Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 331: Echoes

Chapter 331: Echoes

Kazi appeared quietly in Marta’s room, his presence almost unnoticed. The big room was filled with sketches of magic circles, roughly detailed and scattered across the floor. Marta sat in the midst of them, her prosthetic legs folded awkwardly beneath her. She was muttering to herself, deep in study.

"Echoes... Echoes... two precise layers of magic circles that combine into one. Worth four magic circles and exceedingly difficult... there can’t be a millimeter of difference," Marta put a pencil on her ear, her brow furrowed. "So stupid..."

The sketches of magic circles were genuinely well done. Paper and pen were high-quality. ’Must have asked Elena to get the paper.’

Her prosthetics weren’t worn. She was comfy and at home. He saw burnt patches on fire. Ha, Kazi didn’t know why but he was proud of her.

Marta noticed him and did so with a smile. "Ah, Kazi!" Marta reached for her prosthetics and put them on. The attachment was awkward for her. Kazi stepped forward to help, but she waved him off. "Let me just..."

She managed to get everything on, stand up, and take a step toward him. Marta initially went to hug him, but she stopped and put her arms beside her. "Oh, right... no hugs. Sorry."

"Glad to see you, Marta. How’s it going?"

"Guess what?" Marta’s smile grew and she answered before he could guess. "I got accepted into the Accelerated Program at Magic University! I’m going in two days!"

"Wait, seriously? They let that happen?"

"I was a couple weeks late but they said it’s fine. They get people like me all the time."

"Accelerated Program for the win then," Kazi said.

"I did have to take out a huge loans though—"

"You did what?"

"It was either that or selling my dimension. Players with the System are the only ones with it but with a special magic circle, they can sell it for up to a million points. It’s like selling a kidney."

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on. A loan? From where? Who?"

"The Bank of the Guardians. Duh. No interest rate either."

’But how...that’s not...’

Getting a "loan" wasn’t as simple as going up to the bank and just getting it. Paperwork was necessary. Identification was necessary. History of earnings was necessary. Even players with the System, while regarded highly, could not possibly get accepted for a loan that fast.

Kazi looked down at Marta with a smile.

"Aisha got it for you, didn’t she?"

"Agh, I knew you’d figure it out."

’Just what is that woman up to?’ Kazi asked in his head. ’She must be pretty deep in the Guardians’ inner circle to get Marta accepted for a Murabaha agreement.’

"By the way, not to get technical, but it’s not really a loan. It’s called the Murabaha agreement. Essentially, you’re asking the bank to buy whatever it is you’re asking for—in this case, your tuition—and you agree to pay it over an agreed time period."

"Yeah, something like that. I’m going to be paying twenty thousand points per month—"

"For about a year, yeah?"

So approximately two hundred thousand points for the three or four semesters of schooling.

"Yep."

Kazi pursed his smile. ’I really wished she would have consulted me about this. But...this was her decision to make.’

"If it wasn’t for Aisha, they definitely wouldn’t have accepted," Marta said. "I owe her. I owe her a lot. She even got me a gift the other day?"

"Oh? What?"

Marta walked over to the side table and got out a book. "This. Apparently, it’s a journal that belonged to one of the early Lords of the Old Mage Tower. It’s written in Old Polish."

"Can you read it?"

"Do I look like I studied medieval Polish?"

"Isn’t English and Polish the same?" Kazi joked.

"Hell no! It’s completely different! I’m just copying what I see and experimenting. So far, nothing has really been working."

The journal was closed, although Kazi could sense an ominous aura from it. ’Seriously, what kind of stuff is Aisha getting and how is she doing it?’

The day he sat down and had a talk with her was going to happen soon. For today, Kazi drew a big smile and produced a special dessert from the back of his hand. "And by coincidence, I got a huge cake to celebrate."

"Cake?"

"Black coffee cake."

"Where did you...how...?" Now it was Marta’s turn to be puzzled and she, unlike him, wasn’t very good at hiding. "Wait, you knew?"

"Whaaat? Nope, it’s just a coincidence."

"No, really, are you psychic or something?"

"Alas, I am not," Kazi said in a dramatic tone. "Pure coincidence."

Half-coincidence. He had been doing all sorts of schemes to make money and cheer her up. He hoped that sooner or later that she would apply for university. But Marta surpassed expectations. Elena too. The two were closer than they ever were.

He set the cake on a small table down on the floor clearing away some of the scattered papers. Kazi grabbed a knife from the kitchen and began to slice the cake, handing Marta a generous piece.

"Err, that’s way too much. I’m not Sun-young."

"Ms. Sun-young would have taken the whole cake, Marta."

"...I can see her doing that."

"She’s gonna get sugar someday," Kazi said, shaking his head.

"Sugar?"

"You know, sugar."

"She’s going to get...sugar?"

"Sorry, sorry, diabetes."

"Oh. Why didn’t you just say diabetes? Who says sugar?"

"Literally everyone."

"I’ve never heard it—"

"From where I come from," Kazi corrected. "We call it sugar."

"Ohhh. That’s...interestingly weird."

"Don’t hate the player, hate the system."

Together, they chuckled and they ate. Kazi pointed at her papers and asked what she was studying.

"Oh, mostly math," Martia replied. "There was this Chinese mathematician, Yang Hui, and he invented the first magic circles. It’s kinda the basic principle of everything."

"Ah," Kazi said, nodding thoughtfully. "Yang Hui’s triangle, right? Fascinating." He checked over Marta’s work. In a couple seconds and a bit of skimming, he grasped everything. "Ah. Magic circles are marked by the equivalent sum totals to function properly. Meaning, when magic circles for actual magic are created, balance is crucial for their stability and effectiveness. The balance within a circle ensures that the energy flow remains constant and uninterrupted. If there’s even a slight imbalance, the circle can fail or produce unpredictable results. In a fight, it might mean stunning yourself of mana entirely."

"Yeah, uh, pretty much. You got it."

"So what are Echoes? You were muttering about them when I came in."

"Oh!" Marta looked happy he was asking for once. "I was reading this advanced book and this thing called Echoes came. Echoes are when you add multiple layers of magic circles of the same type in a single space. Not many magic circles are compatible with Echoes though. It’s a super advanced skill that most Wizards can’t do. Your magic circle has to be very sturdy and complex for it to withstand multiple layers of the same."

"Which is why most go for simply multiple magic circles, right?"

"Mhm. Bridging magic circles is hard but Echoes are just harder."

"And you’re doing them because you want to get ahead of the curve?"

A smile spread across Kazi. Marta looked down sheepishly. "Yeah..."

"Don’t be guilty. Pursue it to the end." Kazi took another piece of the cake.and dug in. "You’ll do great, I’m sure of it."

Marta didn’t respond. She didn’t appear to have confidence in herself. But despite that, she wanted to keep going. The blonde got the pencil on her ear and put it down. She decided to change topics and asked, "How is William?"

The spoon stopped near his lips. "He’s...fine. Not better, not worse."

Her prosthetics sat folded. "You said Commander Cedric told you it was because of a change in his soul? Because...of the Wendigo?"

"In all likelihood, yes. It’s a mutation that burst out during Gate 10."

"I wonder what happened..."

William killed hundreds of people, that was what. Kazi didn’t tell her that though. He wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

"I still haven’t visited him..."

"Do you want to?" Kazi asked, spoon slipping in and out of his mouth.

"Yeah. Yeah, I really do."

William and Marta...two troubled youths on complete opposite sides of the world. A high school boy addicted to the gym and a nerdy college woman that studied English and computer science. To meet like this, to talk like this, to care like this, Kazi was humbled to see it and convinced that it was his duty to cherish.

After all, no one else could.