Chapter 38 : Friendship is Magic

Emma woke up from her impromptu nap greatly refreshed; the accumulated fatigue of her haphazard return home, the events leading to her arrival at Scholomance, and even the challenges of the first floor all wiped clean by the miracle of sleep. More importantly, the Leech King's cool-down had expired during her time off, allowing Emma to begin her plan in earnest. "Come on out," Emma called her summon out immediately, the massive leech shaking the hill as he emerged; he had a key role to play in upcoming events, whilst also immediately confirming an added bonus of her System's latest upgrade. [The Leech King added to Broadcast.] An additional participant was now visible in her text log's list of names, paired with a distinctive green dot on her map signifying him as an ally. Use your acid to burrow downward, Emma issued a mental command, gratified to see The Leech King immediately obey as bubbling green secretions preceded his passage underground. Now start heading in the direction of the Water pillar, Emma amended, after The Leech King had already descended several meters, deep enough to hopefully avoid the lake forming on the surface. The tunneling wasn't exactly fast going, but that suited Emma just fine, given she had all the time in the world to complete her objective, so long as the stalemate above was maintained. Tracking her summon's progress on her map, eventually its singular green dot perfectly overlaid her destination. Stop. Emma instructed, bringing The Leech King to a halt as her attention turned toward her more temporary minions. All Air elementals, stop fueling the Fire and hover as close as you can to the pillar without being harmed. Once the Fire dies, dive down together and push the button. Earth elementals, make your way towards the Water pillar from the sides, avoid fighting where possible. As expected, Water immediately began to tilt the balance of the battle, able to advance properly upon Fire now that Earth and Air no longer interfered to make it three-on-one. It didn't take long for the waves to overwhelm the flames on the plains, before making their way up towards the hilltop. Her Air elementals hovered overhead, doing nothing that would draw the Water's ire; until the final patch of Fire was extinguished. Tendrils of Water caught well over half the host, halting their descent towards the pillar; but some were bound to make it through, as there simply wasn't enough Water present to catch them all, and Emma only really needed a single success, so the game was rigged from the start. [Fire subjugated. 100 EXP gained.] Helpfully, the lack of any Fire elementals meant Emma avoided having to deal with more incoming anima, which might have complicated matters had they caused a recurrence of before. "Those who come unprepared generally die horribly," The overseer agreed wholeheartedly. "But keep in mind, most aspirants won't set foot in Scholomance until they've had years, or even a decade of honing their art; whether as an apprentice to a Magus, or as a student at a college of magic. What you're experiencing right now is the Empire's equivalent of a University's final exam; not something most people take part in on a whim, to be certain." "When you put it like that, fair enough." Her questions exhausted, Emma put questions of academic fairness out of her mind and turned her focus toward her updated status page. [Emma Knight - Level 8 Revenant Race: Undead {LOCKED} Alignment: True Neutral Anima: 450 EXP: 1515/2000 Die by the Sword is in effect, re-calibrating skill selection! Die by the Sword overruled by Floor configuration - Enlightenment! Select one of the three choices below: 1) Trait - One with Everything: Damage reducing Anima to 0 stops at 1 instead. This effect cannot activate more than once an hour. 2) Trait - One with Nothing: 1% chance for your first blow on each enemy to apply the Status effect: Instant Death. 3) Item - One of a Kind: Obtain a random item that belonged to an aspirant who died challenging Scholomance.]