Emily and Juliana step out of aransportation circle into a long hallway.

  “These are the B-grade dorms,” Juliana expins as they walk. “The dorms and a few other important facilities in The Dome are divided intrades, A, B and C. A is for direct-line nobles, B is for i line, and C is for vassals. You’re the only exception I’ve met.”

  As Juliana talks, Emily is the doors they are passing. Every door is a smooth silver panel with no handle and a small ched into the tre. The numbers started at one and two oher side o the transportation circle and have slowly been increasing since, with a sizable distaween each.

  “You’ve been calling this pce The Dome this whole time, but is that really what it’s called? It seems a bit informal for a pce called The ant of the Blessed.”

  “Haha, no. It’s actually called The Isle of the Blessed, but most of us just call it The Dome.”

  They soon pass room fifty-one and arrive at fifty-three.

  “Pce your hand against the door and i some mana into it. It’s just like the door to The Dome.”

  Emily nods and pces her hand against the door. As her mana flows into it, a familiar runic pattern appears and pulses twice before the door vanishes. Stepping into the room, she looks around and smiles at what she sees.

  The room is rge, with a double bed against the wall to the left of the door with two small tables oher side. In the far-left er, there is a rge desk with several drawers, and in the right er a rge wardrobe. On the right wall, about a metre from the entrance door, there is another door. This one is a simple dark wood with a silver metal handle.

  “It’s not much, but they’re usable at least,” Juliana ents after watg Emily look around for a few seds.

  “Not much? It’s at least three times the size of my old room at home!” Emily objects while walking over to the wooden door and opening it.

  “Ah, yeah sorry,” Juliana apologises with a guilty look on her face.

  The room behind the door is a small bathroom with a sink, full body mirror, toilet, shower, and an alcove with a strange runigraving. She notices that both rooms are lit by small white mana crystals embedded into the ceiling. Closing the door and turning around, she sees Juliana sulking by the now-closed hallway door. Rolling her eyes, Emily dumps her suitcase o the bed and walks back over to the hallway door. She grabs Juliana’s hand on the ast and activates the dain.

  “e on, are you gonna show me around or what?”

  Juliana’s embarrassment vanishes, and she excitedly pulls Emily back towards the transportation circle with a silly grin on her face.

  If she’s a Mandrago spy, she’s an amazing actor: she’s like a cute excitable puppy.

  Emily chuckles to herself at the thought, her faing a small grin of her own.

  ***

  Juliana takes Emily through a few teleports to different hallways of lecture halls and bs, but they are uo enter any uhey are there for a css. It’s only when they reach the magic training halls that Emily’s i is sparked.

  “That door’s to the hall for practical csses, but if we keep going a little bit further, we’ll reach the individual rooms,” Juliana expins while pulling Emily quickly away from their transport point.

  “The individual training rooms are another facility split by grade. There aren’t many rooms for the C-grade members, and they don’t eve a gathering array.”

  “What’s a gathering array?”

  “Basically, it’s some big magic circle that gathers a rge amount of mana to increase the effieditation. You have to pay tribution points to have it activated when you go in because it’s powered by The Dome’s mana reserves, but it’s totally worth it.”

  As Juliana finishes her expnation, they walk through a phasing door belled ‘B-Grade Training’ and into another corridor, lined with doors. o each door is a glowi of words on small silver panels.

  “Each training room has a and spell trolled by the panel beside the door. It will say when the room is occupied and be used to set up the room to the user's preferences,” Juliana says while pulling Emily through the corridor, looking at every panel as they pass.

  Each panel has the glowing red word ‘Occupied’ etched across the tre until they reach the st five doors at the end of the corridor. All five have pletely empty panels o them.

  “It’s first e first served for the training rooms unfortunately, but si costs points to have anything other than a bnk room, there’s normally a few free.” Juliana reaches up and taps the panel of the closest door as she speaks, sending a spark of mana into it.

  Instantly, the panel lights up with words.

  Wele Juliana Madonna

  Would you like to use the presets from your st session?

  Yes / No

  Julias no and waits for the pao update.

  Please figure your sessioings:

  [Enviro]

  [Targets]

  [Gathering Array]

  “The settings are pretty simple, you choose any enviro you want, from forests to the o. However, anything other than ay room will cost twenty tribution points as a oime purchase. You also choose targets to fight against. Pin target dummies are free, but as or people will cost from ten points for weak beasts to fifty points for humans. The amount depends on how difficult eae is for the illusion spells to recreate, and you choose whether you want them to fight back or just dodge. Their fighting patterns and spells be ised but it will cost extra the more plicated you make them. And finally, you choose whether you want the gathering array on or not. It will charge more depending on the density of mana you want, from two points an hour for double the density of the rest of The Dome, to ten points an hour at five times. This pce is a scam really, it drains points like crazy and only the gathering array is useful.” Juliana navigates the seles on the panel as she expins.

  Emily watches on with i and frowns when Juliana dismisses the funs of the training room.

  “Wait, why do you think the enviro and target settings are useless? They sound just as useful for increasing bat experience as the gathering array is for increasing your improvement speed.”

  “Yeah, but why would I ever need bat experience? I don’t want to fight anyone.” Juliana cocks her head in fusion at Emily.

  “Don’t you ever have beast hoards in your family’s territories?”

  “No, we’re just a small barony on the north coast. Other than the occasional spillover from the desert we have very few beasts, and even those are easily dealt with by our knights.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  I guess she doesn’t really have a reason to fight anyone if her family’s territory is safe.

  “Anyway, that’s the basics of the training rooms. Once you’ve selected all the settings you want, it will ask you how long you want, then just tap your crest on the pao pay and head in. The door will only let you in, and you use the room for however long you paid for. If you don’t seley paid options, you will be restricted to four hours a day though. Now, let’s go take a look at the library!”

  Emily follows Juliana out of the training room hallway while sidering their use.

  I use the target settings to get used to fighting mages. I need bat experience if I’m going to fight against the whole Mandrago Family. Wait, do I eveo fight the whole family? I guess I only really want to kill the Patriarch, that bastard Diego, and his goons. They’re the ohat actually killed Da-

  Emily is pulled out of her thoughts by a light squeeze on her hand, which had begun shaking without her realising.

  “Hey, are you okay? You look like you want to murder someone,” Juliana asks nervously, with clear written on her face.

  Emily takes a deep breath to calm herself, f the thoughts of Herber’s death back down, then responds with a light smile.

  “Sorry, just lost in thought, don’t worry.”

  “Okay, just let me know if you wao leave you alone. I did kind you along without asking.” Juliana’s shoulders sag slightly as she guiltily looks away.

  “Oh really? I seem to remember being the o you out of my room.” Emily grins and leans into her as they reach the transportation circle. “If I didn’t want to be here, I would have told you. So, rex and take me to the library. I’m excited to see what marvels of magic are there.”

  Emily catches a slight blush on Juliana’s face as she looks back over and smiles with relief.

  “Sure, yonna love it!”

  ***

  Juliana was right. The moment they step out of the transportation circle, Emily’s eyes open wide as she looks around ihe library is massive, spanning a few hundred metres with stacks of books stretg from the floor to the ceiling tens of metres above. The rows of books have a rge el down the tre, with dozens of tables varying in size. Half of the tables have mages sitting at them, p over piles of open books. The room is pletely silent other than the faint rustle of paper as books float through the air, betweeacks and the occupied tables.

  “Woah!” Emily lets out a quiet excmation.

  “See, I told you so!” Juliana decres at full volume, causing Emily to flind worriedly g the nearby mages. “You don’t have to worry about being too loud, all these tables have a sound-isoting barrier around them.”

  “Really?” Emily questions while fog on a nearby single-person table.

  After a few seds, she begins to see an almost imperceivable dome around it. It shimmers slightly as a book passes through, theles quickly after.

  “Do they charge for those as well?”

  “No, I guess they sidered studying in silence as one of the few privileges everyos. Oh, but the books you’re allowed access to are limited by yrade. The books on the very top shelves are limited to A-grade mages or anyone who reach them.”

  “Wait, anyone who reach them?” Emily asks, finally looking back to Juliana after iing the room.

  “Yeah, the flying book system is for ease of use, but there is also the option to search through the stacks for the book you want yourself. They say that if you’re able to reach the top shelves on your own, you’re allowed to read the books there, irrespective of yrade. Though, flight magic is very hard. You have to be at least a third circle wind mage to use it, so it’s not really knowher that’s just a rumour or not,” Juliana expins while pulling Emily deeper into the room to find ay table.

  “You sound like you’ve been here forever!” Emily chuckles.

  “Hey! I’ve only been here for a year; you learn a lot in a year!” Juliana pouts as she es to a halt o ay table with two seats.

  She sits down in one of them aures for Emily to do the same, then takes off her crest and taps it to the tre of the table. Instantly, a thin film expands from the table, passing over Emily and causing a slight fluctuation in her magic circle. As the film passes her, she notices all the sounds from the room cutting off, leaving them in an uny silence.

  “You have to use your crest to activate the table, it registers your access level when you do. If you’re ever studying with someone of a higher grade let them do it instead so you have access to better books. Then all you have to do is i a little mana into the table and ask for a few books like this.”

  Juliana pces her palm ft oable and passes mana into it while saying:

  “One on basia manipution.”

  “Wait, didn’t you say books are limited by yrade? Why you read higher-level books if someone else activates the table? Is that even allowed?” Emily asks as Juliana moves her hand off the table.

  “Surprisingly it is. You ’t take books out of the library anyway, only make notes. Some A and B-grade mages evehe right to study with them to make extra tribution points. Not that it matters that much though, the higher-grade books are all even harder to uand. I’m pretty sure all the books I’ve used so far are only C-grade. Then again, I’m only first-circle, so maybe it makes more of a differe higher circles,” she says with a shrug.

  Just as Juliana finishes speaking, Emily sees a book fly through the barrier above their heads, ing to a halt and then slowly l down onto the desk in front of Juliana.

  “You also directly ask for them by title instead of topiember to note dowle if you want the same one again at some point,” Juliana says while lifting the book and showing Emily the title, ‘Studies of the Are’. “Aing rid of them is my favourite part. Just throw them outside the barrier!”

  She throws the book over her shoulder, causing Emily to wind follow the book's flight with a worried gaze, but it doesn’t hit the floor. The sed the book leaves the barrier it shoots upwards to five metres in the air, then moves away from them bato the stacks.

  “Haha, you looked terrified for that book’s safety,” Juliana ughs at Emily’s rea, whilst Emily gres back.

  After a few seds, she rolls her eyes as Juliana tio grin. She stands up, Juliana a hand which she happily accepts.

  “Maybe we should move on before you endanger any more i books. Where to ?”

  Juliana pulls herself up, before proudly deg:

  “Lunch!”