<Notice; Now entering [Telchine’s Garden]>


    The group emerged from the portal into a shallow pool, just a few inches deeper than the pond they had just entered from. On both sides of the pool, steep inclines of rocky crags climbed up into the foggy sky above. Draped across the rocks were fountains of beautiful white flowers, each glowing with just the barest trace of light. In front of the group, a narrow corridor of water stretched further than the eye could see, wedged between the rocky walls. A few paces forward, the sandy bottom of the grotto dropped down into inky darkness.


    “Who is Telchine?” Sapphire asked.


    “Not who, what. Telchine is the name the system calls the inhabitants of this dungeon. If we go by my grandfather’s notes, we won’t be encountering any of them for… a while.” Gio said.


    Jean rummaged through his pouch. Everyone had paused to watch the spectacle, as he was sticking his whole arm into the small object, fishing around for something.


    “Do you… need any…” Sapphire began to say.


    “NO! I’ve got it... Just… hold on…” Jean mumbled.


    He withdrew his hand, holding a balled fist aloft in celebration.


    “AHA!” Jean yelled.


    Everyone looked at him curiously. Jean held out a small stone marble of some sort. He let it roll out of his palm. A long wooden boat sprung up in a splash out of the shallow water, drenching everyone present.


    “Instant boat.” Jean proudly said, wiping off his face.


    Chandrika sighed, quickly passing out what looked to be thin, wispy sheets of fabric.


    “These are desiccating shrouds, courtesy of Weaving Club. They are spelled to keep us dry. I figured since there’s a lot of water in this dungeon, it might be nice to keep dry feet.” Chandrika said.


    “Dang, that makes the desiccating powder I brought kinda redundant.” Sapphire pouted.


    “We could line the bottom of the boat with the powder, probably. You guys went overboard. I was just planning on aspecting a bunch of fire mana and circulating it.” Gio casually said.


    The other four party members whipped their heads around to look at Gio.


    “Explain,” Chandrika demanded.


    Gio responded by generating and concentrating a bunch of fire mana into his hand, and making it move in a circular motion. After a few seconds, heat waves began to emanate from his palm.


    “I didn’t know that he could do that. Did you know that he could do that?” Sapphire asked, gawking at Gio.


    Hatra put her hands on her hips and laughed.


    “See? I told you that learning all those weird exercises was abnormal. Nobody spends a thousand hours learning how to be a human hairdryer when spells exist.” She cackled.


    “It’s not that complicated. I bet all of you could do it if you tried.” Gio rebuffed.


    “Manual mana shaping is notoriously challenging… which is why there are skills for it, and why it is used as a training tool. The Ring Guard even uses it sparingly, as it can lead to burnout faster than something like, say… physical exercise. I’ve sat in on a few classes with my uncles… it is not easy, Gio.” Jean said.


    Chandrika held up her palm. Everyone looked at her expectantly.


    “Yeah, this isn’t happening. I can aspect the fire mana in my core, but then localizing a foreign mana aspect to my hand… is difficult. And then, you’re supposed to amass enough of it to generate heat, but not enough to burn yourself. And then you have to circulate it only in the palm of your hand… “ Chandrika huffed.


    Hatra held up a single finger, producing a mote of colorful green and violet fire.


    “Or… you just use a spell or something. I got a bundle of simple survival spells as part of my first class advancement,” she said, a mixture of playful and smug.


    Gio pursed his lips in mock outrage.


    “Well, it''s nice that the system gives you all sorts of goodies. As for me, I’ll stick with my free yet vastly over-complicated hair-drying magic.” Gio uttered.


    One by one, the group donned Chandrika’s enchanted shrouds and boarded the boat. The lightweight shrouds were enchanted to circulate dry air around their wearer. As they boarded the boat, Jean produced a thin paddle from a side compartment and began to row the boat like a gondola. Each of them settled in, as they slowly began to drift out past the drop-off, where the bottom of the canal was no longer visible, even through clear water.


    “Out of curiosity, how much time did you spend learning mana shaping like that?” Sapphire asked, turning around to face Gio who had begun to rummage through his bag for his notebook.


    “I mean… it’s hard to say. I was lucky enough to have found a teacher willing to spend his free time teaching me. He let me come to some of the after-school sports programs and bug him for lessons between his other responsibilities.” Gio said.


    “So… all together?” Sapphire pressed.


    “After school, most weekends, and vacations since I was twelve, and I’m eighteen now… so … five and a half, maybe six years?” Gio replied.


    Silence hung in the air for a moment as everyone absorbed the reality of what Gio had let slip.


    “He’s always been like this. It’s always been difficult to slack off when you have a ridiculous workhorse of a cousin. You know that I’m a few months older than him?” Hatra laughed.


    “I-I mean it’s not that crazy. I’ve just always wanted to be a mage, and I grew to enjoy the shaping exercises. And you know, Mister Guzheng was right! I have benefitted from the training.” Gio proclaimed.


    “Did you know that you do the full-body mana circulation technique as a nervous tic?” Chandrika asked.


    Gio looked at her, scandalized.


    “H-how would you even-” Gio stammered.


    “[Mana Sense]” Chandrika answered.


    “I have that skill too… I can’t detect fluctuations in other people’s mana.” Gio said.


    “It takes a lot of practice. In any case, I was forced to learn that technique by my mother and father. It took me a very long time, and I had very… prestigious tutors. Your full-body circulation tic was actually one of the first things I noticed about you when we met.” Chandrika said.


    Gio’s features flushed in embarrassment. He looked over to the side of the canal, running his fingers along the white flowers as they lazily passed by.


    “I find it calming. Full-body circulation is one of those techniques where I can kind of zone out. It makes me zoom out of whatever is causing my anxiety and forces me to focus on my headspace, my breathing, my body, and my magic.” Gio explained.


    “Hmmm…”


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    Chandrika closed her eyes. Hatra and Sapphire had branched off into a side conversation, and Jean was focused on steering the boat. Gio allowed the young sage a moment of quiet for whatever she was focused on.


    Chandrika’s eyes snapped open, and she scrunched her face into a half smile, half frown.


    “I should be used to it by now… but my mother really is always right.” She said.


    “About what?” Gio asked.


    “I tried it. You said that full circulation calms you down… and one of the biggest issues I’m having with [Great Sage] right now is that I get very frustrated. It worked. I can feel the pull of whatever is hidden in this dungeon.” Chandrika replied.


    “Oh! That’s great! Why would you be upset about that?” Gio asked.


    “Because… Mom was right about yet another thing. Having a mother who is simultaneously a politician and a powerful diviner can be challenging. If you’ve ever felt like your mother had eyes on the back of her head…” Chandrika trailed off.


    Gio thought of all the times his mother uncannily picked up on the smallest of details. Although he was never much of a troublemaker, there are certain times in a young man’s life when he doesn’t necessarily want to share every detail of his day-to-day life with his parents. Divina deGloria was, at least to Gio’s sensibilities, as close a thing he knew to omniscient when it came to figuring out exactly how Gio planned to do something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.


    “Moms can be challenging,” Hatra said, reinserting herself into the conversation.


    Gio grimaced. Although Aunt Dola and Hatra loved each other very much, their relationship was strenuous on good days, and incendiary on bad ones.


    “When my dad left us, I think my mom kind of… broke a little. My mom… it’s like she thinks that if she was a better wife, he wouldn’t have needed to pursue a better job somewhere underground. She’s got some crazy standards for herself… and me. I think she’s equal parts proud of me for getting the job that I have now, and terrified because she knows it isn’t exactly safe.” Hatra said.


    “I’m sorry if this is an insensitive thing to ask, but where did your dad go?” Chandrika asked.


    “The last card he sent me said that he was currently working alongside the construction agencies planning cross-ring transport. He’s all over the underground, but I think he has an apartment in the Bauxite Ring.” Hatra said.


    Sapphire’s ears perked up.


    “That’s where my dad was from!” Sapphire said.


    “Oh? I didn’t think that there was a lot of people from the underground rings.” Hatra replied.


    “There totally isn’t! That’s why I got excited to hear you say that your dad lives there. I think my parents may have taken me when I was too young to remember anything, but I havent been since they passed… My grandparents still have a lot of business endeavors there, though. If you don’t mind me asking, What company does your dad work for?” Sapphire said.


    Hatra rubbed the back of her shaved head.


    “I honestly don’t remember. I try not to think too much about my father.” She said.


    “Oh, I’m sorry…” Sapphire apologized.


    “Oh, no no! It’s not a big deal or anything. I’ve long since gotten over my bitterness at the whole thing. I don’t have much in common with him, and I get the impression that he’s not particularly interested in me. I don’t mean to be such a vibe-killer… that’s why I try not to talk about him as much.” Hatra shrugged.


    “It’s all good. I understand what it’s like. It’s the same reason I don’t talk about my family a whole lot.” Sapphire replied.


    “We’re all sharing, so if you’d like to talk about it, please do. There are no vibes to kill here.” Chandrika said, warmly placing a hand on Sapphire’s arm.


    Sapphire nodded.


    “...My parents died when I was too young to even really remember what they looked like outside of picture frames… and I’ve been essentially coddled for my whole life because of it. My grandparents are better than anything I could have ever asked for, but they kind of… never held me to any standards, if that makes any sense? It was like I was given a lifetime pass to do absolutely nothing ever again, and because they are rich, I think they just assumed that I’d follow suit and abandon any and all ambition.” Sapphire muttered.


    “But they still support you going to CRA?” Gio asked.


    Sapphire reached out and plucked a single white bud from one of the numerous [Freshwater Asphodel] plants lining the canal. She held it in her hand, casting a small spell to make it bloom.


    “They don’t really say no to me. I think my grandmother regretted pushing my mother so hard to learn the family trade, and so now that she’s gone and I am all that remains of her, I am the golden child. So… I chose to go to CRA. I chose [True Alchemist] because it excites me… but plants are something that makes me feel close to my family. The Crystal Ring, to me, represents a way to both feel connected to the mother I never got to know, as well as to make something of myself.” She finished.


    Sapphire allowed the flower to fall from her hand and into the water. Gio turned around, watching as the single flower floated further and further away.


    Gio thought for a moment.


    “Jean, Can I try something? I want to attempt to use my grandfather’s spell.” Gio said.


    Jean looked back from his perch at the front of the boat.


    “Sure, what does it do?” He asked.


    “I think… he might have used it to steer his boat? It’s called [Flow].” Gio said.


    “Sure, I don’t see a problem with you trying it out. Just don’t sink us.” Jean replied.


    Everyone giggled. Gio flipped to the back of his spellbook, where the restored copy of Francisco Benicio Cromwell’s spell sat mostly untouched. Gio had experimented with the water-shaping spell a few times, but it wasn’t nearly as versatile or useful as something like [Hydrokinesis] or [Shape Water], both spells that Gio couldn’t afford.


    Gio cast the spell. As the cool sensation of water mana flowing through his channels began to take hold of him, he envisioned the man from his father’s old family photos navigating this dungeon. He closed his eyes. He felt a tenuous connection to the water underneath the boat. He felt the way the boat seemed to cut through the water and the way that Jean’s oar pushed them along.


    Gio pushed his hand out in front of him, and tilted it to the side, allowing it to cut through the air in a smooth, gliding motion.


    “Whoa,” Jean said.


    Gio opened his eyes, feeling a slight bit of breeze on his face. The flowers alongside the canal rushed by, as the boat surged forth in a smooth motion.


    “Nice spell! I was a bit surprised at the speed increase, but it was so smooth!” Jean replied.


    Gio repeated the same motion, intuitively guiding the boat through the calm waters of the canal.


    “I can probably take over guiding the boat for a while. This is kind of fun.” Gio said.


    “Sounds good to me. We can probably row the boat in shifts, that way nobody gets too tired.” Jean said.


    After a round of nods, Gio resumed casting the spell, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his face.