Cecia walked all the way to Asgard Magic Academy.
Although it was the weekend, the magic training ground, alchemy workshop, and library were not completely closed.
A lot of students were practicing inside.
From afar, one could hear the sound of mana bursting and the startled cries of students.
It couldn't be helped.
Using these facilities outside cost money.
Unless your family owned a mine, who would pass up the academy's free training grounds?
Cecia certainly wouldn't.
If she could, she would even want to tear off a piece of the training ground and take it home.
Too bad that was illegal.
Cecia made her way familiarly to the office of student affairs.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
The voice came from deep inside the room.
It was Rowan.
Cecia pushed open the door.
“Good morning, Mentor Rowan!”
Rowan only glanced back.
Then she continued bending over her desk, writing and drawing on papyrus.
A thick stack of documents was piled on the desk.
Cecia glanced at them a few times.
She couldn't read the exact contents, but could vaguely identify a few place names related to the Abyss Cult.
The quill paused slightly.
“Speak.”
“Little Cecia.”
Rowan didn't even lift her head.
“What happened this time?”
“What do you mean 'this time'?”
Cecia felt extremely slandered.
“I've always been a law-abiding good student, okay?”
The quill stopped.
Rowan finally looked up at her.
“That's what you said last time too.”
“And then?”
“Someone told me they saw you covered in blood early the next morning, limping back from the Black Forest.”
“...”
Cecia's gaze drifted away.
Who was it?
Such a big mouth.
“My dear Little Cecia.”
Rowan narrowed her eyes.
“If I had known beforehand that your so-called 'little matter' was risking your life fighting abyssal creatures in the Black Forest...”
“In the future, your leave slips might not be so easy to approve.”
Cough.
“An accident.”
“Purely an accident.”
“I am responsible for my students' safety.”
“...”
Alright.
There was really no arguing with that.
Cecia obediently shut her mouth.
After a moment, she asked sheepishly:
“Actually, I wanted to ask about Spirit Realm Excursions today.”
“Spirit Realm Excursions?”
The quill in Rowan's hand came to a complete halt.
“Mm.”
“Why ask about that?”
“To prepare for advancing to Rank One, of course.”
Rowan looked at Cecia.
The office suddenly fell quiet.
It stayed quiet for several seconds.
“Reach out your hand.”
“Huh?”
“Your hand.”
“Oh.”
Cecia obediently reached out her right hand.
Rowan took out a thumb-sized transparent crystal from her drawer and pressed it into Cecia's palm.
She injected mental power into it.
The transparent crystal quickly lit up.
First crimson red.
Then gold.
Finally, a faint layer of black emerged from the edge of the light.
Rowan raised an eyebrow.
“This red one is Fireball?”
“Yes.”
“Gold, Aegis of Light?”
“That's right.”
“Then what is this black one?”
“...”
Cecia paused for a moment.
“Shadow Trick.”
Of course it wasn't.
In reality, it was 【Shadow Moon】.
A gift given to her by the King of Dawn and Dusk—naturally, the fewer people who knew about it, the better.
Besides, Shadow Trick was also a dark-attribute spell, and its effects were similarly focused on concealment and support.
Plus, what 【Shadow Moon】 was best at was hiding itself.
It shouldn't be that easy to blow her cover.
Probably.
Rowan stared at the crystal for a moment.
She didn't pry deeper.
Because compared to that unremarkable dark-attribute spell, there was something far more outrageous.
“You got Aegis of Light recently, didn't you?”
“Mm.”
“How long ago?”
“Not long ago.”
Rowan glanced at the crystal again.
“It's already stabilized?”
Cecia nodded.
“And that Shadow Trick as well?”
“More or less.”
Rowan slowly set down the crystal.
She looked at Cecia with the eyes of someone examining a rare magical creature.
“Are you a monster?”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course.”
Rowan let out a chuckle.
“Now I somewhat understand why Raven described you that way.”
“I've never heard him say that!”
“That old stubborn coot has a tough mouth.”
“Ignore him.”
Rowan stood up.
She walked over to the bookshelf behind her and rummaged around for a bit.
Soon, she pulled out a book that wasn't very thick.
Thud.
She threw it into Cecia's arms.
Written on the cover in large letters was:
《Precautions for the First Spirit Realm Echo》.
Author—
Merlin Draco.
“...”
Merlin again.
How many books did this woman write?
“Echoes of the Spirit Realm?”
Cecia looked at the cover.
“Isn't it called Spirit Realm Excursion?”
“Folks like to call it that.”
Rowan sat back down.
“Adventurers like to call it excursion, the churches like to call it pilgrimage, and those northern wizards like to call it dreamwalking.”
“The more formal term in the academy is Spirit Realm Echoes.”
“Because what you come into contact with isn't actually the full Spirit Realm.”
Rowan lightly tapped the quill on the desk.
“Rather, it's the 'echoes' left behind in the Spirit Realm.”
Cecia immediately pulled up a chair and sat down.
At a time like this, one had to show the attitude of a good student.
Rowan thought for a moment.
“Do you think human memories disappear?”
“They do, right?”
“What about a city?”
“A city?”
“A place where a war took place.”
“Where many people died.”
“Where people were born, married, betrayed friends, or killed relatives.”
Rowan looked at her.
“After all those things end, do they really leave nothing behind?”
Cecia didn't answer.
Rowan continued:
“The real world leaves behind corpses, ruins, and written words.”
“While the Spirit Realm leaves behind something else.”
“Emotions.”
“Memories.”
“Obsessions.”
“Even certain moments that were far too intense.”
She drew a line on a piece of paper.
“When enough of these things settle together, they form a trace that can be touched once again.”
“That is a Historical Echo.”
Cecia looked thoughtful.
“So after I go in, am I watching things that happened in the past?”
“Not entirely.”
Rowan shook her head.
“Never treat Echoes of the Spirit Realm as true history.”
“History has already happened once.”
“What the Spirit Realm leaves behind is merely its shadow.”
“Inside, there might be people who truly existed, or people who never existed at all.”
“Time, place, people, and even cause and effect can be distorted.”
“You can understand it as...”
Rowan thought for a bit.
“A dream that has been dreamt for hundreds of years.”
“The dream remembers many things.”
“But it can no longer tell which ones are real.”
“Sounds pretty unsafe.”
“Of course it's unsafe.”
“Then why do we have to enter it to advance?”
“Because a human soul can hardly complete its first transformation on its own.”
Rowan reached out and tapped the crystal in Cecia's hand.
“You learning three skills and stabilizing them isn't because the world decrees a Rank One mage must know three skills.”
“It's to prove that your mind is already capable of maintaining multiple stable structures at the same time.”
“This is the most basic threshold.”
“Three is the safest number summarized by the academy.”
“Some can do it with two.”
“Others can train ten and still fail.”
Cecia blinked.
So it wasn't the game system automatically changing her class once she collected three skills?
“What's truly important is the next step.”
“Soul Reconstruction.”
Rowan said.
“Though ordinary people have souls, they are very loose.”
“Upon becoming Rank One, the connection between soul, mind, and physical body will truly stabilize for the first time.”
“A mage's magic core will become clearer.”
“A warrior's blood and qi will also begin to undergo a qualitative change.”
“And what Historical Echoes provide is precisely the environment required for the soul to complete this change.”
“So...”
Cecia inquired tentatively.
“I just go in, soak in it for a bit, and rank up?”
“...”
Rowan glanced at her.
“You can try.”
“If you want to turn into an idiot, that is.”
“Just joking.”
“The Spirit Realm isn't a bathhouse.”
Rowan said in annoyance.
“Before entering a Historical Echo, the most important thing is to establish a soul anchor.”
She pulled a thin thread out from her drawer.
One end was pressed under the crystal on the desk.
She handed the other end to Cecia.
“Suppose you are here.”
She pointed to the end of the string.
“Reality is here.”
She pointed to the crystal.
“After your consciousness enters the echo, this thing will ensure you maintain a connection with your body.”
“This is a soul anchor.”
Cecia tugged on the thin thread.
“What if the line snaps?”
Rowan smiled.
“Guess.”
“...”
“Suddenly I don't really want to know.”
“So don't mess around.”
Rowan pulled back the thread.
“For someone entering the Spirit Realm for the first time, the academy will use a ritual to help anchor you as securely as possible.”
“As long as the soul anchor remains intact, under normal circumstances, when encountering damage severe enough to collapse your consciousness, the anchor will forcefully yank you out of the echo.”
“Does that mean I can't die?”
“Which word of mine just now said you couldn't die?”
Rowan knocked on the desk.
“A forced ejection causes severe shock to the soul.”
“If it's light, you might be unable to focus for a few days.”
“If it's severe, you won't be able to cast spells for months.”
“If it's even worse, the soul anchor crumbles directly.”
“And then?”
“And then your mentor goes to attend your funeral.”
“...”
Okay.
Understood.
Don't play with fire.
Cecia silently recorded this in her mind.
“And there's another situation.”
Rowan held up one finger.
“Some people clearly feel their soul anchor is about to break, yet insist on thinking that if they just hang on a little longer, they can get more out of it.”
“How do those people usually die?” Cecia asked subconsciously.
“They die with a great spirit of adventure.”
“...”
What a cold joke.
Rowan continued:
“Echoes of the Spirit Realm won't just throw you anywhere, either.”
“A person's soul creates inclinations.”
“What you've experienced.”
“What you fear.”
“What you long for.”
“What power you possess.”
“All of these will attract corresponding echoes.”
“In other words, the Spirit Realm will choose places where you are likely to resonate.”
Cecia suddenly had a bad feeling.
What did she have on her body right now?
The sun.
The Abyss.
An evil god's daughter.
A bunch of random curses.
Where on earth was this going to resonate to?
“What do I do after going in?”
“That is also the most troublesome part of Echoes of the Spirit Realm.”
Rowan spread her hands.
“Nobody knows.”
“There's no single standard answer.”
“And nobody will stand at the entrance to hand you a quest sheet.”
“...”
Why did this sound more and more unreliable?
“An echo usually produces a core.”
“Maybe it's a person.”
“Maybe an object.”
“Or maybe an event that has been delayed from ending.”
“After your soul is drawn into it, as long as you establish a sufficiently complete resonance with this core, your soul will naturally complete its first reconstruction.”
Cecia frowned.
“How complete counts as complete?”
“Judge for yourself.”
“...”
“Mentor.”
“Hmm?”
“Is there a possibility...”
“That our academy's teaching system isn't particularly complete?”
Rowan looked at her with a smile.
“Then you can also go ask Merlin.”
“When she wrote this book, she wrote eight words on the back page.”
“What words?”
“'Practice yields truth; if you die, that's on you.'”
“...”
As expected of words that woman would say.
Cecia sighed.
“So I have no idea where I'll end up?”
“There will be inclinations.”
“But you can't choose precisely.”
“Unless a high-ranking expert helps you establish a special anchor point.”
“When ordinary students enter for the first time, they can only follow their soul to seek out the strongest resonance.”
“Is Rank One relatively simple then?”
“I can only say that most aren't particularly outrageous,” Rowan corrected.
“The more stable your soul anchor, the more complete the echo you can touch.”
“However, the more complete the echo, the easier it is, in turn, for it to affect you.”
“The most important thing for your first advancement isn't how many benefits you gain.”
“It's returning intact.”
Having said that, Rowan's smile faded slightly.
“So remember these next few rules clearly.”
Cecia sat up a bit straighter.
Rowan raised her first finger.
“First.”
“After entering an echo, never give your true name to anyone freely.”
“Why?”
“A name is the part of a soul that is easiest to grasp,” Rowan said.
“In the real world, someone calling your name just makes you turn your head.”
“But over there, if certain things call your correct name, it's equivalent to grasping your anchor.”
“So if someone asks your true name—”
Halfway through her words, she suddenly looked at Cecia.
“What's your name?”
“Cecia Laplace.”
Cecia blurted it out almost reflexively.
Rowan nodded in satisfaction.
However...
The expression on Cecia's face suddenly froze.
No.
No!
NO!
Cecia Laplace...
Was not my true name.
My name is clearly—
████.
A sharp, excruciating pain pierced through her brain without warning.
Boom!
Cecia's vision suddenly went dark.
Something long forgotten seemed to suddenly open its eyes from the deepest depths of her soul.
[Host detected attempting to trace original true name]
[Relevant records are in a sealed state]
[Reason for seal: Insufficient authority]
[Release condition: Second Dawn]
[Before the Second Dawn arrives, the original true name will remain sealed]
[Please do not attempt forced reading again]
After a brief pause, another line of text appeared.
[You will eventually reclaim your name.]
Cecia's pupils shrank violently.
Pain.
Her head felt as if someone had driven a nail straight through her temple.
She subconsciously grabbed the chair.
Her breathing grew rapid.
Wait.
What was her name?
Cecia.
Of course it was Cecia.
But what was that name hidden by the system just now?
Why did just thinking about it hurt this much?
Sweat dripped from her forehead.
Cecia immediately activated 【Shadow Moon】.
A very faint layer of shadow covered the surface of her body.
Her presence was concealed.
Her heartbeat, breathing, and suddenly disordered mental fluctuations were all suppressed.
At least, she couldn't let Rowan see it.
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing.”
Cecia forced out a smile.
“Just suddenly felt that true names are really dangerous.”
Rowan gave her a suspicious look, but ultimately didn't push further.
“Good that you know it's dangerous.”
She held up her second finger.
“Second.”
“Before going in, leave yourself a Return Anchor.”
“Return Anchor?”
“Not a soul anchor in the magical sense.”
Rowan lightly tapped her own temple.
“Something of your own.”
“A phrase.”
“A memory.”
“A person you must never forget under any circumstances.”
“Anything works.”
“The most dangerous part of Historical Echoes is never the monsters.”
“It's after staying there for too long, you begin to feel that you belonged there in the first place.”
Cecia's expression grew more serious.
“When that time comes, I think of my Return Anchor?”
“Right.”
“Tell yourself.”
“Who I am.”
“Where I came from.”
“And—”
Rowan paused briefly.
“Where I must return to.”
Cecia silently noted it down.
Rowan held up her third finger.
“Finally.”
“If the soul anchor begins to shake.”
“Don't be greedy.”
“Don't look back.”
“No matter what you see.”
“Come back immediately.”
“Even if it's just one step away?”
“Even if legendary magic is placed right in front of you.”
“Even if someone tells you taking one more step will turn you into a god?”
“Especially in those moments.”
Rowan said, “The most deceitful things in the Spirit Realm will always know what you want the most.”
Cecia fell silent for a moment, then nodded.
“Understood.”
“Very good.”
Rowan picked up the quill again.
“The ritual materials are all written in the book.”
“Get the things ready today.”
“Rest.”
“Meditate.”
“Don't drink alcohol.”
“Don't stay up late.”
“And definitely don't run off to the Black Forest to kill a few more wolves to celebrate your impending rank advancement.”
“...”
“Mentor.”
“Hmm?”
“What kind of misunderstanding do you have about me?”
Rowan waved her hand with a smile.
“Out you go.”
“Alright.”
Cecia left the office holding 《Precautions for the First Spirit Realm Echo》.
The hallway was quiet.
Sunlight streamed in through the window.
Cecia didn't leave immediately.
She stopped by the window.
Looking down at her hands.
“Who am I...”
Cecia Laplace, of course.
Twelve years old.
Student at Asgard Magic Academy.
Part-time blacksmith.
And now with an extra title as the daughter of a deity, whether that counted or not.
She knew all of these.
But...
That instant just now.
That name covered up by the system.
What on earth was it?
Cecia rubbed her temple, which was still throbbing slightly with pain.
Only the system's final sentence remained in her mind:
[You will eventually reclaim your name.]
As well as that phrase that had appeared more than once:
Second Dawn.
Cecia looked up.
Outside the window, the sunlight was bright.
For some reason.
She suddenly felt that the sun was very far away from her.
Far away indeed.
Rate on N.U.
