"So how am I supposed to learn magic anyway?" Lina inquired as she followed Eruk through the hallways of the PIE underground place. "Does it take many long years of scanning books and training to learn?"
"Well, in the old days it did," Eruk commented as he opened a door and walking into the room.
What was that suppose to mean?
Lina followed him into a room that was completely bare of anything in it except for a chair that was located in the center. There was a lamp in the ceiling above it shining down on the chair giving it an unearthly presence. That was also enhanced by the fact it resembled a chair from the dentist, instruments included.
"Now if you would take a seat," Eruk offered as he gestured to the chair.
"Is this safe?" Lina asked looking suspiciously at the chair.
"Don't worry, it is perfectly safe." Eruk assured her as Lina sighed as she sat down in the chair. "That's not counting the 'incident' last week, but let's not taking about that messy business."
"What?" Lina cried, but before she could sit up clamps came down on her arms and legs pinning her to the chair.
"Just something to keep you from struggling too much." Eruk muttered as he put on a pair of surgical gloves. "As for the 'incident' I was talking about, a fellow rookie had an unfortunate malfunction with the interface terminal. But I assure you the chance of that happening again is the same chance of a coin landing on its head."
"That's a 50% chance!" Lina screamed struggling against the restraint.
"Guess it is," Eruk muttered scratching his beard in thought, "but don't worry. At the worse scenario, you'd become a vegetable."
"That's not reassuring," Lina hissed between the teeth as Eruk held up a weird looking helmet. "What the heck is that?" Lina inquired as Eruk plugged several wires into the sockets in the back of the helm.
"This?" Eruk asked holding the helmet up as Lina nodded. "Just a VR simulation training program that'll teach you everything you need to know in under four minutes or your brain is fried."
"Wait a moment - " Lina protested before Eruk placed the helmet over her head.
In a bright flash of light, Lina felt a surge of energy pass her by as she found herself standing on the top of a mountain overlooking a cloud-filled valley. A flock of birds flew over her as they streaked off into the distance. The sounds of some rocks being kicked aside as Lina saw a strangely dressed man in robes walking up the path toward her.
"Quite a view?" he smiled as he came up to her. Sitting down on a nearby rock, he sighed, "Well that was certainly a long jog. Guess I'm not as I used to be."
"Who are you?" Lina inquired as the guy ignored her.
"Beautiful isn't it?" he remarked looking at the view. "Despite all of the times that I've seen it, the view never ceases to take my breath away."
"I asked you a question?" Lina interrupted getting annoyed at the stranger.
"You're an extremely bright girl, but you've got to learn to admire the view sometimes." He lectured as Lina started to seethe with rage. "Aqua Create," he gestured a column of water materialized underneath Lina and drenched her solid.
"What?" Lina muttered soaked to the bone. "That was magic wasn't it?" she said grabbing the guy by the collar and shaking him.
"Correct," he stated as he brushed her hands off and dusted himself off, "I am Lei Magnus and I'm the teaching protocol program for this simulation. So, now are you ready to learn?"
"Yes," Lina said.
A moment passed by them.
The two stood there for a moment as a mountain goat trotted up by them before it went away after nibbling on some grass.
More moments passed as the two stood there.
Clearing his throat a bit, Lei continued, "Well first off, what do you want to learn?"
Lina blinked at him.
"Novice," Lei muttered scratching his head in silent. "Okay then, we got several category to chose from, but I'll give you the two principal schools that I excel at teaching. The first is Shaman, which involves the power drawn from the spirits that reside in the five principal elements. They are fire, water, earth, air, and spirit/astral."
"Strange, I thought most people think the fifth one was metal?" Lina interrupted.
"Who is me here? You? I don't think so," Lei snapped before he continued. "The other one is Black Magic, which is drawn from dark emotions and on a higher level, actually is fueled by the power of really powerful demons. Currently hosts some of the most destructive and powerful spells we have to date now."
"Hmm," Lina thought as she scratched her chin in thought. "Well, I don't want to be too greedy so teach me all you know about black and shaman."
Lei hit the ground.
"How does that make you less greedy?" he inquired as he popped back up.
"Easy, if I was greedy then I would have asked to learn all of your magic," Lina replied as Lei sweatdropped.
"Well in that context I guess you're right," he muttered scratching his chin, before he sighed. "Since you want to be my student, then you'll first have to pass the test."
"What test?" Lina asked not liking how Lei was looking at her.
"Do you happen to know what some male lions do to their cubs?" Lei inquired.
"No..." Lina muttered before she found herself being lifted off her feet. "What are you doing?"
"They throw them off a cliff to see if they can climb back up to see how strong they are," Lei stated before he chucked Lina off the mountain.
"Lei, you bastard!" Lina swore as she went falling through the clouds.
Watching all of this from the monitor room, Eruk shook his head as he saw the simulation Lei hurl Lina off the cliff. It wasn't surprising of course, that program was notorious for doing stunts like that to ensure it teaches only the best candidates. Eruk didn't even turn his head as Zel came walking up behind looking at the monitor.
"It pulled the Lion Test?" Zel inquired as Eruk nodded. "Well despite the bugs it has in the beginning, it is the best teaching program we have."
"Are you sure she can survive it? The human mind can only process so much, before it snaps," Eruk complained looking at the monitor. "And you must recall that not even you managed to be accepted by the program."
Zel pulled out one of his wire hair and looked at it. "It doesn't matter about me. She'll make it through, I know it."
"There she goes up the mountain," Eruk muttered watching the battered Lina scale the mountain. "You'd better be right about this, we're taking a big risk with it. The MiB have no mercy."
Crushing the piece of hair in his hand as he dropped it to the ground, Zel stated, "The MiB is the least of our worries."
Eruk merely watched Lina on the monitor as Zel walked out of the room closing the door behind him. He stood there silently as he closed his eyes in thought about what he had just said before he opened them and walked on.
I'll get you for what you did eleven years ago. Dark Star.
Part 6 | Fanfiction