Living Life As A Game: Through And Through 68 Entering A Conflic

After the encounter with Luca, Elizabeth began to get caught up with what was going on in the dojo. She learned of why Sophie was staying at the gym in the first place, and to be honest, she was pretty hyped up after learning that a crazy training schedule had been concocted to prep the people willing to join an upcoming Martial Art's compet.i.tion. As soon as the training was mentioned, that bit of instability propping up her emotions flared back to life and she fervently expressed her intent to stick through it no matter how horrifying it turned out to be.

She noticed her neuroticism in real time, but failed to even attempt inhibiting the pumped up feeling she got, as getting excited about training shouldn't be a bad thing. For her Quests and the impending Cataclysm, it would be extremely foolish to develop a dislike for training.

After somewhat forcing her way into being a part of the training group, she began to seek out questions that had plagued her mind since she woke up. She turned to Atid and said, "Say, you guys were fighting pretty seriously back there. I mean aren't the gunshots and explosions a little too extreme? Like… won't the police and society, in general, be concerned about the warlike sounds that come from the dojo?"

Again… Elizabeth's lack of understanding of the Martial World seemed to boggle Atid's mind as she should be familiar with something this simple, right? In any case, Luca responded wholeheartedly. As he took out some rather bland-looking pebbles from his jacket, Luca patiently explained, "You see these stones? They're laced with inscriptions, just like your weapons… Anyways, a different type of inscription used for large scale illusions and concealment was activated in the form of an array or formation. The illusions make the building seem like its operating normally and usually works well to repel any regular civilians from intruding when Pract.i.tioner affairs are taking place. While the concealment is self-explanatory; it conceals the noise and flashes of any ongoing battles."

"Whoa~" Elizabeth didn't know much about array formations, as her only exposure to inscriptions lay in forging and enchanting; both being relatively small scale applications of the art. Even though she paid attention to Luca's explanation she didn't forget to a.n.a.lyze the inscriptions on the pebbles Luca showed her.

The inscriptions were obviously those of an enchantment, but since she only knew of s.p.a.ce, time, and s.p.a.cetime enchantments, the bland and weak-looking inscription laced onto the pebble were a bit foreign and parts of them were literally unintelligible. Not being one to restrain her curiosity, Elizabeth asked, "Say, what do your pebbles do?"

Luca responded, "Heh… these are pretty convenient for storing magazines for my guns. Though it's only a one-use item, they make it so I don't have to carry around bags upon bags of bullets and magazines for my guns. Even better is the fact that I can do this..." As he finished up his sentence, Luca activated one of the many pebbles lying in his hands with Inner Strenght, and before Elizabeth could even comprehend his movements, a new and fully-stocked magazine had been loaded onto one of Luca's guns as the old and empty magazine appeared where the pebble previously stood.

As Luca looked at Elizabeth, preparing to see her shock at the cool little trick he'd shown with his sleight of hand, he didn't expect for her to react so seriously instead. Elizabeth kept staring at the ash left over from the pebble's inscriptions activating as she said, "Wait… Are those neutral inscriptions?"

"Yes? What other inscriptions would possibly suit a simple storage mechanism?" Luca responded with a question of his own, as Elizabeth returning look of cringe and pity struck a nerve.

"No, it's just… nevermind..." Elizabeth quickly chose to keep her thoughts to herself as she knew it would be extremely egotistical for her to give her true thoughts on what she had just discovered.

"Go on, we're all wondering what makes you think so highly of yourself. First, it was uncle Luca's bullet, and now even his magazine holders have somehow inspired such disgusting expressions on your face. So please, go on and tell us all what makes you think uncle Luca's gear is so horrible." Sophie's bell-like voice rang from behind as Elizabeth as her pressing statements captured the attention of all those present.

This time, Luca didn't say anything to reprimand Sophie as even if he wasn't upset, he too wanted to know what made Elizabeth look at his gear with such disdain. Atid knew it wasn't his place to scold Sophie as Elizabeth's terrible expressions were indeed of high disrespect when considering her rank against Luca's, so the stage was set for Elizabeth to explain herself.

Unfortunately for all those present, Elizabeth wasn't one to mince her words, much less sugarcoat them to spare other's feelings or reputation. Thus, she started speaking with that face, looking as if she would die just from thinking of how horrible the gear Luca had shown her was. Elizabeth said, "Um, I just think whoever made the inscriptions didn't know what they were doing…"

"You can read those inscriptions?" Luca asked, not at all bothered by Elizabeth's harsh criticism.

"Well… that's where the problem lies… They're so badly constructed that I confused them with foreign or high-grade inscriptions. Upon clarification that they are in fact neutral inscriptions, I figured out what they were supposed to be and can only shake my head at such terrible technique..."

"Oh? It seems you're some sort of Inscriptionist yourself. If you claim uncle's inscriptions are so awful, then surely you must be able to do better, right? Che! You better have some way to prove your words as I won't tolerate anyone insulting my uncle!" Sophie was obviously looking in any and all directions for a reason to beat Elizabeth down after their earlier confrontation. Naturally, she wouldn't let this chance go, as, by all stretches of the imagination, she was actually in the right to defend Luca.

'This b.i.t.c.h...' Elizabeth thought, as she said, "Fine, I'll just go retrieve some equipment and prove my words or whatever..." As she left, she could hear an audible scoff directed at her, as a voice dragged behind her, "Hahaha… don't keep us waiting for too long "Kay?" And don't think of running away either… Hahaha..."

To those obvious taunts, Elizabeth laughed herself as some truly demonic killing intent spilled out of her otherwise casually walking body. Never in her life had she been bullied like this. Usually, there would be some trash-talking when she'd previously played multiplayer or online games on the internet, but never in real life and at such close proximity… Even as she walked away, the hairs on those that stayed back couldn't help but straighten and rise up. Her high-pitched laughter induced bouts of twitching in those that were weaker than her, and even people much stronger — like Jane, Atid, and Luca — frowned each for separate reasons.

Sun and Sophie each reacted as if they couldn't detect that abyssal atmosphere Elizabeth manifested. One too concerned about her well being, while the other ignored the pressure as if it were just another mid-day summer breeze.

As Elizabeth finally left everyone's sight and people slowly started to acclimate back to normal, Elizabeth whilst walking had a tough-love moment with P as she was forcefully brought out of her psychotic stupor. P said, "You better do something about that att.i.tude of yours… I mean, we both know you still new to the social scene. But, that lack of ability when it comes to hiding your thoughts and emotions will repeatedly come back to haunt you if you don't correct it."

"...I know you're right. It's just, that b.i.t.c.h is trying really hard to push my b.u.t.tons and it's frustrating knowing that she can easily beat me." Elizabeth knew that P wasn't just making things up and she didn't let her sour mood cloud her judgment. Rather, she fully understood this obvious flaw in her character as she started to always track her emotions and expressions after realizing the changes happening to her. She just needed a bit more time to fully adapt and hopefully become good at concealing herself; emotionally-speaking.

"Don't bother with her then. Keep up with your training and eventually, you'll take her position in this power dynamic. Then, she'll be the one frustrated and unable to act out..."

Elizabeth returned to her room, her mind no longer dwelling on Sophie or the various ways she wished she could humiliate and or beat her. Rather, as she went to pick up her inscription pen from the forging kit, she thought over the methods of her Enchantment Creeds. She didn't possess absolute confidence when it came down to returning back to the first floor and proving herself to be right, as she'd yet to actually create and enchantment at all. Yet, she did possess some level of a.s.surance, as she'd gotten some experience in handling inscriptions from the times she created bullets. Furthermore, what she was planning on doing wasn't even considered an established Enchantment from her Creeds.

What Elizabeth recognized after confirming that Luca's "magazine storage," as Sophie dubbed it, was that the inscriptions that made up the final Enchantment were all made up of extremely basic neutral inscriptions. The reason she couldn't tell right away was by how terribly done they were implemented. From their orientation to their layering… Elizabeth could swear that children could come up with better applications of inscriptions if they understood the basics as she did from her Creeds.