Ambient Mage

And so the 286 of us followed the vice dean for a campus tour.

"Step onto the flight platform, do not push or squeeze."

And we took off into the sky.

"These are the dorms. The Estelle hall is for the highest graded students."

"Following that there is the Medez hall for the average student."

"And finally there is the Terran hall, for you underachievers."

It was like watching the opening cutscene all over again.

"For the first night you will have to find your own lodging, which should be okay since all of you are mostly nobles."

"Those without a home in the capital or aren't nobles are free to lodge anywhere in the academy city."

"You are also able to home should you want to. Keep in mind you must be here by 7am tomorrow."

"Dismissed."

That was a lot. I mean I knew the academy and it's town forwards and backwards, but I guess there's a difference from the game to reality.

We stepped off the platform and I left to find Aura.

"The city is so cool"

"I know, I'll take you around once school starts."

"And how would you manage that?"

I pulled out a brochure.

"This."

"Gimme." It was times like these she would return to her normal self.

"Aura," I whispered.

She straightened up, and started to act like a noble publicly again.

"Do you wish to head home your highness?"

"Yes, I would very much like to."

I escorted her back to her carriage before catching my own.

We left for the duchy's mansion in the capital.

It was massive. Not the duchy's capital massive, but it was still an amazing structure.

In the game coming here had 2 backgrounds, the outside and inside. 

They did not do justice to reality.

I stopped thinking, otherwise I felt I would be struck by lightning.

It was a dark blue with white and red accents. Truly a regal castle.

However the inside was different, and I knew why.

Originally the inside is almost completely red with wood and granite accents.

But naturally our resident princess came here so often to meet the royal sisters that the servants started to take her feelings into account.

The duke also allowed her to start changing the interior as she saw fit. She asked if purple and black with gold accents were okay.

Of course he couldn't say no. The servants also served her fanatically. Possibly because she visited them the most. I know there was an Aura fanclub here.

I asked once to join a meeting, and they rejected me at the door. I wondered why, and decided to sneak in. I found Lucy inside with the leaders.

I literally felt shivers up my spine. automatically began.

I left immediately. Whatever that fanclub is, it has a 6th circle mage protecting it.

"Come on Luke."

Aura pulled me along.

We entered the mansion and I still would never get used to seeing the grand hall as the entrance.

"Luke show me!" She held out her hands, demanding the brochure.

Why not? I couldn't' refuse the look in her eyes.

She rushed off to her room. The brochure is folded so it's small, but the fully expanded side is massive.

The backside contains a map of the city, meant for tourists, not students, and the front has all sorts of things. No doubt Aura will be busy with it for at least a few hours.

I walked into my room and began pinpointing any more hidden pieces in the academy.

I already had the 'Black crown', but I did want a better mana conduit, a better wandsword.

Fortunately, the weapon choosing ceremony is in a few days anyways.

Alright lets count. The Terran 1st year dorm has the exp booster, but it's almost useless since I'm an intermediate knight, and a boundary mage, nearly a conceptual mage.

The treasury has the most artifacts, so I should try to get myself awarded chances into the treasury.

The forest in the rear of the academy has two hidden pieces aside from all the normal goodies, in a secret society of Treants, and a wandering spirit.

The reason they're hidden isn't because they aren't ecountered normally in game, it's because they have secret powers and items they will bestow upon you in the right conditions.

In game you could only get one unless you completed the 'Forest War' quest which allowed you to get two items, although they were of less value.

The main hall has the spear of Longinus, the Dean's spear. Pulling it out means it recognizes you as a partial master, and it earns you the right to study under him.

The auction in the second year brings some cool limited items.

And I believe the rest are inside of events that take place.

That about wraps it up for hidden items and powers, but what about hidden places? 

I called for a gate squad to teleport me into the academy city.

"We are unable to due to the barrier."

I forgot. I may be placed in the Terran dorm like this.

"I apologize, I meant could you teleport me to the academy city gates?"

"Yes sir"

"Knight Captain Lucas portal away in ..3 ...2 ...1"

And that's how I ended up back in the city.

As for hidden places, I needed the blacksmith first.

Before that though lets go exchange my gold for some academy currency.

Credits. Little ballot looking papers that functioned as the academy's money.

I walked to the exchange counter.

"5 gold"

"That will be 50 credits"

"Thank you"

"Are you ready for the incoming class?"

Oh she thinks I'm a student already.

Well that makes sense, we haven't been introduced to anything here yet.

"Something like that."

"Mysterious are we? Ok then have a great afternoon."

"You too."

She was nice. Actually I knew her in game too. She ran lots of stuff in game, like stores, markets, and the like. A popular streamer took to calling her Sally and it stuck in the community around him so much Nyx introduced her daughter in the Sequel as you guessed it. Sally. She should be around 9 right now.

Man I forget these games are super long. 'Total Brake' was a game that you spent a few hundred hours through in your first play through. 

Sarah her mother, was someone you met quite often in game however. Whether it was in normal play or through the secret mode.

The academy city has a secret town builder mode that activates when you raise enough structures, or rebuild them, and have enough renown.

I say secret, but it really wasn't it was known to all players, and some played 'Total Brake' for the town building and academy elements.

The reason it was secret was because it wasn't intended to be a mainstay in the game, and Nyx Studios never told anyone about it.

They told us that some people were meant to find it and gain an advantage through their playthrough, but it wasn't meant to be a rite of passage in the game.

They considered patching it out.

However in the end they decided to actually publish a better UI for the building system.

And that's exactly why I'm at the blacksmiths first. Any products made by your 'assets'

are considered goods, which increase renown, and add to the 'Built structures' bar if even barely.

'The Forged Barrel' the blacksmith shop run by a gnome. Not a dwarf. Calling him a dwarf will upset him. 

The dude is decently chill, but he has 3 kinds of moods aside from work and chill mode.

They are: drunk out of his mind, angry at something failing, or someone calling him a dwarf, and oddly enough, mischievous old man.

Gnomes in the game, are more than blacksmiths in game and actually use magic. They cast illusions, and often have spirit contracts. 

Dwarves also blacksmith, and enchant with magic and runes, but only gnomes spirit enchant, and make odds and ends.

No self respecting dwarf would ever make a flaming flail. But you could absolutely convince a gnome to make one. RIP the annihilator, you will be missed in the 'Total Brake' community.

Nyx studios removed the ability to ask a gnome for a flaming three set flail, since it caused to much surrounding and self damage.

Enough standing outside, lets get in.

Like always the store is tatters when you walk in the first time. Courtesy of the owners illusion spell.

The pattern to the workshop is left left up right up right up left left up right right.

This had to be entered while you where in a text box about how there's so much fog, and how dilapidated the building was.

"Ohh. Interesting you managed past my barrier. I would ask if you stumbled through it somehow, but your movements were too secure."

"So tell me, young one, why are you here?"

"I need something made."

"I see, and what would that be?"

"An egg cradle."

"For your little companion?"

"Companion? Yes. Little? Absolutely not."

I handed him a replica egg for him to mold it around.

"Wow large and hefty."

"What kind of beast lives in here? A dragon?" He laughed.

I smiled wryly. If only he knew.

"Here are the materials. Twin flame gauntlets, and a foreseeing eye."

"Interesting materials. So what's your name young one?"

"Atidorus Macrihal."

"I wasn't aware you spoke our language, but that doesn't answer my question."

He narrowed his eyes.

"I'm Lucas, friend to nearly every race, except for demons, and a some others."

That was a complete lie. I had learned a little gnomish from the game, and most words weren't hard to pronounce. A simple greeting like that was possible, but I really needed to get into the academy's library to comprehend the language.

"Okay then friend. Tell me what you want me to make with these."

"I need the cradle to withstand at least 1500kg."

"Wow it feels like you're really serious about this."

"It's why the replica egg weighs so much."

"So why 1500?"

"I'm not certain if the egg's done growing."

"You don't say."

"The eye is so that I can see the inside of the egg."

"But why would you need an artifact like this?"

"On top of that I can tell this has been purified by the Church of the Night, so it must've been a cursed item."

"The eggshell has a powerful mana barrier since the beasts mother is quite the strong monster."

"You talking destructive class?"

"No, Catastrophe, borderline Calamity class."

He looked at me again and I could feel him reevaluating me.

For reference the monster classes ascend like so:

First is the docile class

Any domesticable monster or regular pet monsters are here.

The begins the danger category.

Creatures that can prey on babies if they're sleeping or cause simple harm to children.

After that the emergency category lies.

Creatures that can lay lethal injuries or kill children and harm, maim, and kill adults are put here.

This is split up into three groups as most monsters fall into this category.

After that lies the Destructive category.

The monsters here are no longer classified by damage to beings but landscapes.

The mature forms of these monsters can level entire towns and villages if angered or cornered.

After that the Catastrophe class monsters reign.

These monster level cities and fortresses like pancakes, and often take years to decades hunt.

The second to last class is the Calamity class.

Many of these monsters are mythical and legendary in nature, they behave like natural nation wide disasters. More than a few empires have disappeared off the face of this continent because of such creatures.

And the last class: Apocalyptic.

Only 3 monsters exist here.

1. The Titans, colossal creatures that come in many different forms

2. Eldritch beings.

Last but not least, Dragons, masters of mana, and beings on par with the plane of existence.

Naturally the game has a guidebook for this. It's like an index for monsters.

Oh and Fiadh happens to be one of the only ones with special art for their entry when discovered.

Reference over back to my conversation with the gnome.

"So what's the creature, gonna tell me?"

"I'll tell you if you explain a few things and give me your name."

He stared at me for a little bit. Rude in human customs, but for gnomes, who are really closer to earth spirits with tangible bodies, than humans, it's fine.

Besides, I knew his name already.

"Okay what do you want to know?"

"I just want to learn the basics of illusion magic, how to identify the type and resist it. Oh and also your name."

"I can do that, and my name is Arfelow."

So he lied. Interesting. Well that's fixable.

"Intraus vulnera Makarov".

Or in the human tongue, 'Do not lie to me Makarov'.

"Hahaha, you young ones sure are vigorous. You remind me of my friend."

The elf king.

"So who told you my name?"

"That very friend."