Alyssa's Adventures Pt. 01

"Congratulations, you saved the world"

Those words echoed in her mind, like a dream, such words would normally be of praise, for the heroes of old and tall tales, legends worth remembering, yet all she felt was a cold shiver, like she avoided something horrifying.

-

"Lindaaa, get up, we're gonna be late" said Alyssa, getting dressed while having a quick breakfast.

"Ugh...coming" responded Linda, sleepy as ever.

Alyssa smiled, since being close friends ever since they met in their first year of college, she got used to Linda's sleep schedule. Gathering her backpack, filled with notes, books, and a variety of other, more specialized tools, she sets off to her classes, hoping Linda will get dressed in time. Passing through the crowded halls of Saint Michael's College of Magic and Alchemy, she went to her first class, runecraft. She entered the classroom and went to her seat, hoping to pass the time, as it was her least favorite class. She didn't hate it, it was just not interesting to her to learn, as alchemy was her strong suit, besides, she didn't have a high mana level to begin with to actually get any use from it.

The bell rang, indicating the start of class, students went to their seats as the professor walked in, Mr. Lombard, or Wilfred as he is often called, a dwarve with hazelnut hair, with a thick well kept beard, and green robes with yellow highlights, he was the master runesmith and teacher in the college, he took pride in his work, so he had those who actually focused sit in the front, and those who slacked off, or didn't try as hard, were placed in the back. Alyssa looked over from the back of the class, getting a blue notebook and quill ready.

"Alright" Wilfred stated, his voice echoing across the room. "We've already discussed elemental runes, and how they can react with each other, as well as the difference of runes and enchantments."

Despite his overpowering voice, Alyssa was already finding herself uninterested with the lecture already. Opening her notebook, it revealed vast amounts of formulas, mixtures, and ingredients, and she began writing new experiments for later, sometimes doodling pictures for her ingredients.

-

Linda got up from bed, heading to her closet, she gathered one of many standard uniforms of the college. She discarded her nightwear and began getting dressed, she heard the door of their shared dorm room close, signaling to her that Alyssa left for class, good thing she didn't need to worry about travel. Finishing her uniform, she looked at herself in the mirror, her short black hair had a yellow ribbon on the side, her boots and stocking, showing the standard blue with purple swirls, her blue skirt with yellow trimming, and her vest and coat of similar color and style hid most of her features, she might have better curves than her roommate, but that didn't meant she likes showing off. Getting her school supplies ready, she grabbed her spell book and began flipping through it. Being a conjurer, it allowed her to create and summon a variety of things, from making magical creatures fight for her, to summoning weapons, and most importantly, traveling in an instant.

Finding the recall spell, she cast it to herself, and an aura of purple surrounded her, before vanishing.

In the class of conjuration, Mr. Alfonse entered the room, an elf who is 412 years old, he is a little slow, but is often one of a few teachers who are actively letting students practice certain spells that they might not be ready for, he always makes sure that if anything were to go wrong, he would step in and take care of it. He looked across the class and saw one student missing, hopefully she gets here before the bell rings, only for him to suddenly be greeted by a flash of purple light.

"Good to you here early this time, Linda," Alfonse said kindly, before moving to his desk.

"Thanks, I think I'm getting a hang of thi-" Linda began before being interrupted by the great bell in the tower, signaling the start of class.

As everyone sat down, bringing out wands, staves, spellbooks, chalk sticks, and talismans, Alfonse began his lesson.

"Okay, today we will be summoning something, a lesser demon to be specific" the professor said " we'll be using a summoning circle, mainly for safety reasons, as we don't want any accidents to occur."

Linda began flipping the pages of her spellbook, turning to her creature summons section, she found the lesser demon.

Summon: lesser demon

Summoning level:4

Creature type: demon

Abilities: flight, fire magic, hellfire manipulation, poison claws

Resistances: fire, ice, earth, poison, dark

Weaknesses: water, holy, light, wind

Creature description: lesser demons, similar to imps, are low in the ranks of the hellish realms, often serving greater demons, or demon lords, the lesser demon is the skirmishers of the armies of hell.

Being part of Alfonse's class was the best decision Linda has made, he never made conjuration boring, he didn't repeat what the books that they've already read, he didn't discourage using spells that they weren't exactly ready for, nor did he restrict the use of Magic items, he wanted to make sure that what they were learning was useful, as some of these very students may rely on them to save their lives.

"Okay class, who wants to do the summoning?" Asked Alfonse, as several hands immediately shot up. He looked through the crowd before selecting, "Derek, come on up."

Derek, an orc standing at 6'1 with toned muscles, short brown hair, with flowing yellow robes, and glasses pushed up his nose, walked to the front of the class, spellbook ready.

"Remember, as long as the magic circle isn't disturbed by any outside force, it will mostly contain the summon." Explained Alfonse "and if you miscast banishment, the summon will get more aggressive."

"Yes sir" replied Derek, his gruff voice, although more fitting for a brute, still had the same calmness as his professor. Taking his position close to the circle, he began the spell, conjuring forth the demon to it. A bright flash of light filled the room, fire spewed from the summoning circle, but the barrier held firm, and what stood atop the circle was a creature, it's skin a fiery red, horns poked out from its head, with black wings and talons, the demon floated in place, staring at the class, as if it wondered how it got here. Derek soon had a concentrated face on him, ensuring that the lesser demon was bound to his will.

"Good, good, well done Derek" said Alfonse, slowly keeping his hand close to his staff, just in case. "Now, try to banish it." The demon hissed at him as if it knew what he ment.

Derek, now changing his poster, began to cast banishment, his spellbook, as if blown by the wind, switched to the appropriate page. Suddenly an aura surrounded the demon and began to pull it back to the realms of hell. The demon now being sent back snarled at the class.

"Excellent, just wonderful, '' exclaimed Alfonse, the class cheering on Derek at the successful summoning he had performed. Linda, now writing in her notes, began to flip through other creatures to summon.

"Now, who wants to go next?"

"I do, I do!" said a green haired, blue scaled merfolk, raising her webbed hand as high as she could.

"Okay, Celeste, what do you plan on summoning today?" Asked Alfonse

"A water elemental!" Celeste exclaimed, grabbing a jade amulet and heading in front of the class.

Linda, once again, began to flip through her spellbook

Summon: water elemental

Summoning level: 4

Creature type: elemental

Abilities: water manipulation, water body, water magic, water absorption

Resistances: water, poison, fire, gravity, lighting

Weaknesses:ice, earth, wind, explosive, dark

Creature description: water elementals are one of many types of elementals, they take the form of water and can expand in size the more they absorb of their preferred element, they also reside in the magical plane of water

Looking towards the front of the class, Linda saw Celeste stand in front of the circle, her amulet began to glow with a green aura as tattoos, previously unseen, revealed themselves all over her body, Celeste then pulled a flute made of ivory, and blew a few notes through it, the circle began to split, as water spilled out, and then the water elemental stood before them, it's body swirling with water, it towered over the short merfolk conjurer.

"Well done Celeste" Alfonse, once again, congratulated his student on a successful summoning, "now try and do the same as Derek, and try to banish it."

"Yes sir" responded Celeste, raising the instrument to her mouth and began to play a different tune.

The water elemental shuddered, then it began to expand, before being blocked by the barrier, Celeste looked up at the elemental nervously, before repeating the tune, the elemental began to get more aggressive as it felt Celeste falter, and cracks began to form on the barrier. The students continued to view the display happening before them, Celeste began to play a new, longer tune from her flute, the amulet and her tattoos glowing with the same green light. Alfonse gripped his staff tightly, waiting to see if his student can banish it in time, the class soon began mumbling amongst themselves at what they were seeing. Then, as the cracks grew, water began to leak through the barrier, at that exact moment, Celeste stopped playing her flute and looked at the elemental that now stood three times her size, the class gripped their magical equipment, as if ready to fight it, and Alfonse raised his staff towards the water elemental.

"Okay, that's enough!" Shouted alfonse, his staff shot an arc of Magic at the summoned elemental, and a similar aura engulfed the water elemental, pulling it back to its elemental plane of water. Alfonse looked towards Celeste, she nervously poked her index fingers together, he let out a soft sigh.

"You need to work on your banishment spell, but at least you managed to bind it to your will, so there's that." He said, trying to reassure her.

Linda looked towards the circle with interest, stuff like this, while dangerous, is what made this class her favorite, you'll never know what might happen. Turning the pages in her spellbook, she selected her summon as Celeste returned to her seat, a lesser earth spirit seemed nice.

Summon: lesser earth spirit

Summoning level: 3

Creature type: spirit

Abilities:earth manipulation, earth magic, stone body

Resistances: lighting, light, dark, earth, nature

Weaknesses: water, explosive, crystal, fire

Creature description: an earth spirit is a creature formed in the elemental plane of stone, though not as powerful as elementals, they are far more adaptable and can change its body to take different shapes, like animals.

-

The great bell rang once again, signaling the end of first period, and the start of second period, awakening Alyssa from her nap. Wiping a bit of drool off of her face, she gathered her stuff, and began to head off to druidcraft.

"Don't forget about tomorrow's test, it's important for your grade" Wilfred shouted to the leaving students.

Alyssa began to walk down the hall, hoping not to get distracted along the way.

"Hey, Alyssa, hey" turning around, she saw the person that was calling out to her, the blonde catboy, Chris. "Have you got the alchemy formula for the final made for me yet?" He asked, reaching in her bag, she pulled out a green flask.

"Yeah, I got it, remember to mix it with the blue one not the purple one, also do you have that runecraft project for me as well?" She responded.

"Yup, it's right here" he said, handing over an item concealed in cloth. They traded items, said their thanks, and went their separate ways.

Exiting the main hallway, she went outside, heading to the nearby grove, the sun still up high, with a gentle warm breeze, a stone path led the way through an arch, leading to an open field where a few students were already waiting. Druidcraft, she only took this class to help her identify certain ingredients, and how to best cultivate them, but there was still useful stuff to learn from this class, such as different animals and natural events to look out for.

"Is Mrs. Rayleigh running late again?" Alyssa asked a nearby student sitting in the grass, a young man named Luis, he had hazelnut hair, blue eyes, and light skin.

"Think so, I heard she was discussing something with the dean about a field trip." He responded.

-

Linda, having to walk to her next class, would be a bit peeved if it wasn't for the fact that it was quite calming, Mr. Daniel was her oneiromancy teacher, it helps since she often had deja vu when she thought she did this exact thing but it turned out to previously be a dream, some dreams she would forget and wonder if such information would have been useful, then again, her previous dream was about flying, so not all of them were future prophecies or events.

After the long and arduous trek of walking to the second floor, she entered a room with one desk at the corner, a harp at the front of the class, and several floor mats placed in rows across the floor. Mr. Daniel was sitting criss-cross on one of the mats, with 19 other students sitting on the others, leaving Linda with the one in front of the professor.

"Ah, welcome Linda" Daniel said softly "just sit and get comfortable, we'll begin soon"

Taking her seat, she set her items beside her, ready to see what dreams she will foresee today. Calming herself she steadied her breathing, focusing on her mind.

"Let us begin" said Daniel and as he snapped his fingers, a pair of gloves levitated towards the harp and began to play a soft melody.

She began to see colors swirl across her darkened vision, time began to be a faint memory, as she peered into her mind. She saw a stone field come into view and it soon manifested into ruins, odd... she couldn't put her finger on which ruins they were? She soon saw several shadowy figures, two she recognized as Alyssa and their councilor, Ms. Lauren, but the others were unknown to her.

"Congratulations...."

A cold and familiar shiver ran through her spine, who said that? Panicked, she searched across the area, but strangely saw no one.

"You saved..."

She began looking everywhere, passing mountains and islands, searching for the owner of that voice. Placing her hands on her head, trying to focus, she .... She noticed something, her left hand was covered in strange markings, looking at it, dark magic was clearly imbued in them, but why would she-

"THE WORLD..."

Her mind reeled from several other visions, moving too fast for her to identify, her marked hand now had an eye on top of it, a dark haze soon covered the sky, and as she looked across the land, black chains pierced the earth and sky. She starts feeling lightheaded, her chest getting heavier and heavier each time she breathed before finally exclaiming

"What the..."

"LINDA!!!" Daniel shouted, shaking her out of the visions, she still felt dazed by what she just saw.

Looking across the room, she realized she was surrounded by everyone. They all had worried looks on their faces.

"What happened?" She asked, almost breathless

"You started hyperventilating, and you got very cold and pale, are you alright?" Daniel asked

"Did she have a nightmare?" One student questioned

"Nightmares don't cause such reactions unless they are phobias" clarified Daniel

Hearing that answer didn't really soothe Linda, she wasn't scared of what was happening, but it was clearly intense.

"You should probably head to the infirmary" said Daniel "we've still got half of class to get through and you clearly aren't okay right now."

Linda silently agreed, gathering her stuff, she exited the class, and was immediately faced with two campus supervisors, dressed in dark blue robes, thick boots and gloves and Grey masks to obscure their faces.

"We've heard the commotion, is everyone alright?" One asked

"Yeah, she just needs to head to the infirmary, could you escort her there please." Responded Daniel.

As Linda left with the two supervisors, the students whispered to themselves about what just happened.

-

As Alyssa waited with the rest of the class, sitting on the open field, flanked by the main building to her left and the grove to her right, a great eagle was seem soaring above the sky, it's wings easily 3 meters in width and covered in brown feathers it descended towards them. As it landed nearby, the force of which caused many papers to fly up into the sky, and the eagle's form began to change shape, feathers receding into hair, the great wings soon formed into a brown cloak, and a humanoid figure stood before the class.

"Sorry for being late everyone" Mrs. Rayleigh chirped "had to discuss some important stuff, anyways, who's here right now?"

Several students grumbled to each other, Alyssa could have sworn she saw silver pieces being exchanged. Everyone soon got up and made a circle, while Mrs. Rayleigh counted heads.

"Okay, looks like everyone's here, let's get started" Rayleigh said in a cheerful tone.

The class then entered the grove, the ground was surrounded by tree roots, shrubs, and grass, with flowers scattered around.

"Now, I know many of you have simply taken this class for a variety of reasons, but you have no idea how kind it is of you to listen to me rambling on my love for nature." Said Rayleigh, undisturbed by the fact she walked barefoot.

Alyssa continued to follow Rayleigh through the grove, hoping to find some interesting ingredients to use in her mixers, probably some dryad leaves, or living wood

-

"Ms. Pearl, Linda is feeling unwell." Said the supervisor as the trio entered the infirmary.

"Oh dear, what happened to you?" said a tall oni, she had silver hair and pink skin, with red eyes, and a single horn protruding from her forehead, cloaked in yellow and white robes with pink highlights.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, come lay down here."

Linda was guided to a spare bed, laying on its soft surface, the two supervisors took their leave, leaving Linda alone with the oni. Looking around, she realized she was pretty much alone, all the other beds were unoccupied. Ms. Pearl returned with a towel and bottles.

"Here, lay this towel on your head, it'll help calm you down." She said as she placed the bottles on a nearby desk. "Now, can you tell me what happened, in order to give me a better idea on how to treat it."

"Well, I was at oneiromancy, and we were doing our usual routine, I looked into my dreams and..."

"Aaand." Ms. Pearl asked

"I saw Alyssa... and Ms. Lauren was there too... There were big long chains, like they were holding down the sky... I heard someone's voice, he was saying something to me."

"Do... you remember what he said?"

Linda shivered at the thought, Ms. Pearl, seeing her reaction, decided not to push the topic further.

"You are clearly stressed, and I think I have just the right treatment for it." Ms. Pearl said cheerfully

"What did you have in mind?" Linda asked

"A good old massage, nothing helps relieve more stress than that." She responded, picking up a bottle of massaging cream. "Don't worry about privacy here, it's just us two for now."

Linda slowly and reluctantly removed her cloak and shirts, leaving her with her undergarments, she then layer on her stomach as Ms. Pearl applied the cream on her hands.

"Just lay still and let me do all the work, okay." Ms. Pearl said, her hands rubbing up and down Linda's back, despite it just getting started, she can already feel herself calming down and relaxing, the oni's large soft hands rolled across her back, slowly easing out the stress within it.

-

Alyssa looked at her scavenger list, having already gotten half of the items on it, she just needed a fire stone, a yellow thistle, a southern maple tree leaf, and a pine hawk feather. While some of these weren't alchemical ingredients, it was still fun wandering around the grove, it reminded her of the happy moments in her life.