought were also members of the Coursing class were way ahead of them on the walkway. They hadn’t seen many other signs of life.
Mehdi was the first to speak when Alden was through. “We can’t let any of the other teams know these things. We have to use them to our advantage.”
“Use what to our advantage?” Lexi asked. “Instructor Ash is a six-year-old? That’s not something you can form a strategy around.”
“It might be,” said Haoyu. “I’m willing to go with it.”
“It doesn’t sound real. I’m not saying Alden’s lying or anything— ”
“What kind of lie would this be?” Alden asked, amused by the suggestion. “My nefarious plan to sabotage my own team by giving you wrong impressions about an instructor who we already seem to have wrong impressions about?”
“That is villainous of you, Alden,” said Kon.
“I try. Curse you, Lexi, for foiling my scheme.”
“I’m just saying maybe your Wright friend gave bad advice. Ash likes to not be bored and see new magic? He likes fighting other faculty members and sugar?”
“He does like sugar, though,” said Jeffy.
“Maybe that’s proof Alden’s Wright is onto something,” said Haoyu.
“What are we supposed to do with this information? Bribe a grown man with pudding cups?”
For a few seconds, none of them said anything. Then Kon cleared his throat. “All right. Lexi thinks pudding cups are the way. I think something more exciting and dangerous would be better. Mocha brownies with just a hint of some illegal potion added. Let’s vote on it.” He raised his hand. “All in favor of brownies?”
They almost all laughed.
Lexi was too busy huffing. Ignacio was finishing the last bite of his toast with a frown.
“What about if it’s right?” he asked. “I think he likes watching my knives. In Superlatives. But that could be… <<Leading Knife isn’t what most Meisters of Knives choose. I think I’m better than most Meisters my age, but he has talked to me more than a couple of times about how my skill works. Details. What if he’s not interested in how well I’m doing but just what my talents are capable of?>> Not what I’m trying. Only the magic.”
Alden nodded at him. “I know what you mean. You want people to care about your efforts to do well with your affixation more than they care about the novelty.”
“Yes. I practice. I think. Instructors should see.” He sounded bothered by it.
And now Kon was frowning, too. “What if I ruined our chances by describing what we planned to do too well in the submitted strategies?”
“Now you think you’re being punished for doing homework correctly?” said Lexi. “This is why none of this really makes sense.”
“Of course if the instructor is a six-year-old he doesn’t know it,” his brother answered. “I’m sure he didn’t think, ‘Konstantin did this homework too thoroughly. Look at all this footage and supplemental information he included. He spoiled their run for me!’ He probably felt that deep down, but he thought something that sounded reasonable in his own head. Like that we’d already practiced enough in the park and didn’t really need the floor for those strategies. Or he just felt bored after reading everything I sent, and he’s unable to tell the difference between things that bore him personally and things that truly suck.
“Therefore, he runs from us after class because he’s afraid we’ll ask why, and the truth is, he doesn’t have a good answer. Our strategies were just spinach to him. He didn’t want to clean his plate.”
Mehdi was nodding.
“You’re buying in to something crazy,” Lexi warned. “None of that can be right.”
He looked accusingly at Alden.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have called Ash a six-year-old and pushed our thoughts in exactly that direction,” Alden said. “But what if a couple of the strategies we present today take advantage of some of what Rahul told me? Just in case.”
“You’re wrong. But fine. It won’t hurt to try.”
******
******
Bad qualities aside, Instructor Ash did know how to design a cool-looking obstacle course.
After they suited up, they entered the gym and finally had the chance to see the whole thing.
“There’s traffic!” Haoyu said. “No water, though, Jeffy.”
The course filled the entire white floor, made extensive use of the gym’s magic, and had what were basically first and second stories to take full advantage of the vertical space. They had a mere five minutes to wander through it with everyone else, getting a sense of what it would be like before the first teams had their turn.
It turned out the pincushion alley was the first obstacle, and it ran nearly the whole length of the floor.
“So if we were on this side to start, all the spikes would shoot out from the barrier to our right,” said Kon, reading the information on his interface as they jogged through the narrow corridor together. The barrier he meant was the invisible wall at the perimeter of the gym that protected spectators. Alden assumed it would remain invisible, so that the spikes looked like they were coming from nowhere.
“The pins represent material attacks and spells that are blockable through mundane interference. But they’ll be really fast, so Lexi and Writher will cut them down as they appear when we’re going through as a group. Alden will serve as a second line of defense, and then everyone will just try not to get stabbed if they both fail. The spikes will go all the way to this giant traffic tunnel on our left, so we can’t just squeeze close to it to avoid them.”
It wasn’t obvious from pincushion alley that the tunnel contained traffic. From here, it was just the left side wall. An opaque green wall with an arched top that almost touched the semi-transparent white ceiling of this first level.
On the other side of the tunnel, the opposing team would have their own starting line and pincushion alley.
“Can people attack over the top of the tunnel?” Alden asked. “Is it climbable, and is that gap between the arch and the ceiling wide enough for an enemy to get through?”
“I’ll check,” Ignacio and Jeffy said at the same time.
Jeffy threw himself at it, scrambling against the slick surface and the curvature before he opted to dig his hands in. They sank in to the knuckles when he put some force into it. Ignacio was already up, having jumped and planted a Meister knife into the green barrier magic. He squirmed over the top of the tunnel and looked toward the other side before sliding back down to join them.
“Possible,” he said succinctly.
Alden doubted they’d see many people attacking by going through that gap, but it was good to know. The alley ended, and a sharp turn to the left allowed them to enter the tunnel, which both teams would share with each other and with the traffic—two lanes of vaguely car and truck shaped blocks in different colors. They were still at the moment, but they would be moving when the runs started. The vehicles would appear and disappear from the ends of the tunnel.
“This is a free combat area,” Alden said, surprised as he saw the rules on his interface. Instead of waiting for one teammate to make it over the finish line and earn an attack, anyone could attack anyone in here.
“Keep reading!” a girl on another team shouted from the other end of the tunnel, where she and her teammates were poking at a car. “It’s such a trap.”
“If you initiate an attack that results in a traffic accident, your whole team starts over with a one-minute penalty,” said Lexi.
“So if you attack another player in here, you have to be good enough to take them out without any cars being damaged. ” Alden tried to imagine what it would feel like in here with the traffic in motion. “And it looks like the penalty for accidentally wrecking a car, if you don’t attack the other team, is a regular start over for the person who caused the wreck. Let’s just not hurt the cars at all if we get to run.”
“We can land on them though, can’t we?” said Mehdi. “Like the footage we saw in class.”
“I guess if the gym determines it’s not a wreck-inducing landing?” said Alden. “It’s pretty tight in here. I think we’re mainly worried about not getting run over.”
At the end of the tunnel, the lift that would take people up to the next floor was only big enough for two, so even teams running in a close pack would have to separate briefly. When Alden stepped onto the square panel, it fired up toward the next level, and he jumped off quickly to take a look at the next thing. It was a tangled climbing frame, a jungle gym made of metal and wooden poles jammed through chunks and blobs of the gym barrier magic. Those blobs would be randomized to be tough or fragile. Forcing a way through would be an option for some, but destroying a “fragile” chunk by shattering the poles attached to it would result in an injury penalty.
It was a lot of clambering around in uncomfortable positions to get through that, and then there was a wide, clear area that was going to turn into a place where vulnerable people got picked off as they tried to get up to the floating island.
“Hello, my nemesis,” said Alden, looking up at it.
“It’s higher than we practiced in the park,” said Kon. “Or does it just seem that way?”
“It’s higher,” said Alden. “But there’s more to grab onto than with the nonagon.”
The obstacle was gym barrier magic of course, the same shade of green as the exterior of the traffic tunnel, which might indicate it would behave the same for climbing and hanging on purpose. It was shaped sort of like a mini island with two mountains and a bay.
“And since this is the gym, I’m willing to throw you guys way harder and trust your luck.” Alden’s interface was already providing him with information about the island. “Ha! Really? To be fair, I might do the same thing if I were him.”
“What?” Kon asked.
Alden accessed their team chat.
[Alden: The island is supposed to mimic the behavior of a high-rank Adjuster spell that changes the spatial trend of certain other spells. Like making spells that are normally set to a location want to move to a different location. Only it’s giving it a trend, not a new hard set, so the situation becomes a bit more mobile. He wrote it right here in the notes. Or the System did. Let me look and see if there’s more about it online.]
“I don’t think you have to bother with that,” said Lexi. Haoyu and Ignacio were beside him. Jeffy and Mehdi were still playing around on the jungle gym. “It doesn’t really change anything for how we handle it, does it?”
“But it’s very different than a standard gym obstacle that’s not mimicking anything. Or one that’s mimicking a fixed levitation spell or shaping. It’s more interesting than those.”
“How?” Lexi asked. He sounded genuinely curious about the answer.
Because it’s a spell I hadn’t heard about until just now, and I want to learn to cast it.
I can’t say that. It’d be so fun to use on Max’s traps, though. I wonder how fast it moves things? Would his traps pretty much snap to where I sent them? Or would they drift in that direction more slowly?
Probably degrades them somewhat?
[Alden: It’s a spell Ash must be thinking about choosing for himself. There’s no point in setting the object to behave this way otherwise, is there? So he most likely cares about the island more than the rest of the course.]
Ash was an S-rank Adjuster who made terrain that only he could see. He could use it as a trap, like Max did his zones, but his terrain covered a much larger area and it was really more like terrain. Like an undetectable gravel covered slope or a swamp, just appearing out of nowhere in front of someone he was chasing. Alden assumed the spell the floating island was mimicking would allow Ash to move part or all of one of his landscapes without recasting.
At least. He probably has multiple uses for something like that.
Their course admiration time was up all too soon, and Alden trailed after the others to stand on the sidelines while the first two teams took their starting positions.
“I do think as weight is added to it, the floating island will sink a little,” he said, still reading descriptions of the spell online. “If we’re all standing on it at once, or if members of other teams are, I might have to throw someone from there so that they can reach the monkey bars.”
From the floating island, they gained access to a long stretch of ordinary monkey bars at the top of the gym. All they had to do was cross them to finish.
Since it’s mimicking that spell, I wonder what would happen if we tried to deal with the spell instead of trying to use the island correctly.
It might just break? Then we’d have no way to reach the monkey bars.
“Alden, you’re not watching the first run. A truck just got hit by someone!”
Alden looked away from his interface at Jeffy’s urging. He and his teammates were standing at the end of the gym that allowed them to see into the traffic tunnel. Ash wasn’t far away.
The team that had injured the truck was being sent back to the start already, and Mehdi was moaning about how he was going to lose his mind watching other people run such a fun course so badly.
“For once, I agree with him,” said Lexi. “What’s our best strategy from last night’s chat? I’ll go suggest it to Instructor Ash.”
“There’s rope in the object pile,” said Haoyu. “Say we’ll use that if you want to be as logical as possible. Or say we’ll build a ladder out of broken jungle gym. You know there will be ten thousand bent and broken pieces of that by the end. We won’t even have to demolish it ourselves.”
Lexi held up a hand. “I’ll deliver a logical plan logically. Rope. I’ll… express our confidence.”
He took a breath and headed toward their teacher.
“He looks like a strong representative for us,” Haoyu whispered. “Tall. Sure. Barely angry.”
Lexi was turning back to them within a minute.
“More than barely angry now,” said Haoyu. “But his representation was good. You did good, Lexi!”
“He said it didn’t sound like it was worth the floor,” Lexi ground out.
“Spinach,” hissed Kon.
“I’ll try,” said Ignacio. “Maybe something with the cars? I’ll go in several minutes to show we thought about it for a while.”
“When can I go?” Alden asked.
“Whenever you want,” said Kon, “if you’ve come up with something.”
“No,” said Alden. “I mean when can I go with… ”
He switched to text.
[Alden: When can I try to trick him like he’s six?]
[Haoyu: Yes! What trick?]
[Alden: I want to tell him I have the best idea ever for floating island, but then I want to refuse to give him all the details so that he has to let us on the floor if he wants to see what it looks like.]
He outlined the kind of idea he was thinking of quickly for them. They spent longer exchanging looks than reading what he’d mental texted.
Kon grinned. “I like it, but will it work?”
Alden shrugged. “How would any of us actually know without trying it? But we haven’t mentioned a single strategy like it, it’s not boring, and nobody else will do it.”
[Alden: I was hoping that if the run fails, but we’ve shown him something he didn’t think of himself, maybe we get to go again. Because he’s curious to see what we do next.]
“Okay,” said Kon, very quietly. “As team captain, I think we should present two more strategies that will definitely work even if they’re boring or they rely on extra equipment. One in five minutes. Another five minutes after that. And then if those fail…we send you in. With that. Half an hour from now?”
Alden nodded.
He spent the time watching runners, refining his plans for making it through the early obstacles, and thinking about how to learn what he needed to from the course.
When the whole team started glancing at him, he knew the half hour was up. Ash had walked to the other side of the floor to observe. He’d rejected ideas from Ignacio and Haoyu now, too.
“I’m going,” Alden said. “Wish me luck.”
“I’m going to be so incredibly…something, if this works,” Lexi muttered.
“Grateful?” Alden suggested.
[Alden: Keep an eye on him. Watch his face for clues. We have to know what goes on in his mind.]
He was aware he was being a little dramatic, but waking up at the crack of dawn to twiddle his thumbs while other people used magic was only going to get harder as the term progressed.
When he reached Ash, he waited for Ram—probably Ram—to finish requesting a run for his own team. The Brute’s tone was several steps down from respectful, but Ash just looked like he’d shut his hearing off a while ago.
I guess that’s better than him looking annoyed, but wouldn’t it be best for my cause if he were in a perky mood? Should I offer to let him play with Ro-den’s enchanted ring? I never wear it anymore. Maybe he’d cheer up.
Before he could convince himself that that was necessary, Ram was stalking past him, and Ash was either deeply interested in what the teams on the course were doing…or pretending to be in hopes that Alden would go away.
This is awkward. But Stuart handled Joe! I have no excuse not to successfully handle this guy.
“Instructor Ash?” he said. Smiling had rarely felt more contrived. “My team’s come up with an idea that’s not like any of our other ones. I think it might be really cool.”
Ash glanced at him through half-closed lids. “Your team presents so many ideas.”
Oof. Dickhead.
“Well, yeah!” Alden said as merrily as he could. “We can’t give up until we surprise you. We might have done it this time.”
“What is it?”
He wore most of his rings even during class, Alden noticed.
“We can beat the floating island by throwing one person up there. And we won’t have to use rope or climb anything to do it.”
There. That’s it. That’s all he gets. Alden held his breath.
Was the instructor looking at the island a little harder? Or was that just because a boy was currently clinging to the edge of it by his fingertips?
“How?” Ash asked after the boy had fallen.
“It’s not hard to do, but explaining why I think it will work might take longer than an actual run. I only have to throw one person. No ropes.”
“You already said that.”
“I did. Sorry. I’m just so pumped about it. No other team is even trying something similar. And it’s kind of dangerous and relies on the magic of the island reacting in a certain way. But it should be awesome when it works.”
How vague can I get away with being? What else can I do?
“I guess there is a chance the floating island could explode or something,” Alden added.
“What do you imagine your team could do to make that obstacle explode?”
“Nothing!” said Alden. “I hope.”
They stared at each other.
“Should I write down all the magical interactions that might happen on a sheet of paper and bring it back to read it to you?”
The instructor’s lids lowered even further. “How do you know what might happen?”
“I don’t. But I could still write my thoughts down and share them. It would be like a risk assessment hypothesis I made up for you to give you the edges of the possibilities for our interesting method to make that island obstacle work for us.”
“Did you have a lot of caffeine before class?”
“What do you mean?”
“Fine,” said Ash. “If you’re all so very…passionate about trying out whatever it is… just run. Make sure you show it off during the run. Don’t write anything extra for me to read.”
“Yes, sir. We won’t waste your attention.”
Alden walked away fast before any more questions could be asked or any fickle minds could change. His grin as he approached his teammates was very real.
“I’m horrified,” said Lexi.
“Get unhorrified. We go to battle against an island in the sky. And I promised it would be interesting. That’s a lot of pressure on us now that it’s happening.”
******
Comments (181)
Briefly misread “bolstering” as “lobstering”. It made for a very different sentence.
This is weird. What kind of school is this that Ash isn't fired already? I can't imagine a single modern elite school where a teacher can get away with not teaching ao blatantly.
I am so, so curious if Kon actually told Lexi about meeting Stuart at all, and if he did, if that made Lexi feel reassured or more worried about Stuart's character and friendship with Alden. It's so interesting getting that outsider POV from one of Alden's roommates! I actually think Stu would like Lexi a lot, and that Lexi would end up liking Stu too, if Alden is there to help ease over the vast cultural gaps and their respective reserves.
Incidentally when Ash is introduced in "The S shaped letter 2" he picked out a pile of lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles from his sandwich. The not liking vegetables thing is 100% true.
Good catch!
Ahh. I see why it is ‘When wishing was having’ now.
Wishing you were having a new chapter?
I don't see a strangely poetic prediction thread yet, so... There once was a Rabbit named Alden. With honesty known to be scaldin'. Though accomplished at burder, he fell short of murder, til' that island, and the airstrike he called in.
*puts on Disney Princess tiara* 🎶Someday~ our chapter will come🎶
> “Stuart’s rock solid. Like stubborn stone. We’re not going to have a falling out, but even if we did, he’s not the kind of person who’d ever forget a promise or a responsibility. He’d fight a more powerful wizard for me, and I know that for a fact.” The memory of Stuart threatening to skewer Ro-den with the walking stick was still vivid and would remain so forever, he hoped. Alden’s faith in Stu is so heartwarming to see!
Huh I didn’t even recognize the “stubborn stone” callback (from Alden’s crushy spell description all the way back in C67) until you quoted this
Statistically there have to be chapters that come earlier then expected. I am optimistic, today is the day!!
One of us has a deep misunderstanding of statistics. Or humor. It’s got to be one of those
Is Ash the new Ro-den?
Ro-den is capable of being charming. He's also a good teacher - when he wants to be.
Great chapter ;) To everyone that wants to kick out Ash as a teacher(remember he is at least competent hero, an S, has abilities that allow him to create the course and is willing to wake up before 5 AM to run the class, and of course be a teacher) sadly in the real world it would go something like this but politer ;) Student/parent: He is a bad teacher kick him out. Principal: Sure you both competent and willing to do the job? Student/Parent: ... Principal: Or do you know anyone both competent and willing to do the job? Student/Parent: ... (quiet) no Principal: Understood, feel free to come as soon as you find someone, have a good day ;)
Be that as it may... "He is a bad teacher kick him out." Or perhaps he needs a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan)? 🤔
“Why is this apartment so much better than ours?” The start of a villain arc if there ever was one. .......also Welcome to the league of evil, we have pudding.
"That's good!" "The pudding is evil." "That's bad." "You get your choice of flavour." "That's good!" "The flavours contain potassium benzoate." [Mehdi looks blankly at the League of Evil recruiter.]
Alden *told* his team about Ash being 6 yo in range of Mehdi's Infogear piece. Do we want to know who will buy this intelligence and what they will make of it one day in about 10 1/2 months?
And also: Is it just me, or is Alden testing a new skill - quietly burdering a person from behind instead of to their face?
I also really hope that dinner party happens!
I love this chapter and the camaraderie between the students. It was so much fun!
Who’s on their team again? Alden, Haoyu, Kon, Lexi, Ignacio, Jeffy? The only one with a skill I would call spatial is Kon’s and maaaaybe Ignacio Maybe Kon just rewinds something while standing in the field and sees if he can get the final location to be on the other side of whatever obstacle they have, idk
And Mehdi
I wonder if Alden will ask the mother to enhance his voice at his next affixation. He will have a good deal of authority to bind, and that is applied to all chainers at their affixation anyway, so it is probably mostly physiological and only partly magic. I feel like it would improve his spell casting, and his ability and ease at speaking Artonan.
It would also open up some interesting opportunities plot wise, especially to lute if he continues teaching Alden wordchains, as he might be the first to notice.
Re reading, is the island never land???? Why does it sound a lot like the Disney version of the island lol
And you need to reach it by flying lmao
A theory that's occurred to me: it probably actually costs the Contract a massive amount for every single affixation, every summoning, every meaningful interaction period to work with a contract refuser. Violation of spiritual and mental privacy already inflicts a debt on it and hurts its strength, and forced affixation is incredibly costly. Unilaterally steering someone's interaction with the contract, the way Sleyca has previous given word of god that the contract picks all your talents for you (or randomizes them if it doesn't have the time) should also be extremely costly for the contract. The signing bonus for people who take the contract probably costs Artona far less than just affixing you the first time without their consent would, and each subsequent affixation probably adds even more debt to the pile, draining more of the contract's energy in proportion to their authority growth. The fact that it doesn't let them make them own choices, especially. It's trying to push them into agreeing to the contract, no doubt, and letting this mess go away, but there's probably a point where a contract refuser who for some reason keeps getting summoned, or who keeps leveling up and undergoing affixation, would start getting offered perks normally reserved for people who accepted the contract, or even things they wouldn't normally get from it, because the attempt to push them to accept has clearly failed and it needs to cut the losses on them and work on settling the debts/avoiding accumulating too many more going forward. Similar but much lesser to how the Mother keeps a tally of the privileges owed to Knights for their service, and weighed not in how much someone has paid but in how much has been 'stolen' from them by a contract they don't acknowledge. The contract's preference not to summon contract refusers unnecessarily, in this framing, isn't a matter of respecting their wishes - it's a matter of not being unnecessarily masochistic and extravagant with its own spending, because whereas a true Avowed strengthens the contract when they fulfill their part in it, a refuser weakens it every time - builds up a larger reserve of owed consideration. I also suspect that when the contract picks out talents for a refuser non-randomly, it actually has to take what it thinks they'd like into account to an extent, and maybe can't force them to actually affix until after they've seen it, barring an authority overflow. Doesn't necessarily mean they can request any changes, but means they can back out of affixing and see if it's being more favorable later.
I agree; this is an important part of the reason why Contract refusers don't get summoned. However, while we know forced affixations are very costly, very few of them probably happen after the initial affixation. I reckon there are almost exclusively two kinds of refusers: (1) people who want to avoid Contract downsides like summoning more than they want to choose their superpowers and (2) people with objections to superpowers themselves. (Note that Boe belongs to group one, while religious objectors belong to group two.) Group one doesn't actually have an objection to superpowers and would probably accept new affixations when offered. Group two would of course refuse affixations as long as possible, but they also probably avoid using their powers and therefore level up very slowly if at all, so needing to forcibly affix them is surely quite rare. (Side note: In ch. 105, one of the ways the Contract said it might present leveling notices was [Wow! You’ve gained two levels! Would you like me to pick your rewards for you?] [Yes/No] Something like this, albeit less condescending, might be typical for level notices to refusers.) I also suspect that "chooses talents randomly" is either a lie or something humans made up with no basis. I'd bet that the Contract is following *some* kind of rationale when it chooses talents. My personal guess is that it tries to pick low-demand talents that it thinks might tempt them to sign. "You're scared of your powers? Okay. Here, you can now make magically perfect toast. See how very harmless that is. You want cool powers like flight, you just don't want to summoned? Check out this vaguely flight-adjacent object levitation spell. It's not a very good one, but it sure does point out that flight *might* be on the table if only you could actually pick your skills and spells."
Awesome chapter! With wisecracks, Alden almost getting outed as a wizard by Lexi (not), and discovering the Wright was right about 6 year old Ash!
It's the italics on "hope" that gets me every time, I cannot stop laughing at the end of this chapter.
A tip for finding Patreon comments since the recent updates. This applies to the web version, and for all I know there might be a similar trick to the app. If you open any individual chapter, you'll see the comments sorted by popularity: the ones at the top have the most hearts. If you open Sleyca's creator page and hit "Load more comments" under any particular chapter, you'll be seeing them sorted in the old chronological way: the ones at the top are the most recent.
For the web version, it's easier to click on the double arrows just above the new comment field and select newest first
“We can beat the floating island by throwing one person up there. And we won’t have to use rope or climb anything to do it.” What is Alden trying to do? Could he throw Ignatius with the „leading knife“, preserving him after he spoke his spell and have the others being pulled along by the other knives as flok? How does the island interact with Jeffys live vest spell? Or could Lexi extend mind writher to use as rope to pull all others up? Can Alden get Ash as his entruster and use his strength somehow?
Maybe building a tower with people, as Alden and Lute did at New Years? They could build a tower of six people, with Alden on the ground but not the tower. Then he preserves the bottom person's shoes and lifts the whole party? The top person might be able to grab on to the edge of the island. Then sequentially swarm up.
Ash is so shortsighted. TKA consists of one Rabbit, one Adjuster, two Meisters and three Brutes. From Ash's point of view, you'd think it would have been worth giving them a shot just to see what they could do. Even the all-Brute team could be capable of teaching Ash something. "H'mm," he thinks to himself. "I hadn't considered the synergies those powers had. How could I use this to my advantage?" He could say: "Group One. Do a paper on Team Meadowlark from Munich. They were a hero group who had a similar skill mix to you guys and often did [this]. Keep that in mind for this week's run. Group Two. There was a gang of pretty successful villains(1) who were fond of strategy [that]. Next week's run is going to be based on one of their infamous heists. Your job will be to counter them." This way, Ash can mentor students, AND (much more importantly from his point of view) think about how his own powers could work with (or against) other powers. --- (1) Probably referring to villains who did unforgivable stuff like busting unregistered people out of detention centres. Or who used their powers to make money to fund fake IDs to give wicked unregistered soccer moms new identities. You know. Horrible, villainous stuff like that.
…You know that real villains exist in this setting even though they haven’t been the focus, right? Like Body Drainer, to name one example.
Bearer creates a magical link from Alden to the person he is serving, that’s very unlike most skills that we have seen which rely on you and your own strangth. The strength of Alden’s skill depends on both Alden and the person he is serving as well as the importance they place on the item he is preserving. I wonder if Alden linking to someone much more powerful and protecting something important would count as “super training” for his skill? The strength of his skill would be boosted (while linked). That may well translate into strengthening his skill permanently or ever quicker than normal. Both Esh and Lind are on Earth in Matadero and are pretty high up in the knight power tree. Yes, Stu is a lot stronger than Alden, but he’s “just” a wizard so say an order of magnitude stronger.. Esh/Lind are strong knights, so they are say 2-4 orders of magnitude stronger – and that strength is what might boost Alden. This might give Alden a needed boost to catch up to Stu a little. Of course, he would have to come clean about his skill and his desire to go to Goldbush with Stu as justification (stronger Avowed is better able to protect Stu there). And possibly he might have to admit to being a knight as well to them. But he has already begun to consider that. From all the full adults in the story they do seem like they would be the most sympathetic and supportive of Alden.
I think you might be underestimating how strong Esh and Lind are. They are teaming up with the Primary in a year, which suggests their strength is at least comparable to his. And he can single-handedly destroy a world, so long as someone else gives him a ride there and back. I’m inclined to guess he’s at least 6 orders of magnitude stronger than Alden. That aside, I sincerely doubt the shortcut you proposed exists. BoAB isn’t a skill for cheaters, and this is not that kind of story. I’m sure it would be *good* practice to preserve with powerful backing, but not too much better than any other sincere best efforts under trying circumstances.
WOO YEAHHHH
The line about maybe making the island explode as the level of 'interesting' Alden and teammates are plotting makes me giggle every time. Alden using Ro-den as a model for Ash's levers is clearly working for him; that it also allows Alden's own inner wizard geek out to play is an unsaid bonus.
TLDR; Ash is indeed a six year old
So based on what Alden has been saying about the platform tending to move back to its position (but being mobile), I think it acts like it's sitting on top of a spring. So I think the idea Alden's team is using is to pull the platform down, get on top of it, and let it go, which causes the platform to fly back up rapidly and launch them into the air, and towards the monkey bars. Not entirely sure how they intend to get the platform down though.
Immaterial to the contents of this chapter, since this is a notably un-shaperific team, but it was mentioned what feels like an eternity ago, when Alden became vegan, that one valid Shaper subclass is no subclass at all - just worldshaper, not ground, sky, water, life, object, or any rare thing, just being able to shape broadly (maybe only the core five - probably only the core five. I assume rare elements would be a lot harder to fit in). And the thought that comes to me with that is that it's probably either like Adjuster where the Artonans secretly have certain endpoints they want you to reach where you're good at a specific combination of shapings across the elements, or they very specifically want you to be okay at a wide range of shaping. There is no logical reason it'd be designed so you start off unspecialized then pick a mandatory specialization later, unless it's purely an ethics thing where someone says it's wrong to force someone to be the girder shaper or whatnot, and you need to let them pick what they want to shape - which seems unlikely. So my working assumption is that true worldshapers are either rocking a skillset where they're repeatedly forced to pick lower-rank skills from across multiple elements so they can be true generalists, or affix at-rank skills with really bad authority efficiency (either meaning weaker skills overall or fewer skills because they have to be individually) compared to normal shaper skills but the ability to work with the five core elements equally well. I assume the reason you'd want a thing like that is because some wizards or institutions don't have the means to summon five different shapers when they have five different elements that need shaped this week, and the results don't need to be perfect. Or sometimes you just don't know what'll be available for the shaping. Sometimes you need a handyman. If there were such thing as a subclassless brute, I'd likewise assume that they wouldn't be 'free to do whatever' so much as they'd be 'forced to do a little of everything'. You're not going to make a generalist version of a normally specialized class category and then let them choose to be a specialist. Not unless it really is an ethical objection to forcing a specialization on them that motivated it. In an attempt to bring it back around to relevancy, I wonder if little baby-man Ash would be even a little entertained by an omni-shaper.
On that last question: not unless they play around with interactions, I'd think. What happens when you mix Earth with plant Life? Can you Shape them together, and does it give unique properties? Don't write me a paper, but here's a cactus and some clay. Inspire me. Except, you know, he doesn't want to come up with those questions and ideas himself. If the students don't do it for him, they've failed to be interesting.
I’m sure someone has already said this in the comments (in addition to how frustrating Ash is) but now we know he’s an adjuster (or at least I do, if we’d been told before and I didn’t realise) he makes so much more sense. I’m torn between thinking of him as a dark mirror or what Alden could’ve been if he weren’t Alden at all and had gotten Adjuster powers, and as a less talented Joe (a shit teacher and person, but this one is human and so we have a much stronger instinctual understanding of why Ash is bad than Joe, and this is how Artonans see Joe). Still, to get to my actual point: Ash likes magic not superheroes. He doesn’t like Brutes (who are boring) because he’s a self centered adjuster who likes spells and magic not magic that lets human do human things to a superhuman level. He wants rings and spells, he may well be one of those ‘the closest people to wizardry behind you aren’t even in the race’ people like the Grandwitch (because almost all of them have to be on the island right?). He doesn’t like Alden who is a B because how will a B surprise him, and the team composition is three brutes, Alden, and a meister. And maybe Kon is interesting, but he’s not novel at this point. Compare that to a team with Vandy and Maricel in it, and it’s no surprise they get to run.
Oh also, it’ll be fun/frustrating to see how Rex or Ram or whoever responds to this insult with his all brute team.
I kind of want Klein to hear about this. Alden: "...then after we started treating Instructor Ash like he was a bored, sugar-rushing six year old, we got to make our runs..."
Tftc
> “Alden, you’re not watching the first run. A truck just got hit by someone!” That's how truck-kun got isekaied to another world...
Dodge, Ram!
.... Ram (and Rex) are gonna be so maaaaaaaad 😁😁
Especially with the fact that a bunch of first years cracked the code on how to get Ash to change his mind. Even if it only works once lol
Did Instructor Ash intentionally make this course resemble a veggie dog fully dressed with toppings and a big floating dollop of relish?
Guys, he's not a six-year old.... Everybody knows Ash is eternally 10 years old. It's been a meme for decades now.
♪ I wanna be the very best - Like no one ever was To flunk them is my real test - To not train them is my cause! I will travel across this school, searching far and wide Each Avowed to just ignore, the power that's inside ♪
oh, that shouldn’t work. Ash is really terrible after all
So I'm not sure I understand what the effect on the island does. I think it makes other nearby, persistent spells accelerate or drift in space? Sort of like it has a gravity of its own that only affects spells, maybe?
And if it's a spell Ash is considering but doesn't yet have, who set up the island? Maybe he does have it, but doesn't know how to use it effectively?
“Do you imagine the normality police..." That almost works there. That said, you wanted 'normalcy.' 'Normality' is the chemistry term regarding concentration you were allowed to brain dump.
“you were allowed to brain dump.” WTF.
Lol loved the line about Lexi and the normality police 🤣
yeesss, yes! Expand Stu's friend circle Alden, introduce Lexi, he would be so worried about Kon that he totally would join them out in the cosmos fighting chaos
What a disgusting teacher. Uses bis student to test out magic he wants, randomly prefers higher ranks and doesnt care about actually teaching. Why is he a teacher in one oft the best schools btw? I honestly wouldnt even mind testing his spell if he didnt prevent teams from running when thry seemingly dont interact interestingly with said spell.
Ngl it is also stretching my plausibility that someone like him can teach here. Like last period all the teacher faults were really subtle but now it is super obvious with this one
I want Jeffy to be the OWGU (One Who Goes Up).
"What is the island, Jeffy" "MOIST!" "And what does lifejacket do?" "air goes UP, water goes....(screaming) DOOOOWWWWNNN!!!!" "Send him, he's ready"
Lexi has to be crazy to pass up the opportunity to consult two knights about utilising Writher because he's too shy. That would be insight he'd be incapable of really getting on earth (isn't it a super rare weapon with only a handful of previous users?). He should have bitten Alden's hand off.
Only one known previous user, in fact, and they were a villain that was swiftly defeated. Lexi really has no other source for the kind of info Alden is offering
Incredible
It also occurs to me that if Alden was willing to show how bearer can affect spells preserved by it, that would probably be an immediate in for Ash letting Alden show up to superlatives. No way a dude obsessed with unique magic isn’t gonna want to see more of that
Mostly just for sparring with Ignacio and stuff. But I could see it
Oh fuck this fucking idiot. I won't dignify him with a title. How in hell this guy hasn't been fired is beyond me.
Yesssss. Finally some progress into figuring out that dudes mentality. And it’s just he is a 6 year old who likes cool stuff, and doesn’t like work. Fantastic 🤣. May they earn the jealousy of every other team with their hacks going forward
Ash might actually know Alden is a wizard. Or suspect.
Genuinely zero chance of that.
Here's one aspect of Ash as an instructor that I haven't seen discussed yet. Instructor Ash behaves like the broader public does. He is interested in cool magic, but you have to earn his attention and then keep it. He is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Klein in multiple way. Ash, whether intentionally or not, is preparing students to make their case to the world not only as competent fighters (Klein's goal), but as exciting superheroes who the governments of the world should allow to fight crime in their cities.
And that could potentially be an interesting class to have, if it had a teacher.
Ugh, if I were in aldens shoes I would be ditching that class. I can't stand children with authority.
I bet Ash doesn't even want to eat his soup. C'mon Lexi, indulge yourself a little. Talk to a Hn'tyon about your funny magic whip. Meet Stu, too.
How is that guy a teacher? I get having bad teacher in schools, but this is supposed to be one of the best superhero programs.
Having bad teachers is not something even the best programs are immune to. Talented assholes with terrible social skills can and will stick around for longer than you'd think.
What a terrible teacher
I love how terrible he is. It’s like when he villain starts monologuing and you know the hero is using the time to foil the villain’s plan when he would have just win if he hadn’t been monologuing, but he can’t help it. His ego won’t allow it.
Alden in the traffic tunnel: “I think we’re mainly worried about not getting run over.” My 80’s nostalgia brain: oh my gods, they’re playing Frogger! Also me: Sleyca’s amphibian theme strikes again.
Klerm Krossing
Theory: His preferences aren't based on a person's power at all but how interesting they are. Whether or not he personally believes an activity to be worthy of devoting scarce and precious gym time. Almost like extending a research grant based on what proposal has higher impact, which is "sexier". Typically S ranks are more interesting than other ranks but not always. Brutes are a known quantity, so a team of brutes is just a lot of augmented athletes jumping around. Vandy is skillful but a stick in the mud. Her answers in the classroom are probably straight out of the textbook, no creative or "outside the box" thinking. But some novel, complex, magical experimentation...?
It also gave a hint that he doesn’t like reading. So “earn my research grant in 2 sentences or less”
Aldens going to rip the enchantment out of that island like a crackhead ripping copper wire out of a live electrical box
Could also theoretically pause the whole island for a few seconds making it fall. Then once the whole team is on it, let go and rocket towards the top of the gym
1) If you tell the reader about the thing you're going to do it's less exciting when you do it. 2) Routine classes are boring and repetitive and don't make very good stories. Conclusion: Ash is actually a stand-in for the readers. I will not be taking questions, thank you for coming to my TED Talk, and I'll have fires with that.
Rude, what did the readers ever to to you to justify such calumny?
"I shouted at Ash that I was his student, too, and told him he needed to give me some advice for once.” Rahul took a long breath. His eyes turned toward the fountain. “And he looked at me for two seconds, if that, and said, ‘I advise you to be more inspiring.’” –Ch. 259 It all points in the direction of six year old Ash, doesn't it?
‘And now Kon was frowning, too. “What if I ruined our chances by describing what we planned to do too well in the submitted strategies?”’ Called it! xD With that island in the sky… I think a little too much about epic the musical.
Six Year Old Man Six Year Old Man demands your plans With only one thing in mind Run the course fun so I don’t get bored, man
thinking on it now, with how prideful S-ranks can be and the culture that's been built up around them. Would there be a sense of resentment with how some Artonans might use them? Especially for mundane things. Especially when the sense of being a superhero doesn't align with how the contract or Artonan culture, there's an interesting tension there
My crack theory is that Ash exists as a plot device to give us, the spectacle loving audience, what we want: explosions, flashy magic, and subverted expectations. Ash may be intolerable, but truly, he works to our benefit
I agree with your theory. > My crack theory Do you have a cocaine theory?
Oh man what if the run was from Ash's PoV
Sleyca might pull that rabbit out of her hat/couldron of soup
Obviously the '6 year old' part of Rahul's assessment ended up being accurate, but if Alden is right about Ash considering the island spell that's likely equally as important to Ash's response. If you're considering using an affixation you've worked towards for a year or more on a spell, you would do anything to learn more about it. Even the vague possibility that a 16 year old B-Rank might be able to nullify it is critical to understand.
Which is why he is using bis students to test it out.
This was souper satisfying to read. I love that convincing instructor Ash felt like an uncertain obstacle the whole way, the build up was fun. .... and like Ash I'm looking forward to seeing what Alden can do lol.
Alden owes Rahul a video of that interaction.
Rahul’s dream of mentoring the youth is blossoming!!
Regardless of how well this upcoming run goes, let it be known that it is the B Rabbit that cracked the code that allow them their run. He has proven his worth already.
Lmao Professor Ash is kinda of a genius idea. It subverts the obnoxious character you’re supposed to hate, turning him into a 6-years-old you can’t really hate as much
Oh you can absolutely hate a six year old, especially when they're a full grown man.
Only thing I can think of is Ignacio using leading edge on the island because the mountains count as points. Jeffy using the lifejacket wouldn't do anything. Kon might be able to move it but it wouldn't break it. It's not an enchantment so Alden can't take it plus probably too big even if he did have bearer of spell.
But then again I don't think Ignacio needs to be on the island to use leading edge. Just throw his knife and the island follows so idk.
Dude is literally just Alastor from Hazbin hotel "I don't think they will succeed, I'm just here for the entertainment"
I laughed out loud. Loudly. And literally. For 30 seconds.
Sigh. I was right Ash shouldnt be an instructor. The only reason why he is is because its rare for someone with his qualifications to even be willing to do this shit.
Alden does also mention he's created a super interesting obstacle course. It seems like he's powerful and competent enough in areas outside teaching to incidentally provide some learning to the students. And probably if some power does peak his interest he'll likely be incredibly attentive
I wonder what Ash’s redeeming feature is as a teacher? We know that Lesedi Saleh is willing to do some amount of politicking and favor-trading around the school and her teachers (and to be clear to preempt argument, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, just realistic and necessary) but I’ve never once gotten the impression that she would allow that to actively worsen the students’ education. If Ash is still here, it’s because he is in some way skilled enough to make up for his flaws.
We haven’t really seen this but from what Ignacio said in Superlatives if he’s interested in the magic a student is using he can be a great teacher. So he might’ve helped those students enough that it balances out that he provides no help to others. Also his ignoring strategy while seemingly super unhelpful, has caused a number of teams to do lots of extra out of class practice and lots thinking of different creative strategies that they might not have done if they just got the go ahead to for their run. While probably not intentional, the teams who don’t get to use gym time might just get enough that it isn’t to negative on Ash’s record. Through the day of strategy creation that is more similar to what actual hero’s do and the out of class practice, some teams might get a level of learning not to far off from the gym time experience, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Alden's wizardly point of view pays dividends. He's not thinking about spells as point and click video game abilities, but as flexible things with blurry edges that interact with other spells and authorities.
Yeah, I want to see him blow the minds of everyone in the gym by proposing a magic interaction which is not stated directly, but he can conjecture by looking at magic from a more fundamental level. It would be an excellent narrative element to expose that he knows more about magic than he should, as well.
Agent Cottontail's legend grows! Efffortless handling of even the most uninterested and recalcitrant teachers! The carrot: "Let me break your course, Ashole." The stick: "...or I suppose I could instead write an exhausting exploration of trivial magic interactions and force you to read it." Even all-brute teams gape at the audacious brutality. Cottontail MVP due to his ash-whispering.
Hooolllyyy, “Ashole” is inspired. Agent Cottontail: Enemy to birds and people who are defined by their accessories alike! The Winsterminated’s sunnies are shattered, Trash-nor left without packing his knife hands, and Ashole’s rings can’t save him from Agent Cottontail.
I need Ash to get fired so badly. Like, I'm glad this worked out for the boys and all, but the real solution to the whole Ash problem is just sacking him. No student should have to put up with his bullshit. Being a teenager is hard enough, one with super powers even more so; they shouldn't have to also play court jester for their teacher just so they can actually get taught. Dude's gotta go.
The Artonan ‘righteous scholarly exit’ tradition needs to be taught to earthlings!
Ok Ash is actually pretty funny. Not a great teacher, sure, but this is the kind of character I wouldn’t mind seeing more of to figure out how his brain works.
I thought it was going to be Kon that came up with the winning strategy, he is great at thinking outside the box. But Alden is open to accepting new points of view and acting on them. And in this chapter, it shines! I'm looking forward to the run!
Sounds like they are planning to do something to the island itself, is Alden going up there to preserve it and see if it stops floating or throwing Kon up there to revert it (not sure how short his range is)?
The island would be pretty intractable, I'd think. Were Alden able to preserve it, it would be for a fraction of a second at most. Then his authority would be kaput for the rest of class.
Maybe I’m more like Ash than I want to admit because I can’t stop thinking about what he’s going to try that could — by any interpretation — lead to the island exploding
TFTC!
Partial credit to J Reynolds for predicting the Intervention — Lexi is definitely giving Intervention vibes here.
It would be funny for alden to make a klee pak reference. Im certain that was the name of the childrens show he watched with kibby.
Neeeeded
Ha! Can't wait for whatever the hell Alden's gonna do to the island
Cracked the code
Great place to stop the chapter — now we have to spend a week wondering what cool idea Alden came up with to throw one person onto the island, get everyone to the monkey bars without using rope, and interact with the island’s weird spell in an interesting way. Prediction: - Alden throws Lexi up to the island. - Lexi uses wither to cut off a section of Monkey-bar. - Kon “repairs” the monkey bars while someone holds on to the piece, flying them straight past the island.
My (hopeful) prediction is: - Alden gets thrown up to the island and uses his enchantment preservation to strip the enchantment(s) off the island, causing it to fall to the ground. - The rest of the team then hops onto the island and Kon does some lovely dolphin singing to repair the island back to its floaty state. - Island rises back to where it was previously -> boys jump/get thrown up to the monkey bars. Though I'm not sure if Alden has shown off his enchantment stripping/preservation in class yet - and if not then I doubt he'd be that willing to do so for the first time in such a flashy manner. It wouldn't be particularly 'Quiet Rabbit' of him (but would for sure look pretty damn cool).
Oh my God I hate him 😆 kick his man child butt, Alden (by treating him like he's six)
I though i might drop a sort of PSA here about patreons latest update. I'm seeing a lot of people becoming frustrated that the comment section is only showing a few comments and not the most recent ones. It seems that the update changed the default setting on some apps to "top rated" rather than "most recent." If this is bothering you, look at the top of the comment section and find two arrows pointing up and down on the left hand side. Click on them and you can set the sorting to newest rather than top rated and that should revert the change.
Unfortunately my comment section (using the Android app) doesn't have any such arrows, so I'm stuck with sorting by top rated it seems.
6 year old opens the way for Jeffy Sky Moves
Jeffy puts the life jacket on the island, splashes it in water, and it comes to life, thanking the kind young soul that granted him life and flying him and his friends to the end of the gym. Jeffy’s ultimate technique: Life Moves.
Ash: "No matter what... please just stop sending 12 page essays about your strategy."
Vandy might have unintenionally been sabotaging her team by being too serious and technical. Also, he might be not answering her questions because he finds her boring...
Aaah I can't wait to see the run
…………. Well I’m excited to read how they blow up the island
Maybe Alden can do something with the break enchantments thing
I didnt think it was actually true but... it seems to be the case. Bro is using class basically for himself. Wondering if his pov would be like as Alden said, thinking of "excuses"to justify his denials.
It's scary, how many people are six-year-olds at a base level and can use all sorts of rationalization to excuse their behavior.
Hahaha! That's such a funny way to get on the course! Man, Ash does not count as a responsible adult, though, much less a teacher.
I KNEW IT WOULD WORK. Treat him like a 6 year old is definitely the plan, he doesn't even eat his vegetables! Future obstacle course submissions should have cool, flashy diagrams/drawing with action and not too much text, imo.
Preferably written in crayon.
Chapters with the roommates are always great. This one especially so, because the last couple of chapters seemed very bleak for Alden, and this one is very positive. I’m looking forward to seeing how the team is going to impress the six year old.
I think the bleakness pairs well with how good it feels to belong on Anesidora à bit more! These fun chapters both slices of Alden’s actual life and also a reminder of why Alden wants to be a knight. To protect this and make sure it lives. But yes, it would suck if Alden never got to live in the peace that he wants for others, and I love the roommate chapters to death
You know what, maybe I was too harsh on Ash. I stan a bored king who doesn't want to read
…not when he is a teacher 😁
Toddler teachers hate this one weird trick!
Thank you for the chapter! Just downloaded so I can read on the bus to work!
Well... that worked. My overly caffeinated brain is a little sad we didn't get the run this chapter, but imagining Ash as an excited teenager who just got super powers, and then never grew up, makes me want to reread the last few. Win win
Alden’s Parenting: Now with Grumpy Human
I first read Grumpy Human as Grumpy Hit man. Pretty different...
That was hilarious haha thanks for the chapter
the deeper thing going on is Ash using his students to "Quality Assurance" his future potential spellkit. He is not letting all Brute team run, because whatever they do and whatever skill they might be able to hone in the obstacle courses, will not be beneficial to Ash. Doing it with all Brutes will take skill, yes, there is a point for them to be able to run the course. But whatever they do, it will never interact with the obstacle course the way Ash wants to see happen. This was the same with Team Konstantly Awesome. If you notice the team composition, there is actually no one to do anything unusual. Kon and Alden can do very unique mobility tricks and might show something good. But they do not have any actual ability to interact with the course itself. Other than Kon and Alden, the rest of the team does not even have anything remotely special, the biggest potential is with Jeffy and aquatic obstacles. And they submitted detailed strategy guides on how they would beat these courses without ever interacting with the obstacle course. If you give him the benefit of the doubt, Ash is trying to be like Instructor Plim and make these students think outside the box and learn cool stuff, disguised as a normal obstacle course. But what it clearly seems to be is that Ash is straight up there to use students for his own benefit without giving these students any amount of help of any kind at all. That is nuts for an instructor. If he really is doing this, he should have been detected a long time ago. Him being able to do this means the entire faculty knows. How does this dumbass have a job? Blackmail material? Money? wtf???
^^^ copied my own message in the discord to here because I think my observation on why Team All Brutes and Team Konstantly Awesome does not ever get to run is spot on. All the other teams have classes, skills and spells that might potentially, occasionally, put on a good show of magic that Ash can see and take notes on. Team Konstantly Awesome looks so different and unique but they are practically incredibly similar to Team All Brutes, they have nothing relevant to perform in the obstacle courses.
Treat him like he’s six for the win!🤣 Thank you Rahul!
Yay! They bribed the six year old!
Brilliant solution.
Oh my god. Ash isn't six, he's eight. He's at the point where he still likes the same stuff but pretends not to because it's too childish. Also, I would truly loath him as an instructor. D*ckhead.
I would be organizing a righteous scholarly exit by week 3
I like the soup. I appreciate the chapter.
Ash hates reading, and like spectacle. They wrote too much in their submissions. "This is not enough," was a lie.
They need to start leaving everything out in their proposals 🤭
This is the funniest possible way for Alden’s team to get to run lmao
Oh my god. He actually did it. They're actually doing it. Thanks, Rahul! (I also might be a six year old myself and whine about a lack of new storytelling stuff but the talk with Lexi in the beginning was great so I can't complain)
Sixth!
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Suup :)
Thank you 🙏
Hooray long CHAPPY
Thank you for late soup
Tftc, MUA ha ha ha, i was the First!