Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (14 page)

Drawing his gun and
equipping a bullet case onto his belt, Regal quickly loads the gun and fires at
a single point on the stone. He constantly repeats this process and creates
several spots for hands and feet to grip onto. Each bullet chips a small
section off the stone, but Regal’s aim is unfortunately not good enough to
concentrate the fire enough at higher locations.

Brainstorming with the
others on how to get up, Regal eventually gives up asking for help from the
others who each end up deciding quickly that the task is impossible.

Suddenly, a new,
unorthodox idea spawns from a combination of stray thoughts and Regal asks,
“Astore, is it possible to create an ‘Earth Shield’ beneath another ‘Earth
Shield’?”

“I’m not sure,” Astore
places a hand on his chin while thinking – trying to answer the question but
not able to find a definitive answer.

“Can you try it?”

“I will try.”

In front of the group,
Astore raises his hand and a circular earthen yellow alchemical symbol of
simplistic design materializes in front of it. A few feet in front of him, a
wall of earth erupts from the ground. It is eighteen feet wide, thirteen feet
tall, and half a foot thick.

“Astore!” Regal calls out
in shock, “That’s much bigger than a basic ‘Earth Shield’! What level is your
‘Vigorous Earth Alchemy’?”

He asks this because a
basic ‘Earth Shield’ after just learning ‘Vigorous Earth Alchemy’ is only
fourteen feet wide, ten feet tall, and a quarter of a foot thick. He is still
level 1 as well so there shouldn’t be any increases to his intelligence stat
either. Even if there was through some skill’s Passive Divine Arts, it can’t be
much.

“It’s level 27,” Astore
replies as if it is the most natural thing in the world.

Veronica and Kilde are
equally surprised while Regal’s mind roars, 
‘What the hell! I am still
at level 7. Even those who everyone thinks have the best talents can’t compare
to that progress. He could be the most talented person in Earth Alchemy within Bluemist
Academy, but because he is a Soulless, nobody paid attention and he completely
flew under the radar!’

All three of them
understood that he had both the Tier 2 and Tier 3 Divine Arts. If he followed
the same skill path, the first would be ‘Stun Stone’, a low mana Divine Art
that summons a small stone that can be thrown at an enemy and cause a short
stun if it hits. The latter Divine Art is a passive one, increasing his
maximum health by twenty points.

While the other three are
distracted, Astore successfully casts the second ‘Earth Shield’ beneath the
first. The first ‘Earth Shield’ is successfully lifted up on top of the first.
Fortunately they are connected so Astore does not need to worry about balancing
the two walls on top of each other.

“I never knew the Divine
Art can be used like this. You’re really smart, Regal.” Astore says while
curiously inspecting the extra tall ‘Earth Shield’ in front of him.

“I only thought
it might work, you are the one that actually did it… Well, it looks
like my next plan will work. Once your mana recovers, we will ride them as high
as we can, then throw this rope over that part that juts out” Regal says excitedly,
pulling out a rope out of his inventory and tying one end to a fist-sized stone
from the ground.

“I can only cast four with
my maximum mana.”

“That’s fine, it will
still get us halfway.”

Trusting in Regal’s plan,
the four get ready to enact it once Astore’s mana recovers to full. Not long
after, Regal, Veronica and Kilde are standing in a line while Astore casts the
first ‘Earth Shield’. He can’t ride the shields up as they will only rise up
from the ground in front of him, but fortunately Regal has the rope that has
been in his inventory for over a year, along with a few other survival items,
that the others can use to help him up.

The first ‘Earth Shield’
lifts the three successfully. As it will only last for a short time, Astore
quickly casts the second, third and fourth shields. His mind grows numb from
the lack of mana, but his task is accomplished.

Regal grabs the fist-sized
stone and hurtles it at where the small peak on the rock is. Thanks to all the
practice with shooting the gun, the stone flies true, despite Regal only having
the base dexterity. The shift in momentum does, however, cause him to lose his
balance on top of the wall of earth. Veronica saves him in time from a fall
that would most likely have killed him.

The stone threads the rope
over the ridge and back down towards where the three are standing. After
allowing the rock to fall back down to the ground, the rope now connects the
ground with the top of the rock.

Regal and the others
quickly grab onto the rope in front of them and slide down to the ground before
the ‘Earth Shield’ turns into sand and dirt, scattering in the wind.

With a group effort, the
four successfully roll a boulder half their size onto end of the rope to hold
it in place while they climb up from the other length hanging down. They
quickly decide on the order of climbers, Veronica last due to her wearing a
skirt.

As Regal pulls himself up
the rope first, a petite girl with flaming red hair tied in a ponytail walks
out from a loose crop of leafless trees and says in shock, “What are you
doing!?”

Regal twists his head
around while the other three turn around and see Piora Flameheart standing
fifty feet away.

“We’re climbing to the top
to get a better view,” Veronica says casually.

Piora stands by herself,
clearly not in a group with other students. She is opening and closing her
mouth, but can’t seem to find any words to retort with.

Misunderstanding the
situation, Astore asks, “Did you want to come up as well?”

“W-why would I want to do
that!?”

“I thought that is why you
came here.”

“No! I heard gunfire not
too long ago and thought someone was in trouble!”

Regal decides to ignore
the situation, and returnes to focusing on climbing up the rope. Kilde, Astore
and Veronica also turn around and climb up the rope one after another.

“H-hey! Don’t just ignore
me!” Piora starts getting flustered as the four Soulless turn their attention
away from her and toward ascending the rock. She glares at them as they
continue to climb and arrive at the top.

Regal is the first to lie
down lifelessly on top of the rock, his stamina nearly completely drained. The
climb was much harder than he expected. It would be easier if he had the
‘Mountaineering’ skill, but that skill requires him to be level 20 and also
have a high endurance stat to learn.

The other three are
equally tired when they arrive. While they rest and recover their stamina,
another hand appears on the edge of the rock. It is Piora, who decided to
follow them up after being ignored. She seems like she wants to say something
right away, but lies down as exhausted as the rest of them instead.

“You came up after all.
You could have just said so,” Astore tactlessly points out, receiving a glare
in response.

Despite their differences,
she remains at the top of the rock with them after recovering her stamina. The
top of the rock is mostly flat, with an areas large enough that the entire
class could probably be on top and still comfortably move around. The breeze up
high is cool and refreshing, cooling the students down in the heat.

Regal takes out his map
first, scanning what he has drawn with what he can see. He frowns slightly as
he realizes his map isn’t quite accurate, and the distance proportions are
irregular.

His view from the top of
the rock extends several miles in each direction. He accurately judges they are
about three miles away from the city, and Regal is completely surprised when, even
from so far away, Grand Theore dominates the view to the west, stretching
across from the north to the southern horizon.

Regal decides to start
with the area between him and the city, sitting down with his map. Kilde,
Astore and Veronica sit nearby, also starting with a section of their maps.
Piora looks at the four, especially Regal and his map, sitting near him.

“You’re not going to work
on your map?” Regal ask Piora curiously after noticing her glances at his.

“Hmph, I’ve already done
this area.”

He is about to accept her
words, before a sudden suspicion enters his mind, ‘You’re not very good at
making maps, are you?’

“W-w-what nonsense are you
saying!?” Piora’s face turns bright red in embarrassment.

Cursing himself for
speaking his thoughts aloud again, he apologetically says, “Sorry, I spoke
unintentionally… You couldn’t possibly be that bad anyway.”

Regal shifts his gaze over
to Veronica’s map, which is beyond redemption. Piora follows his line of sight
and –“pfft”— stifles a laugh.

Looking back at Piora in a
new light, Regal thinks to himself while ensuring his thoughts remain
silent, ‘I had thought she was proud and aggressive, slightly arrogant
even. Perhaps that was wrong… Well, she is aggressive at least.’

Veronica doesn’t seem to
react to Regal’s words, but if he was to look closely, he would see a slightly
depressed expression on her face. Her speed in drawing the map slows down as
well.

Piora notices however, and
moves to be closer to her. She brings out her own map, which while being better
than Veronica’s, is still incomprehensible. Piora shares small talk with
Veronica while working on her own map and becomes friends with her. Veronica’s
replies are quite blunt, but Piora doesn’t seem to mind at all.

***************************************************

The group of now five
spend all morning on the rock, slowly and carefully increasing the size of
their maps. The problem is that the closer to lunch – the closer the sun
reaches its apex in the sky, the hotter it becomes. Even the wind becomes a
stifling heat that invades their uniforms and makes them sweat more.

“Big sis, please, use
‘Chilling Wind’ on us one more time,” Regal pleads Veronica desperately.

“I’m sorry. I’m still out
of mana,” she responds lifelessly.

“Piora?”

“I… nearly have… enough
mana,” Piora seems to be affected the most in the heat, despite wanting to be a
flame alchemist. She also learned ‘Chilling Wind’ and has been helping Veronica
keep everyone cool with it.

Everyone wants to go back
down from the rock, as the sun has increased the temperature of the top of the
rock enough that it burns when it touches skin. Unfortunantly,  a strong
gust of wind earlier in the morning blew the rope off the small ledge and has
become lost to the students.

Their throats become
parched from the heat despite consistently using ice alchemy to offer temporary
relief to the heat. Regal isn’t able to help at all with this, his  ‘Ice
Bullets’, despite being made of ice, are not actually all that cold.

The ice made from alchemy
also does not melt into water and cannot be eaten, so they can’t even quench
their thirst. If a single one of them had a water-based alchemy, it would have
been better. Regal secretly vows to himself to purchase a water alchemy skill
book as soon as he has the money so he never goes without water again.

Respite from the heat only
comes a few hours after lunch, when the sun falls behind Grand Theore and the
shadow of the grand city becomes their savior.

Meanwhile, at the
teachers’ camp, Mr. River brings out a table, chairs, and a large umbrella for
shade while Ms. Yatta supplies a seemingly endless supply of alcohol. The
teachers are completely drunk, laughing among themselves while trying to guess
how many students have collapsed from carelessly exhausting too much energy.

They play a game of poker,
where the losing two teachers have to take the job of retrieving the collapsed
students after the time limit is up. Mr. River is extremely competent when it
comes to avoiding work. Miss Yatta and Mr. Razor are effortlessly crushed by Mr.
River and the mysterious Class 2 teacher, Mr. Hanya.

***************************************************

“So zis is where zou are,”
late at night, a stumbling drunk Ms. Yatta appears on top of the rock where
Regal and the others are with the rope wrapped up in her arm.

The group of students on
the rock are currently all lying on their backs, exhausted and thirsty with
cracked and parched lips. Ms. Yatta pours a liquid into each of their mouths to
resuscitate them, which was incidentally alcohol instead of water. Completely
oblivious to her actions, Ms. Yatta continues to administer a large amount of
alcohol to each student, ensuring their drinking.

After emptying the bottle
in her hand, she looks at it and giggles, realizing her mistake. She piles the
students on her shoulders and vanishes like a gust of wind. Miss Yatta is
actually an extremely strong Hunter at level 186, despite having a slight
problem with alcohol.

Regal and the others wake
up in front of the gates, the city guard appear to guide them in as Ms. Yatta
returns to find any more lost students. Regal’s vision is blurred and his mind
is spinning as he stumbles forward.