The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Larek whipped his head around, the unexpected voice of someone so close to him causing him to twitch briefly in surprise. He immediately found the source of his shock, an older man with a completely bald head and a long white beard that pooled in his lap, sitting in what appeared to be a specialized Fusion alcove that was located next to the entrance. It was slightly larger than the others and had a few bigger, even more comfortable pillows in a throne-like arrangement.

As he looked closer at the older man, he realized that there was a slight blue-ish tint to his pale skin, marking him as not originally being from the Kingdom. He was also dressed in a thin, almost threadbare, dark red robe of a different style than the one he was wearing but it looked extremely comfortable. A glance at the older man’s face showed a hint of a dreamy smile, as if he had just woken up from a pleasant sleep.

“I, uh, believe so,” Larek muttered, trying to keep his voice low so as not to disturb anyone. “This is Advanced Fusions 1?”

“That is correct,” the man confirmed. “I wasn’t aware of any new students; are you transferring from Intermediate Fusions 2with Fusionist Lurka?”

“No, I’m actually a new transfer from Crystalview Academy. I just arrived yesterday, so this is my first day here.” Realizing he hadn’t introduced himself, he added, “I’m Larek. It’s an honor to meet you.” Not that he had any idea who the man was, but he appeared old enough that he probably deserved respect; the fact that he was a Fusionist that was teaching Advanced Fusions meant even more to Larek.

This is someone who can teach me how the really complicated Fusions work, he thought.

“Crystalview? I wasn’t aware… oh, well, it doesn’t matter. Welcome to Advanced Fusions 1. If you weren’t already aware, I’m Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai.” He waved at the other students with a lazy hand. “We were about to start today’s class, but since you’re just now starting at Copperleaf, I’ll have to evaluate you to determine your knowledge base. If you would, take a seat at one of the empty privacy alcoves and I’ll call you for the evaluation once I start the other students on their projects.”

With a nod, Larek moved over to an empty “privacy alcove”, sitting right next to a young woman with very short brown hair, probably no more than an inch in length; she had all the features of citizen of the Kingdom, but her hair was different from most of the other Mages he’d seen at either Academy thus far. He seemed to remember that some of the Martials had it cut that short, but not any Mages.

She blinked a few times as he sat down cross-legged nearby, but her face didn’t change into any identifiable expression before she turned away and looked toward Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai. It was actually refreshing to not have a reaction of any kind from her, mainly because he was fairly certain she wasn’t a Noble. In fact, looking around, he didn’t feel as if any of the students in the class – the visible ones, at least – were Nobles.

There was another minute of silence before Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai stood up slowly out of his pillow throne and moved toward the center of the room. He looked at each student other than Larek and addressed them in the same soft voice he had used with him. Fortunately, it was quiet enough inside the room that everyone was able to hear him despite the low volume he used.

“For today’s class, I want you to continue your practice creating the 8-by-8 grid formation with the Effects we were focused on last week,” he instructed them. “Remember, this is practice only; do not feed your Mana into your formations at this time.”

Each student nodded and immediately got up from where they were sitting before moving directly behind and into the privacy alcoves. Once they were inside, they pulled the door/wall closed to shut themselves in, and for the first time Larek realized that there was a Fusion on the door and inner walls. They were far enough away from him that he couldn’t see them clearly, but he was fairly certain that they were 3-by-3 formation grids.

Even looking at one of those Fusions will help me out.

Larek was tempted to get up and look at the Fusion on the walls in the alcove behind him, but he saw Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai looking at him. With a beckoning gesture, his instructor bade Larek to follow him to his special alcove again; once he arrived, another wave of his hand directed the former Logger to sit on top of a pillow located a half-dozen feet in front of the “throne”.

“Now,” the old man started, “tell me a little about yourself. Larek, was it? Are you a fifth-year?”

“You are correct; it is Larek, Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai.”

“There is no need for honorifics here, Larek. You can just call me Shinpai; everyone else does.”

“Shinpai, then.” It felt a little disrespectful for Larek to call the old and obviously wise Grandmaster Fusionist by only his name, but he wasn’t going to argue. “I’m not a fifth-year student; I’m only a first-year.”

For the first time, there was real emotion on the older man’s face as he heard that. Gone was the dreamy-like quality to his personality; intense focus quickly replaced it, and all of that focus was fully on Larek. “A first-year? How is that possible?”

“I, uh—”

Shinpai’s focus moved from Larek’s face to other parts of his body, as he looked exactly at the areas where the armlet and anklets were located. Even though they were hidden by his robe, that didn’t seem to prevent the old man from seeing them.

“Where did you get those Fusions? Based on the amount of ambient Mana being absorbed, those are Magnitude… 8? No,” he shook his head, “Magnitude 9. What are they?”

Rather than explain yet, Larek hesitated only a second before he took the Pneuma Boost +9 armlet off his arm and reached forward to hand it to the Grandmaster Fusionist sitting across from him. The hesitation was solely from his desire for secrecy, but he immediately realized that if he wasn’t as honest as he could be – up to a point, as there wasn’t necessarily a need to go into his Martial stats – then he wouldn’t likely be able to get the help and learning he needed.

His instructor took it from his hand with intense curiosity on his face. Larek watched as Shinpai’s face contorted into a myriad of different expressions as he stared at the wooden armlet, only a few of which he identified: confusion, incredulousness, and anger. The latter fortunately didn’t last long, as it was replaced by something else Larek couldn’t identify.

“What—?” The Grandmaster Fusionist cleared his throat. “Where did you get this? I don’t recognize the Grandmaster who created it. Even I would have difficulty focusing long enough for something like this; it’s not impossible, but concentrating for over 3 days would test my patience.”

Concentrating for 4 days? That’s a long time. Though, if I remember correctly, my Fusion said that this would take 160 hours; if that’s the case, then as a Grandmaster, he’s able to cut that time in half.

It was a significant reduction in the Fusion Time, but it couldn’t compare to what it took Larek. He still didn’t know why his ability to create Fusions was so different from everyone else, just like he didn’t know why his stats were the way they were.

“I created them.”

“What? Now that would be impossible,” the old man said, shaking his head. “The solidity of the grid formation is something that I haven’t seen before; there is no way a student came up with something like this.”

“It’s true, whether or not you believe me. I can show you an example of my work right now if you have something I can use?” Larek honestly didn’t blame his instructor for not believing that he had created the Fusion on the armlet; based on what he’d learned about Fusionists since he’d gone to an Academy, Fusions like the ones he created were basically impossible.

“We don’t have hours to wait for you to create a Fusion.”

He shook his head. “Not necessary. I just need a few minutes.”

“A few minutes? What game are you playing here?”

“No game. I’m telling the truth.”

Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai stared at Larek for nearly a minute while the former Logger did his best to keep from squirming under his instructor’s gaze. Finally, the old man reached out to his side and picked something up from underneath a pillow, which was a flat, thin, stone square approximately 5 inches wide. He handed it to Larek, who had to stretch to reach it, but it wasn’t that difficult.

“Make me a Pattern Recognition Skill Boost Fusion, then.”

Larek would’ve loved to have done that, but he was unfortunately unable to. “I’m sorry, I only know how to create 2-by-2 Fusions,” he replied disappointingly, shaking his head. From what he remembered reading, Skill boosts of any kind would require a larger grid formation.

Shinpai scoffed, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Then what are you doing in Advanced Fusions 1? You wouldn’t even qualify for Intermediate Fusions 1 with knowledge of only 2-by-2 grid formations. Do you even have a specialization?”

“I do. I’m a Fusionist.”

Even though he hadn’t practiced it much, Larek was able to display a portion of his Status to his instructor, which included his name, his Fusionist specialization, and even his Level.

“I see. And you’re only a first-year? Were you taught anything before you joined the Academy? Crystalview, if I remember correctly.”

He shook his head. “No, no training. I was a Logger until a few months ago.”

“A Logger? Then how is it that you’ve been able to achieve Level 12 as a first-year?”

Larek shrugged. He didn’t really have an explanation for his rapid advancement.

Shinpai looked at him for a few seconds, before sighing. “Well, this better not be a waste of time. If you’ve been messing with me, I’m keeping this,” he said, lifting Larek’s wooden armlet with the Pneuma Boost Fusion on it, “as punishment.”

While it would be disappointing to have to create another armlet, it wasn’t that much of a hardship. Besides, he wasn’t wasting his instructor’s time or messing with him, so he didn’t worry too much about it.

“Create whatever Fusion you want, then. I’ll judge you based on what you can actually do.”

Larek nodded and thought about what he wanted to create. He didn’t want to create a Healing Surge Fusion, despite it being able to show off his abilities, mainly because he wasn’t sure if his former Dean had passed on knowledge of Larek’s relationship to the Fusion to Copperleaf Academy; if so, then he didn’t want to get in trouble because of that on his first full day of classes.

Therefore, he decided on something simple and related to the object he held in his lap.

Blocking out any distractions – which was easy, considering his current whereabouts – Larek used his Pattern Cohesion to form his grid formation, quickly inserting the Activation Method, Effect, Magnitude, and Mana Cost into their respective places. After triple-checking that all of his lines and containment barriers were perfectly aligned, he started funneling his Mana into the formation. A gasp from Shinpai was mentally acknowledged and subsequently ignored, as he focused all his concentration on what he wanted the Fusion to be.

No more than 10 minutes later, he felt the last of the Mana the formation needed disseminate through the pattern, finishing it off with a *click* as it settled in place. He looked up from his lap to see Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai staring at him with wide eyes.

“Boy, what the heck are you doing?!” he whisper-shouted. “You’re going to break your formation by pumping in so much Mana all at once!”

Larek understood where his instructor was coming from, but he’d made enough Fusions by that point to know that was next to impossible. His formations were solid enough that they could absorb just about any amount of Mana without deteriorating catastrophically; only if he were to lose focus during the creation process would he have some issues with formation stability.

Shaking his head, he said matter-of-factly, “Not with my Fusions. Here, take a look.”

He handed the stone square back to the old man, whose hand seemed to shake as he reached out. Unfortunately, it shook so much that the piece of stone fell, hitting the floor in the only space where a rug didn’t protect it. As stone hit stone, Larek’s instructor flinched backward, expecting the stone to shatter and release the Mana that had been absorbed into the Fusion, but it did no such thing.

With a Strengthen Stone +7 Fusion on it, that wasn’t likely to happen.

It was a simple grid formation, as well as a simple Fusion, but he thought that with a Magnitude of 7 on it, that would demonstrate exactly what Larek could do. When he first started and hadn’t expanded his Mana pool and perfected his funneling, such a Fusion would’ve taken nearly an hour; now, it was done in less than 10 minutes.

Larek quickly reached forward and picked it up, handing it back to his instructor who took it with a firmer grip this time. As Shinpai looked at the Fusion he created, he could see the disbelief plain on his face. After nearly a minute, he finally looked up and stared at the former Logger.

“If I didn’t see you do it myself, I wouldn’t have believed such a thing was possible.” He was silent for a few seconds before he went on. “Boy—Larek—do you even know how much Pattern Cohesion this Fusion requires?”

He couldn’t remember exactly how much, but from what he was currently at right now and his steady Pattern Cohesion rate, he estimated that it was around 200 or so.

“Um, around 200? Why?”

“Why? Because—you know what? I can’t even process the impossibility of you right now.”

Larek wasn’t sure what to say, so he said nothing while Shinpai looked in between the stone square in his hand and his new student sitting in front of him. Finally, his instructor spoke with a stern tone to his voice.

“I’ll agree to teach you if you do one thing for me.” A pause while Larek nodded. “Show me the Pattern Cohesion from your Status.”

Larek’s mind froze for a few seconds as he contemplated what it would mean if he was to do that. Given all that he had done thus far to demonstrate his ability to create Fusions, it was already obvious that he was different. Therefore, he couldn’t really see any reason to hide it from his instructor.

With only a slight hesitation, he showed Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai that portion of his Status.

Book 2 Chapter 23: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-82669859