The Archmage Coefficient (OP Archmage/ Mage Academy/ LITRPG/ Hidden Genius)

Dust particles clouded the air when Valeria opened the thick book, the cover of which landed with a dull thud. Some of it invaded Arielle’s nostrils, and she sneezed.

“Sorry,” Valeria said. “This just arrived for me yesterday from the World Library. It has gathered dust for many years prior to that, and probably hasn’t been opened for some time.”

“What is it?”

“The first edition of the Book of Forgotten Spells. It’s the recollection of one man, a scholar-mage called Festus Abernathy, who travelled the world and scoured its literature searching for examples of spells that were lost to time. It’s not a comprehensive list, and since it’s only the first edition, it doesn’t have the notes of all the other researchers that came after him. More recent editions are expensive to access, and there’s a waiting list, so I got this in the meantime. I do have some knowledge that can help us bridge the gaps, so this should be enough for us to get started.”

“Why are they called lost spells when people clearly know about them?” Arielle asked next, because even though the book was upside down for her, and the print microscopic, she could tell that each spell had a name and a short description underneath.

Valeria kept flipping the pages as she spoke. “Knowing that a spell existed and had a name is only half the battle. Even though the naming convention of most spells attaches it to a system identification, which is what makes casting more efficient by strengthening the linkage between the spell form, the spell script, and the wand, just calling out a spell name isn’t going to activate the spell. Additionally, in rare cases, some of these just have placeholder names because we don’t actually know the real names of the spells, as they were never input in the system.”

“I thought most people needed the system’s help when casting.” That was what Elric implied after all.

“Yes and no. Talented mages such as yourself can cast simple spells without having them in your grimoire. Complex spells are much harder to cast without it, but a couple of mages have managed, albeit in rare cases. For the Vaelors, many of their spells were created during the early advent of the system and are tied to their bloodline; hence, they likely didn’t see any point to adding it in, as they had been trained to cast without. That adds more difficulty for us because a spell name can tell us something about how the spell operates beyond visual cues. So an inaccurate name means that we might be working in a completely different direction just based on what the spell appears to do, not really how it was crafted.”

“Where do the placeholder names come from?”

“From tales and epics typically. Whoever rediscovers the spell first assigns a name they think fits. Most of the placeholders were given by Festus Abernathy, who was a historian, before he decided to focus on spells. He was trying to piece together what he called The True History of The World, and the Forgotten Spells Project became an extension of that. There are a few people who were alive during the time of the Vaelors; two of our legendaries, and of course, our High Ascendant. But that’s not enough, and so Festus examined ancient legends as a way for us to connect to the past and ensure that those spells don’t remain lost. Ah, here we are.” She finally stopped flipping and used one slender, manicured finger to trace across the page. “These are a list of the Vaelor's forgotten spells. This spell is called [Abyssal Titan]. It essentially reshapes the abyss into a creature of chaos that is used in large-scale battles.”

“So cool.”

“Yes, it was a popular spell for the Vaelors to use, especially during their war against the Dracos. However, we don’t know exactly how the spell is created. Abyssal spells are varied, but they are always Vacu-heavy, and not only is Vacu a difficult essence to use, but it’s also difficult to predict. The addition of possible Vitae to mix makes it even harder. Dozens of researchers have tried to recreate this exact spell with such disastrous consequences that it’s very close to being on the list of forbidden spells, which then prevents anyone else from attempting it, for their own good.”

She circled the book around to Arielle, who also began scrolling down the list of spells.

“What’s the [Dark Shift]?” she asked.

“That’s another mysterious spell with a placeholder name. It’s said to be a spell that appropriates the darkness in every creature and uses that to control them. The Li’s have something similar, but it works a little differently. For example, I believe Gio Li has a skill that turns people’s ‘sins’ into monstrous manifestations that he uses to haunt them.”

“That’s incredible.” And disturbing.

“Yes, but I don’t imagine his victims see it the same way,” she said. “Abyssal spells utilize a lot of chaos, which is another thing that makes them so hard to create and balance. The Lis are able to do it with the exceptional insight offered by their Luxa-dominance. For everyone else, abyssal spells are very difficult to research, which is why it can only be pursued via authorization by the International Research Commission."

“Do we have authorization?”

“No. But don’t worry. I’ll get one.” She raised an eyebrow. “Thanks to you, I officially have an invitation to the Iverson ball, which makes authorization pretty easy.”

Arielle nodded, her eyes dropping to the book once more. She was excited to see what other spells she could research.

“Can I write some of this down?” she asked.

“Of course. You can borrow the whole book.” There was a knock on her door, and Valeria called out for them to wait, as she slid a shiny silver bookmark between the pages. “Later, I can show you some of my ideas and discuss a few things that other researchers have noted about the abyssal spells. One of the debates underscoring this research is what exactly an abyss is. Is it a physical concept, with regards to negative space, or is it a magical concept referring to dark arcane arts? Or is it both? Do you have a trial tomorrow?”

Ari shook her head.

“Good. Then come see me sometime in the afternoon.”

“Alright,” Arielle said just as the door opened, and Professor Llywyd walked in.

She paused when she saw Arielle there, even as Valeria closed the book firmly and slid it over.

“What are you working on?” Llywyd asked, her eyes switching between them.

“Nothing much,” Professor Valeria said. “We were just discussing a spell Arielle was having some difficulty with.

“I didn’t know such a thing existed,” Llywyd said.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Valeria said smoothly as Arielle stood. She clutched the book to her chest and bowed out of respect to Valeria.

Then, she tried to leave, but Llywyd was in front of the door

Her sharp gaze made Arielle stiffen, as she recalled that the woman was supposed to be looking into her heritage.

“Are you prepared for your core stabilization trials?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” was all the professor said as she stepped aside.

Arielle moved past her and out the door.

Once she was back in her room, she sat at her desk and flipped back to the page Valeria had bookmarked. She began to read the spells that were contained therein.

[Dark Summon] True Name

According to the Legend of the Fall of Tanagra, Augustus Vaelor utilized this spell to send creatures of the dark swarming over the Tanagran Capital. It was reported to have triggered the first-ever rift that had demons swarming into Earth. Ever since then, the frequency of rifts has increased annually, the demons clearly learning from our error.

[Abyssal Parasite] Assumed Name

The origins and the reaction mechanism of this spell remain an enigma. We understand that it was cast as a poison to wipe out the second son of Maximus Vaelor and his entire nuclear family. His brother, Septimus, was indicted, but history never proved his guilt for certain. The disease had no cure and no other markers apart from a blackening of the skin and organs in slow, leprotic increments. The infected raved about the end as it came for them. They went mad.

Speaking of madness, there was also a spell to induce it. And pestilence. And famine. A lot of the abyssal spells seemed malevolent by design, with severe, subtractive consequences. Arielle wondered how the Vaelors had fallen with all these curses in their arsenal.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on NovelFire. Report any occurrences.

As she read more, she began to formulate a theory in her mind.

She had a feeling that there were different representations of the abyss. She got this from pondering Valeria’s statement about how researchers couldn’t agree on what an abyss was, whether it was physical or magical. It might be both. Perhaps it was just that the word ‘abyss’ simply referred to a convergence of chaos, usually symbolized by a given isotope of Vacu that might be more chaotic and counteractive than the rest.

The different combinations of that isotope in addition to others, could be what gave the spells their unique abyssal properties. So it could be a curse. Or a monster. It simply had to be something that went against something else.

Technically, a portal was an abyssal structure too, which might be what linked the Elf Prince’s summoning portal to her presence in the Drift’s abyss at the temple. Portals temporarily weakened the barriers between worlds enough for people to pass through.

So perhaps by studying portals she could discover and explore the different representations of the abyss.

She took out her notebook and drafted the structure that she had seen from Telip’s portal, including the signature at the very end. It was a convergence of Vacu isotopes that represented chaos that linked their world to another.

He had tried to balance it with the runes on the walls, but it had not been enough, and then the portal had taken on a life of its own, growing into a thing that wanted to consume its owner.

That must be what Valeria had meant when she warned of the unpredictability of chaos.

Arielle was pretty sure she could recreate the spell Telip used and tweak it for her study, but there were two problems: one, she wasn’t sure she could stabilize it, and didn’t know enough about runemaking to comfortably predict stabilizing spells, and two, making a portal would undoubtedly earn her a hidden ability marker.

She pursed her lips. The ideal person to ask for help would be Telip, but she didn’t think he was conscious enough to even answer her. Not to mention she hadn’t had the chance to give him an apology yet.

She wished she could somehow go back in time and watch the Vaelors using their spell. But that wasn’t a possibility for her either.

She stewed on it until Lyra came back to the room, giving her a curious look.

“It’s dinner time,” she said.

“Oh.” Arielle wasn’t hungry even though she hadn’t eaten breakfast. There had been food at Vittoria’s home, but she didn’t have much appetite for it, as she preferred her breakfast to follow her typical routine and she would need time to adjust to a new one.

She had learned to be more flexible with other meals, but for breakfast it had to be the stuffed duck with oats and berries that she’d come to enjoy on campus. Vittoria did not have that, so Arielle had not eaten.

She couldn’t skip dinner after skipping breakfast. That would be unwise

As she put the book aside, Lyra watched her carefully.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

Arielle nodded. “Yes.”

“You’ve been strange today. Well, stranger than normal.” She added the last part with a smile that signified that it was meant to be a joke.

Arielle shrugged. “I’m just thinking about too many problems right now. I will be back to normal when I’m done solving them.”

“Do you want to talk about them?”

“Not particularly.”

"Do you want to talk about your cousin?" she added tentatively.

"No," Arielle said firmly. She didn't want to even think about Elric being hurt anymore, especially now that he was better. Better her brain remain busy than traumatized by such thoughts and the possibility that she may not have gotten the cure in time. That she may have been killed by a demon too.

No. No thinking about that.

“Anything I can help with?” she asked.

“No.”

Lyra pursed her lips, and a disturbance ruffled her expression. “If one of the problems is about me and my cores, then you should stop thinking about it. I’ve made my peace with it.”

Arielle shook her head. Lyra shouldn’t have to make her peace with something that she’d never been given a choice of. Arielle was determined to fix that for her.

She suspected that Lyra’s condition had been triggered by either a powerful oath or a blood covenant. The first step was to figure out if there was something in her blood or her body that reflected that.

Ari stood and turned to Lyra with a suddenness that startled the other girl. “If I asked for your blood, would you give it to me?”

It took Lyra nearly thirty seconds to respond. She spent that time staring at Arielle, her face forming a myriad of expressions before finally landing on confusion. “H...how much do you want?”

“Maybe a little. Maybe a lot. It would depend on my needs.”

“I see.” Lyra swallowed and took a step back, her gaze flickering towards the open window with only bare traces of light pouring in. “Did you suddenly develop a craving for human blood overnight? Are you bothered by sunlight? How do you feel about garlic and holy water?”

Arielle blinked, wondering about the context of the questions.

Lyra clarified. “Were you bitten by a dhampyr?”

“No,” Arielle said. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Because you just asked me for my blood.”

“Yes. I need it for my experiments. I think that your aunt’s curse might be linked to your blood, and if I can study it, maybe I can find a way to break it.”

“Oh.” Lyra coughed out a laugh. “That makes more sense. But only barely. You’re really going to study my blood?”

“Yes.”

Lyra sighed. “I swear every day you just get stranger and stranger.”

Arielle nodded, but when there was no further response, she clarified, “Is that supposed to be a yes or no?”

Lyra’s lip twitched. “Yes, Arielle, you can have some of my blood. But not right now. I’m starving. Do you want to have dinner with just the two of us?”

“Yes, please.” Arielle felt relieved that at least it would be quiet.

And it was. Lyra let her have her silence as they ate, although she routinely asked if Arielle was alright. Arielle would nod distractedly as she ate methodically, her mind still filled with roaming thoughts.

That was until a shadow was cast over her.

She glanced up. “Telip.”

He didn’t look much worse for the wear. Maybe a little pale but not terrible, like someone who had been unconscious and nearly sucked into a portal mere hours ago.

“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat and rubbing his hand on the back of his hair. “Can I talk to you?”

“To me?” Ari pointed at herself to clarify because it was unusual for Telip to approach her of his own volition.

“Yes.”

Ari glanced at Lyra, who also shrugged as though unsure of what was happening.

“Okay.” Ari abandoned her half-eaten meal and rose.

She felt eyes on them, and the scent of roasted meat carried them out as Telip led her to the same spot they had spoken at last time. Arielle thought this might be the perfect time to hand in her apology.

She was nervous but opened her mouth to say, “I’m sorry,” at the same time that he said the words, “Thank you.”

Both phrases clashed in the air between them, and it took a second for her to decipher his.

“For what?” she asked.

“I’m told that you’re the only reason I’m alive right now,” he said. “If you had not come in there, I would have been lost forever.” His gaze turned haunted. “I don’t even know what fate I would have met. Being stuck in the abyss is probably something worse than death, so I truly appreciate your intervention."

“It wasn’t just me,” Ari said.

“Yes, but Selena told me that you ran in there and told everyone I was in trouble, and that’s the only reason they found me in time.”

“Yes,” Arielle said. That was an accurate retelling of events.

“How did you know I was in trouble, by the way?”

Ari did not have a good answer to this question, so she shrugged. “I had a feeling.”

“A feeling?”

“Yes.”

She thought Telip might prod her further, but he simply said, “You told people I called on you to help me with my project.”

Drat. Another lie. “Well, technically, Selena said it first. I agreed because I thought that was the only way they would let me into the room.”

“I corroborated your lie,” he said. “But we’re not really allowed to invite first years to final evaluations.”

“I see,” she said. So why had Selena suggested as much? Sarcasm?

“Anyway,” he said. “Thank you again. If you still want my help studying runes, I would be happy to assist.”

How fortuitous. She grinned and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I would.” She recalled the pending apology. “I’m sorry I lied about you making those charms for me, by the way.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m over it. And this time, your lie saved my life.” He gave her a small smile. “Just don’t do it again, and we can go back to our old meeting times.”

“Yes, I won’t.” Arielle felt exceedingly grateful that things had worked out this way. She had been anxious about how to make this apology and how to not ruin it, and now, all because she’d happened to save his life, she’d gotten off easily.

Too easily.

In fact, something about this felt a little too convenient.

“What happened by the way?” she asked. “How did the portal get so big?”

Telip sighed, his cheeks reddening. “I’m not even sure myself. My memory of events is a little foggy, and it’s not a mistake I would make typically. In fact, I’m not sure it’s a mistake I made at all. As far as I know, I had created a mini portal just to check my transverse anchors. Next thing I know I’m waking up in the infirmary, and they’re telling me it ballooned out of control.”

“You didn’t create the portal?”

“Yes and no. I did not create a true, usable portal, only a facsimile for a simple anchor check while I waited for Professor Flintwick to get back. I do that all the time, and it’s one of the safer portal structures. That has never happened before.”

Hmmm.

Arielle thought back to the spell and its formation and the curious attachment at the end.

Maybe the signature she’d seen wasn’t Telip’s after all.

Maybe it was someone else’s.

She recalled the attack of the Deskstriders months ago, and the strange signature at the end of that spell too. She also recalled the presence she had felt at the mouth of the cave the first time she had visited the shardlings.

She then thought about the boy stuck in the abyss.

“This portal you’ve worked hard to create,” she asked. “Is that because of your mentor’s disappearance? Plutarch?”

His eyes widened. “How did you–?”

“Arielle,” a random person called out, coming down the stairs. “The Dean is looking for you.”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!