The Chimera Summoner – Ch 15 (part 1) – tilting at windmills

Ch 15–

We did not, in fact, all kiss. Much to Lucy’s disappointment. And mine.

Foremost in Lorna’s rebuttal--she was insubstantial.

She’d used a skill to let me kiss her hand, and couldn't maintain it for more than a few seconds.

Though, that would change as we Leveled, she assured.

For now though, we could pass through her cold body like passing through freezing mist.

She instead chose to use the last minutes before class to furnish herself with a thorough understanding of our respective powers, as well as our recent experiences.

She got me to use [Chimera assimilation] on her immediately upon learning of it.

[Spectral Waltz]: take to the ethereal and dash incorporeally for a single step.

I stared at the new skill. Sharing it with the others.

“Ah. The opposite of my materialization Skill.” Nodded Lorna. “A pleasing symmetry.”

“Yours lets you become temporarily solid?” I asked.

“Indeed.” Said Lorna, gliding serenely through Lucy, who shivered and giggled.

“You’re cold.” She said, holding herself. I noticed her sensitive nipples standing at attention under her thin workout shirt and smiled. She’d definitely be having fun with that, if Lorna could be convinced.

“I am a frost specter.” Lorna said. “I will be a fine complement to Lucy’s speed, providing slows and control. Though, in the short term, you would certainly have benefitted more from a damage oriented Familiar.”

“I’m not worried about the short term.” I shook my head. “You’re an epic win, any way you slice it.”

Lorna inclined her head and seemed pleased.

“My skill lets me touch.” She went on.

She laid a hand on my cheek. The tenderness and intimacy of the touch caught me off guard and I almost flinched.

“Yours.” She said, as her skill faded and she passed coldly through me. “Lets you evade.”

I activated the skill, timed it wrong, and sank my foot into the ground.

It rebounded painfully when the skill ended with me still in the solid ground, and with enough force that it might’ve bruised my ankle.

“A challenging skill.” Lorna observed.

“But it’ll be so useful once you get it!!” Said Lucy enthusiastically. “Imagine the look on people’s faces when their attacks just pass through you!!”

I grinned, rubbing my foot.

It was an intoxicating image.

“How long can you upkeep us both?” Lorna inquired.

I tried to gauge the strain they were taking on me.

Even with the ring boosting my Mind attribute a little, I could feel my tattoos drinking up my supply by the second.

“If I don't do anything else...forever. But if I start using other Skills, I'ma run out of mana fast. I'm BARELY regenerating, with you both slurping up my .....I mean. Uhhh. Uhhhhh!” My eyes went wide as I tried to sound more dignified. "Paying both your upkeeps... Is... Big... Mana."

"Mmmmmm slurp." Lucy purred, dreamily.

I gently stepped on her foot.

Lorna nodded, unconcerned. “Enough for us to attend you. But fights will necessitate dismissal, to recover.”

I nodded. "Probably."

“Please dismiss me, for the time being. You must be low from my initial summoning cost.” She said.

I looked up in surprise.

“I have much to consider.” She explained. “And you have a class to attend, do you not?”

I glanced at my watch and balked. I had to dash.

I dismissed Lorna, and ran with Lucy for class.

I raced through the halls with Lucy loping along easily at my side, red sneakers flashing.

Helpful upperclassmen directed me at regular intervals, collectively shepherding me to an on-time arrival to my first class. Evidently, they were well used to new students being lost, and took it upon themselves to get us to classes on time.

Lucy definitely drew some stares. She was not only a breathtakingly beautiful woman, but also obviously not human. She jabbered excitedly to me about Lorna as she trotted along, all but oblivious to the turning heads following her wherever she went.

Turning heads and dropping jaws, I noted. She really was a stunner.

I wasn’t used to drawing attention. But it did make me feel kind of proud of her. Proud to be her person. And just a little smug that she’d chosen me.

Barely on time. But on time, damn it!

I dismissed Lucy with a peck on the cheek and crashed into a desk by Jennie, welcoming the rush of mana that started refilling my reserves MUCH faster, like water after a run.

“Took your time.” She observed, wide eyed.

I grinned.

Grace Valant strode through the door, slamming it crisply behind her, and took a stand behind a slender lectern.

She wore a trim grey suit and a navy blue neck tie.

Her beautiful, gigantic broadsword tucked under her arm in its sheath. Evidently, it was too big for a standard hip sling. She propped it against the lectern in a well practiced motion.

Her grey hair was in a loose bun that left her deep facial scars quite visible.

There might’ve been some curious muttering if it was someone else.

The room fell silent and everyone turned in their seats and directed their attention at Grace.

She studied us each one by one. When she got to me, I had the intense impression of being scanned.

“This is combatives one. I am your professor, Grace Valant. Have you selected a Class moniker?”

I froze. We all froze. Panicked glances shot around the classroom. Were we supposed to…?

“Greenbeans.” Answered a girl who I thought I recognized as part of the well equipped team that had fought Brawly as ratboss, right after Jennie and I.

The athletic, blonde amazonian goddess answered with such confidence that I found myself nodding along with most of the rest of us.

I suspected that, like me, they just didn’t want to get in trouble for not doing something we were evidently supposed to have done.

“Holy shit, that’s Hera Edel.” Jennie muttered.

“Who…?” I asked.

Jennie glared, rolled her eyes, made a little flapping gesture with both hands, and then looked at me like that explained it and I was a fool for not knowing in the first place.

I gave her a thumbs up.

Grace blinked slowly, “Your reasoning?”

“Greenbeans grow highest together.” Hera answered, like she’d been waiting her whole life. “That’s us. We grow together, and we go high as fuck, ma’am.”

Grace regarded the beaming girl for a full ten seconds. Like she was suspicious she was being pranked. But there didn’t appear to be a single disingenuous bone in this girl Hera’s whole body.

And wow… what a bod–

Nope. Class time. Focus up, Eir.

I closed my mouth.

“Greenbeans it is. I will teach you the rudiments of forging your Class Skills into a functional martial discipline. Master this craft and you will delve deeper than your raw power could ever take you. Flounder, and you will perish on a routine dive. Let us begin.”

I felt like I couldn’t move. Like any twitch might bring that deadly glare back onto myself.

There were a couple of desperately contained coughs. A few anxious shifts of chairs that ended instantly.

“Please prepare to take notes.” Said Valant, at last.

She then launched into a lecture on the most common Dungeon room types of the first few floors, and the options that the most typical party compositions would have to navigate them.

Her philosophy seemed to be extraordinarily cautious. To a fault, I thought. The only strategies she advocated were unbelievably likely to be successful, but also cumbersome and slow.

Running was an extremely normal option for her. Scouting was highly emphasized. And breaking up monster groups by aggro-ing only part of them, or assassinating key monsters prior to engagement at all.

Fighting fair was always her last resort.

“Wayfinders are on an endurance race.” Said Valant. “It doesn’t matter who’s gotten deepest by the end of the year. Nor who has the highest level. What matters is this. Who is still Wayfinding in ten years. In a hundred. You can outstrip more talented classmates by simply continuing. Very few have the patience and discipline to dive the Dungeon in a sustainable way. Be the smart one. Delve safely.”

I took copious notes. This kind of technical breakdown of dungeoneering was exactly what I wanted.

Valant’s combat insights, and general knowledge of the Dungeon were beyond formidable.

What I had tried to glean from my dive logbooks, Valant now provided on a platter.

I spared a hurried glance around the room, a huge grin on my face.

Jennie’s face was resting on her hand, pen held limply on a single page of wildly incoherent notes.

A strand of hair fell across her dull eyes. She didn’t react.

All over the classroom, similar expressions of catatonia and boredom were plastered on every other face.

I couldn’t believe it.

I searched the classroom for a hidden signal or joke I was missing.

This was…! This was it?!

I could barely scribble fast enough, desperate to take it all in, and capture it better.

I wanted to summon my Familiars, to get more minds on it. Lorna seemed like a deep mind, and Lucy was a great fighter. If it wouldn’t have been disruptive and unsustainable mana-wise, I’d have done it.

I cursed my mana limitations for the thousandth time that day.

Valant lectured for exactly forty minutes of solid gold.

She came to a close right at the forty minute mark, to the second. She looked at the clock for the first time and nodded in approval.

“And now the practical section of class. Follow me.” She drew her massive sword and cut one of the blue portals I had seen her use before, and strode through it.