The journey back to the academy was far simpler than the journey towards the estate. Even though Agatha still had free command slots, now Christie thought this was a new unlock, so she finally allowed her to make the journey without as many rests because she used an ‘additional’ command slot to make the take offs and landings far swifter. After all, most of the time was lost in such moments. It still took them several rests and a whole day to make the journey though as Christie couldn’t hold her agates for more than an hour. Agatha still regretted this outburst of paranoia and needless secrecy, but the shame of admitting that was far greater than any possible closure that the truth could bring.

  However it might be, this meant that the journey from the estate to the academy took around ten hours. A bit slower than the originally projected time considering she had more slots, but between loading and unloading cargo, lift off and landing a sizeable amount of time went by. But utterly negligible compared to all that time they would have lost had they taken the scenic carriage route.

  Unfortunately, the flying contraption didn’t allow many upgrades due to the nature of the series. Speed and Spin were already amplified, and whilst she could add Speed Control or Amplify Speed to the rotor, most of the thrust was mostly produced by the Spin command eitherway. But it did give a decent burst of velocity, maybe ten or twenty percent faster. However, it also had the disadvantage of using all her command slots. But it was somewhat manageable as it was only half of her agates.

  The resulting series ended up being:

  Duplicate. Amplify Speed Control Anchor.

  Duplicate. Amplify Speed. Amplify Spin Embed Range.

  Separating the series actually involved more mental exhaustion as they were ‘taxed’ twice – or thrice even – but it was negligible compared to the boost in velocity. Either way, it was mandatory for her to separate them to use two instances of Amplify.

  So after a swift yet tiring journey, they were here back in their classroom with its needlessly high ceilings after their long summer break. Yet things didn’t feel like usual. There was now a tense atmosphere permeating the whole classroom, and looking around granted the answer.

  This was the last year before the dreadful fifth year, the one where they would actually perform soldier duties. Most commoners only got that much instruction, three years. And that was the maximum. Yet they already had those three years and they were about to get one more. Elite education, yes, but also elite expectations.

  Perhaps they were a bit too serious about it, but it wasn’t without its merits, for everyone here knew how dangerous Agatecraft could be and how quickly it could snuff out a life. But most importantly, History lessons had taught them just how warmongering the kingdom of Crocheta could get, and they were long overdue for a war. They could feel it in their bones that a war would come soon, and it would be their turn to fight in it.

  To dispel that tense atmosphere, René Dago did as always and performed a loud enough clap to deafen some people. Fortunately for the whole class, tough eardrums were perks of the job. Or at least they were after thousands of supersonic Speed commands.

  Some looked at the black-uniformed teacher with annoyance, while others in relief after having put an end to the oppressive aura. But Agatha... she didn’t know how to look at him.

  I’m no longer under the effects of Strata paranoia-slash-apathy – or at least I hope so – so maybe I should do something about the man. What that something is... I don’t know. Being aware that their teacher might not be loyal to the crown was certainly problematic, but at the same time, it wasn’t like Agatha herself was loyal to it either.

  If another war breaks out while you’re at your mandatory service and things get too heated, just run away with Christie. Esmeralda’s words echoed on her mind, and Agatha was inclined to agree with her mother. Perhaps the country had paid for her education, but that still didn’t mean she owed anything to it. I mean, it kinda does, but this is like the good kind of apathy. Honor’s overrated anyways.

  The blonde student looked at the grey-eyed teacher, his lips slowly moving as he talked to the class but her mind choosing to focus on other things. And finally, she came to a conclusion. I guess I should just keep an eye on him. It wasn’t the best conclusion, not exactly committal in the slightest, but it was a conclusion. If the man wanted to usurp the monarchy or something, then let him. She was too busy loving Christie to care about anyone else.

  “So that would end the schedule for the year,” René Dago said after Agatha tuned back into the class. Oops! I should ask Christie to give me a refresher on everything he said. “But before you all choose your elective for this last year, I would like to share with you a special something. The world’s most dangerous command.”

  Agatha squinted for a moment as she recalled having already given this lesson, until she remembered that it was Sergi that had said so about the Autonomy command, and something told her René Dago wasn’t referencing that command. The rest of the class, as always, started whispering at that statement; the previous tense atmosphere of the upcoming future completely forgotten.

  “Now, I actually should have taught you this command way sooner, but I did not consider you all quite formed just yet as the whole class seems to have suicidal tendencies instead of this small thing called survival instincts.”

  The petite lithorist couldn’t help but blush at those words as more than once she had completely forgotten about the exercises and just beelined into taking her enemy down, regardless on the outcome on her body and mind. And most of the students in the final exam of last year decided to go headfirst instead of defending their position in trenches.

  “Truth be told, I am still apprehensive to teach you all this command, but the orders come from above, so my hands are tied in this aspect,” Teacher Dago sighed and grabbed a piece of chalk. “The command you will be learning is Drill.”

  Having grown tired of the whispering class or perhaps knowing better than to engage with it, René Dago simply started writing on the blackboard. It took him a while to write the full contents, but in the end, it read:

  Drill: This command allows the agate to destroy other agates. This factor increases with the quality of the agate. It must be noted that the increased factor is the speed of destruction and that it only affects summoned agates and not any other type of agate or stone. Furthermore, agates are not permanently destroyed, but damaged enough that cannot be summoned in a timely manner. Amplify addendum: Amplify makes the command's destruction of agates more thorough, and therefore, a longer recovery time to fix it. It does not affect destruction speed.

  Hmm, that may be problematic, Agatha pondered as she reread the contents on the slate. Getting one’s agates destroyed is painful, I can attest to that... Her mind recalled how the behemoth shattered her little sapphire and she fell unconscious nearly instantly. If this command can casually destroy agates then... I'm fucked, aren’t I? She also realized how the command description was far more ornate than those in the textbooks, but she had more pressing things to worry about.

  The petite lithorist noticed how this command affected her far more harshly than most as her power was concentrated in a single agate, which meant that getting it destroyed would put it out of commission. So far, she hadn’t even considered such case because her big sapphire was already more durable than most agates due to its innate quality, but now that resilience might even prove to be a liability.

  Instead of asking questions to herself, which was a useless endeavor due to the small yet non-trivial fact of not knowing anything, Agatha decided to raise her hand and ask the questions to the teacher.

  “I can understand how this can be the most dangerous command,” she started once the teacher acknowledged her, “but I have some questions due to this ‘destruction’. For starters, how fast is it? And secondly, we should be able to Protect against this command, should we not?”

  “I will answer the second question first as it ties into the first one. And the answer is yes; the Protect Drill series does indeed stop the command.” The whole class sighed in relief at the soldier’s words. “Now, Amplify Drill goes over this resistance, but so does Amplify Protect Drill. So at that point, you have lost the duel due to the fact of having lost three command slots when the enemy only has lost two and still has a respectable series in play. And as for your question on how fast the destruction is...”

  René Dago scratched his short beard. It was normally trimmed short and to perfection – to the point that even Agatha had to say it was mildly attractive – but now it was slightly disheveled, indicating the man hadn’t had time to groom himself.

  “I would dare to say that Drill normally works at a rate of one millimeter per ten milliseconds. That is to say ten centimeters in a second. Mind-bogglingly fast. But there are caveats. A negative difference in Strata reduces this factor by ten, and a positive difference increases the factor by ten. All of this per Strata, as I have stated. So if your agate is Third Stratum and it is trying to Drill a First Stratum agate, it will only take one hundred milliseconds – or a blink, literally speaking – to get over a solid meter wall of agate. Though these numbers are far from accurate as I am basing them on the quality of my own agates. Either way, no one,” René Dago gave a single quick glance at Christie and corrected himself, “almost no one has that many agates, so any collision with the Drill command must be assumed to be an instantaneous destruction of the agate.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Or perhaps not... Agatha couldn’t help but smile. I’m currently on the Seventh Strata, meaning that most students – and soldiers at that – will take several blinks to take noticeable chunks of my agates. If I were to apply...

  “Yes, Miss Malachite?” Agatha could swear she saw Teacher Dago roll his eyes from the follow-up question.

  “You said that the Protect Drill series stops the command, but how about just slowing it? Would a bare Protect slow it? How about Compact?”

  “Interesting question, Miss Malachite.” Any apprehension the man had instantly vanished and was substituted by fascination. “And I say interesting because I doubt anyone has ever asked it or questioned the Drill command that much. Quirks of being a rather obscure command, you see. And before I forget, yes, you are not allowed to share this command with anyone. Regardless of civilian status or not, you will be subjected to a military court if you are found of divulging such information.”

  Probably the reason why Hasel only told me series I was capable of doing already instead of teaching me new commands, Agatha guessed. But either way, it’s not that useful in an open battlefield. There will be ceaseless agates in a battle, eliminating one means nothing. This either works for duels or for… She preferred not to end that thought.

  “As for the question...” The man summoned his agates, one projectile and several shaped like walls, and nonchalantly proceeded to shoot them. The projectile swiftly went through the thin, floating walls. “Mm,” he grunted taciturnly, the endeavor clearly hurting him, but not in an intolerable manner. “As it would seem, the answer is yes. Protect and Compact seem to slow down the effects of Drill. A fascinating discovery, but regardless of the scenario, you are better just using Protect Drill.”

  Unless the hypothetical scenario has me hurling half a dozen kilograms of agate compacted in a single rice grain. Between the Compact command and the Seventh Stratum, that’s a lot of time gained, so no Drill command used in a defensive manner would be able to stop such a projectile. The fact that the petite woman wanted to shoot a supersonic rice grain with the weight of a watermelon spoke at greater lengths about her than anything else.

  “And as the rest of the class that demonstrates a lesser interest for commands,” he uttered with all the poison of a teacher and all the pain of having had his agates perforated, “I believe this demonstration will have proved out to be educational, nonetheless.”

  Which was also true for Agatha. Having seen the walls of their teacher, the ones the whole class shooting at him nonstop during the thirty-versus-one duel of the start of their instruction, be completely violated when thousands upon thousands of shots only slightly cracked it was a surprising sight. Even if the demonstration could categorically be classified as self-harm.

  It is indeed a very dangerous command, Agatha smiled in sadistic ponderation.

  *

  Some electives joined the roster of choices, but alas, every single one failed to convince Agatha. So she decided to continue with the electives of the prior year. Agatecrafting already had a place in her heart, but now she also had a reinvigorated interest in Advanced Lapiloquia thanks to the Drill command. She couldn’t deny that the notion of dueling René Dago using that command excited her. Especially now that I’m on his same Strata. Wait... am I? I think I’m getting mixed up with Hasel... Bah! If he’s not on the Seventh Stratum then I’m only overestimating my opponent, something far better than underestimating him.

  Either way, she doubted she could win against the black-uniformed soldier going all out just yet due to the sheer disparity in agates and experience. Especially the latter. René Dago was a pragmatic and ruthless soldier; she could tell that alone between the exchanges she had had with him so far. That made him too effective and powerful to be surpassed with underhanded tactics. Unfortunately, if she wanted to win against him, she knew luck would also factor.

  And a thing people often overlooked was that luck could also be at the opponent’s side.

  But that was enough speculation for the day, as she would now start – or rather, restart – the elective of Agatecrafting. And to no one’s surprise, the colorful workshop where Sergi lectured them was desolate barring she and Shayla.

  “Uhm... hi,” Agatha timidly saluted her fellow golemancer.

  “Does my presence make you uncomfortable, Agatha?” That question would have betrayed worry from any other person, but from Shayla Belkadi, only mockery could be observed. That, and also because she was grinning.

  “Yeah, sort of...” The petite blonde giggled nervously. “It is hard to forget what happened the last time we saw each other.”

  “That time you broke down crying because you thought I would steal your girlfriend?” The Intaksolfani amusedly raised a brow.

  “I would rather forget that scene ever happened, thank you very much,” Agatha pouted, trying to avoid the merchant’s daughter gaze. “And better yet that it stayed only between us.” Though she doubted the solitary woman would share anything with anyone.

  “Oh, but I do like to recall that scene. You looked... delicious~” Shayla pursed her lips and emphasized her chest with her arms. While Agatha couldn’t deny that it sent shivers down her spine, she still shrugged off the woman’s attempts at seduction. “Oh, earth!” The dark-skinned woman jolted upright. “You have not reacted!”

  “Yes?” The seamstress looked at her in confusion. It felt wrong calling herself a seamstress-in-training nowadays even if she hadn’t done that much tailoring as of late.

  “And you are not even blushing! This is of utmost criticality!” Shayla melodramatically pressed her hands against her cheeks. “Unless...” She squinted her eyes at Agatha.

  “Unless what? You are pestering me here, Shayla,” Agatha frowned at her.

  “Oh, yes. Yes!” The citrine-eyed woman squealed macabrely. “You have fucked her!”

  “What? No!” The azure-eyed woman started blushing frantically.

  “That, my petite friend, is an admission of guilt!” Shayla crackled. “I do not blame you. That is a piece of meat people would have waged wars for in the past.”

  “Christie is not a piece of meat!” Agatha scowled harshly.

  “I never said anything about Christie, but thanks for the confirmation~” The Intaksolfani sang melodiously.

  “I... you... Urgh!” The petite lithorist drowned herself in a screaming yelp as her visage turned redder and redder by the moment. “I hate you so much!”

  “Eh, nothing that I have not heard a myriad of times,” Shayla shrugged.

  Agatha held herself from pouncing on Shayla, and not in a sexual way, but in the ‘I am going to rip out your jugular with my teeth’ kind of way. Though she doubted she would be able to do so considering how well-built the lapiloquist’s neck was. Fortunately, she didn’t need to play that scenario even in the confines of her mind as Sergi finally barged into the workshop.

  “Good news and bad news, ladies!” The aging golemancer informed as his chair casually floated all the way toward them. “Which first?”

  “Always bad first,” Agatha said.

  “Alright. So there were not any takers of the elective from the third year. And then nobles have the gall to ask me why is it taking this long for the lighting to get built on their third estate,” Sergi groaned.

  Now that the other students of the fourth year had been sent to their military deployments on the fifth year, the man was able to badmouth nobility as there wasn’t a single noble left on the classes. Agatha didn’t blame him in the slightest.

  “The good news are that because there are not any third-year students, I can wholly focus my efforts on you. Though with a slight caveat,” the balding golemancer cleared his throat. “Perhaps we have had no new third-years, but the same cannot be said for fourth-years. Could you please step into the room, Master Librar?”

  Agatha couldn’t say she was surprised to see Mateo joining them. She recalled him saying that he wouldn’t lose time with the elective just yet and he would wait for the fourth year. Or perhaps it was Christie that had told her that after recalling her day because she did share an elective with the scholarite. Whatever the case might be, it wasn’t a surprising sight.

  “Master Librar’s presence means that you will have mostly the same deal as your peers in the fourth year had the year before. My focus will be on him as I need to teach him the basics, but I will be able to pay you more attention as there will only be one person to teach. Everyone is fine with that?” The three students nodded absentmindedly. It wasn’t like their protests would change anything. “Alright!” The man clapped enthusiastically. “I could ask of you half an hour to give them some homework before we start the lessons?” He asked Mateo.

  “It poses no issue to me,” the scholarite calmly affirmed. While he looked a bit more haggard than Agatha remembered, she couldn’t deny that he also looked more mature. By now, the three years of military instruction had completely burned the fat he had, so Mateo no longer looked chubby but rather thin.

  “In the third year, I taught you the basics. Mostly inert golemancy,” Sergi talked to the girls, leaving Mateo to the side for now who took a booklet out of the chest pocket of his coat. “But now we can get into the interesting world of animated golemancy, the real golemancy!”

  Agatha couldn’t deny she had been waiting for this. Inert golemancy was the straightforward Agatecrafting everyone was used to. Perhaps it was the most well-remunerated in all of Agatecraft – both due to the limited practitioners and how needed it was – but it was barely and exciting discipline. Animated golemancy on the other hand? Perhaps exciting wouldn’t be the best epithet to describe it with, but the notion of creating the lithic undead of legends was too fantastic to pass by.

  But that left the petite seamstress with a doubt.

  “Will I be able to perform animated golemancy?” She asked with a hint of doubt and nervousness. “My... agate did not seem that cooperative when we checked for its autonomy a handful of months ago.”

  “Whilst an aggressive agate is far from optimal, you definitely can practice this discipline,” Sergi nodded. “As such the only agates that cannot participate in animated golemancy are inert ones. Aggressive ones only present hindrances as we will need to lobotomize them, but a small lobotomy is far from an issue.”

  “Uh...” Agatha didn’t know how to answer to that. “You want to... lobotomize my agate?” She couldn’t begin to fathom what decisions in her life had led her to utter such a sentence.

  “It sounds bad, yes, but we will only be using the Control command to guide the urges of your agate. Nothing intrusive nor permanent. Do not fret.”

  “Right...” That made her wonder why the man had even used such a powerful and visceral word such as lobotomy in the first place.

  “Having said so, it is time for us to use the most dangerous command in the world!” Sergi announced excitedly and Shayla and Agatha shared an amused look as they recalled René Dago’s previous class. “It is finally time for you to really use the Autonomy command!”

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