All Chapters of SKILL DEVOURER: BECOMING OP WITH INFINITE MANA: Chapter 41
- Chapter 50
105 chapters
A BIGGER PROBLEM
Dylan was sitting on the floor outside the door when Flint got back.Not leaning. Not slouched. Upright like he was prepared to wait as long as it took. He looked up when he heard footsteps and some of the tension left his face."I sent three messages." He said."I got the first one." Flint said, pulling the door open.Dylan got up and followed him in.Flint set the folders on the bed and Dylan looked at them without touching."Where did you get those.""Instructor Dane."Dylan went quiet. "Dane.""Yes.""He handed you evidence against his own headmaster.""His wife was from Vendriel." Flint said simply. He sat across from Dylan and spread the first folder open between them. "Look at the transfer dates. Then look at when the contamination reports started."Dylan leaned over the pages. He didn't speak for a while. His eyes moved slowly, the way they did when something was landing properly rather than just being processed."He cut off their protection first." Dylan said."Then declared
SOURCE UNKNOWN
Dylan had barely slept.Flint could tell by the way he was sitting upright at the edge of the chair when Flint came back from his early run. Alert in the specific way that came from lying awake rather than waking up."You went out." Dylan said."Quick run." Flint poured water from the jug and sat. "The building Caravan showed me last night. North of the academy grounds. Does the school own anything out there."Dylan thought for a moment. "Resource storage. Old facility. I remember a mention of it during first-year orientation. Decommissioned.""Officially." Flint said.Dylan looked at him."They stored Vendriel's mana in a building that officially does not exist." Flint said. "And then they built something with it.""We need to get in there." Dylan said."After the match." Flint said. "One thing at a time."Dylan grabbed his jacket. "Which brings us back to the part where you explain how you watch a match you've been expelled from.""Caravan can suppress my presence." Flint said. "Som
THEY KNEW THE WHOLE TIME
Flint moved before Caravan finished the warning.Not fast. Sudden movement would draw the broad man's eye even through the quiet standing. He stepped back from the edge of the rooftop slowly, one foot at a time, until the building's lip blocked his profile from the field below.Then he moved fast."Take us." He said under his breath.Not yet, Caravan said. Whoever is in that window has a read on this location now. If we teleport from here they track the exit point."Then we walk."Flint went down the side stairs and came out into the street behind the competition ground. Noise from the field carried over the wall. Voices. The kind that followed a result.He kept his head down and moved.The broad man was still on the other side of the wall. He could feel it. The pull of something that knew he was close without knowing exactly where. Like a compass with a loose needle.He turned right at the first corner and kept walking.I have lost the signal, Caravan said. We are clear.Flint slowed
THE VICE PRINCIPAL
That was not the reaction of a man who had just lost.Flint held the gaze for two seconds. Then looked away.Don't run, Caravan said. Running looks like guilt."I know." Flint said under his breath.Dylan's shoulder pressed close without looking like it. "Tell me that smile means nothing." He said quietly."It means he knew." Flint said. "He let the name go up so he could watch how I responded.""And how did you respond.""I didn't." Flint said.Kaelen had not moved from the entrance. He was speaking to someone now. Low and unhurried. Flint could not see who."We leave." Flint said. "Slowly."They moved toward the side exit. Terra in step. Jolene a half pace behind.Through the door and into the corridor before the next name was called.---Nobody spoke until they were clear of the main building.Terra turned to Flint. "He let your name go up on purpose.""Yes." Flint said."Why." Dylan said. "What does that get him.""Every student in that hall just heard that name." Flint said. "He
FOURTEEN MONTHS AGO
The vice principal's name was Harrow.Flint knew it the way he knew the layout of the building. Present information he had never needed to use. The man existed at the edge of the academy the way permanent structures did. Grey at the temples. Quiet eyes that processed faster than they showed.He stood in the middle of the underground room and looked at the machine the same way Flint had. Long and deliberate. Like confirming something he had already known was there."You built a case." Flint said."Fourteen months." Harrow said. He did not look away from the machine. "I had the financial irregularities. I had the Vendriel mana reports. None of it constituted proof of deliberate harm." He turned. "The machine does.""How long have you known about it.""Three weeks." Harrow said. "One of my people found the entrance during a perimeter check. They documented everything inside and came directly to me.""And you did nothing for three weeks." Dylan said.Harrow looked at him. "I did everythin
CROSS THE LINE.
Harrow's contact was a woman named Seun.She was at the corner of the second market street exactly where the seal directed them. Short. Brown jacket. The particular stillness of someone who had been doing this long enough that waiting no longer felt like anything.She looked at the seal. Then at Flint. Then at Terra."Two of you." She said."Problem." Flint said."No." She turned and walked. "He is at the accommodation house on the river end. Ground floor. Window facing the alley."They followed."Is he alone." Terra said."He came with one other." Seun said. "His escort left an hour ago with a sealed report. The broad man stays until the morning portal opens." She glanced back. "He does not expect anyone. He thinks tonight went well for his side.""It did not." Flint said.She stopped at the edge of the alley. A lit window twenty feet ahead. Ground floor. Curtain drawn but light showing through the gap at the bottom."The case is on the table by the window." She said. "He keeps it in
THE TRIBUNAL CHAMBER
The tribunal chamber was on the third floor of the administration building.Flint had walked past it dozens of times without giving it a second look. A plain door at the end of the east corridor, indistinguishable from the ones around it except for the lock. The kind of room that did not need to announce itself.He stood outside it now with Dylan on his left and the broad man a step behind Harrow.Nineteen minutes to the session."The three board members." Flint said quietly. "Tell me about them.""Solen." Harrow said, keeping his voice low. "He has been here thirty years. He does not like Kaelen and has never trusted him. He will vote with the evidence.""Cress." Harrow continued. "Kaelen's man. He votes the way the wind blows and the wind has been blowing Kaelen's direction for two years. Do not expect him.""And the third." Flint said.Harrow looked at the door. "Aldis. He came up through the northern border academies. He has worked hard to be uncontroversial. He votes with whoever
THE MANA COLLECTIVE PLAN
Solen called the vote.He went first. Clear and without hesitation. Demon contamination charge dismissed. Kaelen suspended from all academy duties pending formal investigation into the Mana Collective correspondence and the decommissioned facility.Cress voted against. His voice was flat and final, the vote of a man who had already decided which side of what was coming he intended to stand on.Aldis looked at the table.He looked at it for long enough that Cress turned to watch him.Then he voted with Solen.Two to one.The contamination charge was dismissed. Kaelen's suspension was effective immediately.Harrow nodded once.Nobody celebrated. The room did not feel like a room where something had been won. It felt like a room where something had shifted weight without yet showing which way it would fall.Kaelen stood.He buttoned his jacket. Slowly, the way someone moved when they had no reason to hurry. He straightened his collar. He picked up the single sheet of paper he had brought
MANA VEIN CORRUPTION
The portal to the Northern Highlands was different from the ones Flint had used before.Wider. Older. The frame was stone rather than metal and the edges had been worn smooth by years of use. It sat at the far end of the academy's east transit yard, separate from the student portals, with a single operator who checked clearance papers and said nothing else.Flint handed his over. The man looked at them. Then at Flint. Then at the papers again.He stamped them and stepped aside.---The Northern Highlands arrived cold.Not the cold of a room without heat or a night without cover. A different kind. The kind that came from the land itself, moving up through the soles of boots and settling in the chest before the lungs had finished their first breath.The sky above was wide and low and the colour of old stone.They were standing on a flat ridge overlooking a valley that stretched so far in both directions that each end disappeared into grey.Dylan pulled his collar up. "Nobody mentioned t
SON OF EGGS
He did not tell the others that night.Not because he was keeping it from them. Because he needed to understand the shape of it before he started moving people.At breakfast Dylan outlined the plan before the handler could."East territory for contracts today." Dylan said. "Lower-risk beasts there. Good for a first read of the land.""I am going north." Flint said.Dylan looked at him. "The map says—""I know what the map says." Flint said.Dylan looked at Jolene. Jolene looked at Terra. Terra looked at Flint."I will come." Terra said."Go east." Flint said. "Look at the soil conditions while you scout. Dead patches. Dark ground, cold when you press it, running in a line. Mark on the map where you find them and how far they extend."Terra frowned. "What dead patches.""You will know them when you see them." Flint said. "Dylan. Watch Jolene's back today. Not from beasts."Dylan understood without asking. "The Class 4B group.""The tall one in the grey jacket has been asking questions