All Pathbearers should expand their horizons, try different things every day, volunteer, and experience life in someone else's shoes. You are more than your Path; you are more than your skills. Just because you're a Vanguard doesn't stop you from obtaining a Cooking skill, a Sewing skill, or even Medical skills, longer though than others bearing different Paths doing so may take.

And for those of you who think that diversifying your knowledge and spending your time learning new things will diminish your dedicated skills, I ask of you, are you truly training every single hour of the day to advance your Sword Proficiency, your Shield Proficiency, your Tactics, your Awareness? How often have you leveled in the past month?

After a certain point, the usual amount of strain isn't enough. So many bottlenecks take too long to break through. What you need, then, is something novel, something refreshing. Advancing your Path requires shocks to your mind-body connection, and it is in novelty that you nourish the mind. There is only so much you can push yourself in training before you get diminishing returns from normalcy.

This is not a scattering of your efforts, but a seeding of them. Maybe you will find yourself an enjoyer of a certain sport, and though you're not a Rider as a Shadow, you can still find satisfaction racing your fellow amateurs on the back of a griffin. And who knows, perhaps the creature's sheer speed might fill you with inspiration, give you ideas on how to develop your Reflexes.

So I tell you again, students, give yourself to the world and drink from it. Drink deep from the world's wells and find yourself enriched beyond your peers, who are too scared to step past the walls they've made for themselves.

Let yourself be surprised by the Pathbearer you will become. Don't succumb to rigidity, for the hardest things are sometimes the most brittle things as well.

-Hero-Biomancer Javelina Van Erren

227 (I)

Borrow

With the DeGraille distraction handled, Shiv moved on with the rest of his day. A great deal had happened in a few short hours, but now the System saw fit to give him a brief reprieve, and he was going to take full advantage of it.

The first stop he made was at the library. There were over twelve grand libraries on campus, and all of them had an assortment of tomes, both mundane and magical. For Shiv's first course, however, he wasn't going to get a textbook, but a cookbook, one filled with recipes, titled A Traveler's Guide to Wondrous Flavors and Wonderful Places. Functionally, it was written like a travelogue, but instead of introducing different locales across Integrated Earth, it was all about their local cuisine, or so the book claimed.

The other book he intended to check out was a magical tome called the Essentials of Meta-Anatomy and Gene Crafting. Supposedly, it was the most common Biomancy text in the Republic, but Helix described it as "Sub-Vampire drivel that gives eye cancer to the blind by way of gouging."

This motivated Shiv to obtain the book even more.

And thus, Shiv went to the Pentax Hold Library to retrieve his books. The Pentax Hold was a mobile tower that traveled across campus. It was mainly known as the place where the on-campus magi tested new and experimental spells in special containment laboratories. One could also borrow restricted texts or tomes if they had the proper permission from their instructors. Why most of the on-campus cooking materials were assigned to the Pentax Hold as well was beyond Shiv, but he suspected it had something to do with how most miscellaneous courses were listed as a sub-magic category as well.

That annoyed Shiv, and he wasn't the only one. He overheard more than a few students complaining, stating that Phoenix Academy didn't treat their dedicated field of study seriously, considering they were regarded as side notes to the greater magical lores. As with all things, the System favored strife and practical demonstrations of power. Magic, to some extent, was a bit more like engineering than poetry. Yes, there was an artistic component to it, but ultimately, your spells had an effect; they needed to serve some tangible end.

"And cooking really doesn't matter that much," a passing automaton commented.

Berserk 21 24

Phoenix Academy would never know how much strength it took Shiv to control himself.

As he went to the Pentax Hold, he found himself passing by Miriam Hall once more. The streets of the campus were flooded with students today, even this early in the morning. The sun hadn't been out for an hour, and already, a small army of pupils dressed in their robes and carrying heavy tomes was marching about. Some rushed desperately to reach their next class on time. Others gathered in congregations, debating lightly about their theories and achievements.

He found himself moving with the massive caravan headed for the Pentax Hold. He stood among countless dedicated magi, looking over the pointed hats most preferred to wear. Thankfully, most of them were so absorbed in their own affairs that they didn't even notice him, but he made a note to diversify his wardrobe at Phoenix Academy when he could. He thought hard about what Irons had said about leaving an impression. Blending in would be useful, especially with Hymn's eye on him already.

Pentax Hold was a magnificently constructed building. The body of the structure was oval-shaped and the size of a small mountain. A vast array of frescoed glass windows depicted two mages decorated the right and left of the front of Pentax Hold. The red-robed mage on the left side cast a stream of flame while his counterpart, a blue-robed mage, channeled a beam of frost at his opposite.

The clashing of their spells formed a glowing symbol over the mithril gates of the library, and there, lodged into the front of the door, was the face of what seemed to be a griffin wearing a jester's hat. Two Divination gems were socketed into its eyes, and the construct giggled at students as they came in, mocking them for their lacking wards, telling them that they needed to improve their Magical Resistance or expand their mana fields.

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Shiv eyed the strange griffin with amusement and weariness as he approached, but from above, there came a loud sound. The air shook with a thunderclap, and when Shiv looked upward, he saw two curving mithril archways wrapped around a towering spire. A beam of light shot high in the sky, and it was connected to a magma chain that led back toward Flamecrown Castle.

At this distance, he could feel the residue of overflowing mana leaking out from above. There was a distinct hue of incandescence—Divine mana pressing against his being. Shiv scoffed. The Ascendants had their fingers in all things, and they made sure to remind the entire city just who they were subject to.

As Shiv filtered himself through the front door, marching with another group of students in the line, the griffin jester regarded him and let out a loud hum. "Well, a proper mystery is among us. Finally, a non-mage. But what are you? A dedicated Biomancer? No. No, wait. I can't quite tell. Well, either you're an absolutely abysmal Pathbearer, or you're an enigma. Let's just go with the latter, just to be polite."

The jester of a griffin let out a high-pitched shriek of laughter, and a few other students briefly turned, trying to figure out who it was talking about. But after a moment's regard, they looked away from him, now uninterested. He found himself thankful he'd picked Marcus as his Perfect Semblance. Even though the boy came with his own drama, he was as unimpressive and unassuming as one could get in public, beneficial for a certain Deathless with an incomparable price on his head.

Walking into Pentex Hold was like entering a grand cavern, reminding him of some of the smaller hollows back down in the Abyss. Chandeliers swayed from above, and to Shiv's surprise, giggling fairies jumped from light to light. These were the same kind he'd seen in Veronica's office, and a few of them winked at him, as if they knew who he was. That assumption became almost certain as some of them made themselves flash brightly, much akin to what happened to him when his World Quest notification loaded, while others held up fingers in front of their lips, shushing their mischievous companions.

What the hells is up with the fae? he thought to himself. He barely knew what Cullywier's deal was, and then there are these little ones with wings. Maybe I should read up on what to expect from the Fairwoods with how my life's going. I'm probably going to have to kill some fairies at some point or something. Wonder if they have any books about that in the library.

The rest of the library in question was no less impressive. At the center of the room was a raised dais, woven with walls of magic. Manifested atop that stage was a figure composed of mithril, flowing ink, and Divination mana. This dimensional was one of the oddest that Shiv had ever seen, and it had a book for a face instead of a proper head.

Instead of speaking to it at length, students called out the books they were looking for, and the dimensional simply flicked strands of mercury-colored out from its body. The glistening streams were shaped from mithril and ink, and they undulated through the air as if serpents swimming through a river. The students followed their specific strands, heading deeper into Pentax Hold's interior.

Right now, Shiv was in the unrestricted section. That was most of the first level, which meant that every book here could be borrowed without making a special request to the library administration. It was the floors above where things got a bit tricky. After the first level, the enchantments restricting viewing the magical tomes became evident, and some even passed as dangerous weapons with the mana fields they were imbued with.

Shiv suspected that he was carrying one such book with him now. He didn't know if the Republic had knowledge of the Odes of Blood and Flesh, but he suspected that the Inquisition probably did, and he doubted that they would want the vampiric arts of flesh sculpting to be disseminated among the public.

Now, let's see how you compare to the library I went to in Weave, Shiv said to himself. As he walked by the library's book dimensional, he called out the name of his textbooks, and it obliged him by sending two strings of mercury out into the air. One curled around him, and the other sped ahead. Shiv realized he was supposed to follow the first string before the second one would activate. Huh, neat.

As he passed through several open halls, he realized he had been walking for quite a while and reached out into the air to confirm a suspicion. There was a slight grinding sensation against his Shapeless Tides, and Shiv guessed there was some kind of Dimensionality Spell active in this whole area, making it much larger on the inside.

"Really subtly cast, though," Shiv muttered. "Can barely feel it. Not bad. Not bad at all."

He thought the lobby of the library was surrounded by books, but as he got into the next section, his eyes widened. Before him was an intimidating sight. A series of statues lined the end of a mass of bookshelves, so tall they were the height of multi-story buildings. Rows of books extended behind them, and Shiv couldn't see any ladders leading up or down.

He wondered how students were to retrieve these books, but then he saw more dimensionals actively sailing through the air. These were more conventional dimensionals, elementals shaped from wind. They were carrying tomes down on gentle breezes, unlatching them from where they were wedged tight between their fellow texts.

And then there was a ceiling above. Massive constellations of stars glinted before him, and each flashing speck was imbued with a different kind of magic. Shiv followed the constellations, and he slowly realized the truth of the ingenious design on display here. The specks weren't just an artistic flourish. They also corresponded to what kind of books you might find within the shelves they loomed over.

Shiv found himself directed toward the Biomancy section. He noted how small Biomancy was compared to most others. Its space was practically a tenth of the size compared to Pyromancy. The only thing that Biomancy dwarfed was Psychomancy, and there was a good reason for that. Unlike Weave, Psychomancy was a heavily restricted and monitored art in the Republic, only trumped by Necromancy in terms of the scrutiny placed upon it, with the latter often being punished by death outright.

If anyone knew that Shiv possessed Psychomancy… Well, it would be among the least of his worries. There were a great deal of things to worry about when facing the Deathless, and your mind was likely the last thing he was going to take from you.

Shiv found his Biomancy textbook in little time at all. It was carried down by a wind elemental and deposited into his open hand. As soon as he received it, a notification popped up in his vision.

Book Borrowed: Essentials of Meta-Anatomy and Gene-Crafting

A Library Dimensional will be dispatched to retrieve the book in 4 months and 30 days if it is not returned before the allotted period.

It was around this time that Shiv realized he didn't have a bag or an obvious dimensional pocket. With his Perfect Semblance, his cape was hidden, and if he just made his textbook disappear, that might draw some unwanted attention.

Around him, most other students just chucked their borrowed books into their caps and hats

Well, that's kind of cute and clever, Shiv thought to himself. I don't know about my cape, but yeah. Wait, won't that just make the books fall out and hit them on the head? How does that work?

As he squinted at the people around him, he felt someone slam into him from behind. "O-out of the way, please," a short, red-haired girl stammered. Her pigtails whipped around as she looked over her shoulder, and she looked as if a hare fleeing from a wolf.

Shiv's instincts sharpened. He locked in on her immediately. He didn't have Adam's Awareness, but the nigh-constant combat he'd experienced the past months had given him an intuition that couldn't easily be taught. There was a flood of students moving between the bookshelves, but three among their number stood out from the others. They weren't trying to go with the flow. They weren't looking up at the wind dimensionals carrying books down. Instead, their gazes were locked straight ahead, like they were hunting something or someone.