Timeskip.

—

On the fifth day of his time at the College, William is still in his quarters and does not yet want to go back to class because the knowledge that he knows so far is enough to develop his Transcendence spell.

The reason for that is he already can make this spell regenerate his Magicka, albeit a trickle of sand in the vast desert of an ocean, very miserable and still with a long way to go before he can spam any spell with no cost whatsoever. But this is proof that his spell is working and not just some jumbled-up theory.

So for the next month or so, he just practices the spell construct, revises the spell construct, corrects the spell construct, and back to practice again until he can make sure that when producing the condensed form of Magicka, he is not running out of juice whatsoever.

During this period of time, he also manages to shorten the duration that he enters the State of Resonance with just a blink of the eye. Not only that, he can now enter the state where the version that has a package of deduction in that spell with just one finger raised.

Eventually, in the second month of his time at the College, William is finally satisfied with the result of his training and research. He can now spam the condensed form of Magicka that is the size of an orange fruit willy-nilly with no cost whatsoever. But he knows this magic is not considered a spell per se because there is no definitive structure to the construct. Anyone with just a little bit of knowledge in the arcane will find this to be like a scribble drawing of a toddler.

So, back to the drawing board once again, he then starts learning about spell integrity and studying the design of a framework for many spells so that he can create his Mystic Bullet that will not shatter just because of the gentle touch of the wind. Reading the book that the Alteration professor suggested, he finally found the answer that made him return to the College because of his lack of knowledge that hindered him from progressing this Mystic Bullet further.

"Shape Structure and How to Develop It," "Applied Aspects of Projectile Type Spells," and "In-Depth Study on Varla Stone" are the classes that William takes after carefully considering how he wants his Mystic Bullet to be crafted. First and foremost, the most important thing is that he learns from the game and his senior study group that a Varla Stone is a magical stone capable of holding an immense quantity of complex structured Magicka to recharge enchantments.

Because the properties of the stone are very similar to how he wants the inside of his Mystic Bullet to be, that is, the spell construct being easily manipulated in the split second he creates it, able to hold a complex quantity of structured constructs to accommodate the status effect enchantment or any other he wants to add later, and able to hold and process the Magicka already inside to sustain the structure, William decides to make his bullet with the shape of that Varla Stone.

So, taking a class that intensively teaches about Varla Stone and then applying that shaped Varla Stone as the construct of the spell, and finally adding enchantment to top it all off, is the obvious class choice for him to acquire the knowledge before he starts his research.

Sure enough, in the six months since he arrived at the College, he is able to create a fully functional bullet in the shape of that stone that is very sophisticated, capable of holding the spell structure for one minute straight without shattering from the sheer complexity.

Even though, compared to condensed Magicka that is able to hold for six hours without shattering, only because of the binding agent that he copied from the Conjuration school of magic, he is still very satisfied with the result.

Then comes the question of how he is able to launch the projectile. Unlike Infinite Extension, which he set aside to essentially act like the barrel of the gun, with the sole purpose of making the bullet faster, the aspect of providing the initial push for the bullet is not present. As a result, he is back to the drawing board, taking classes once again.

There is only one class this time, "Aerotheurge: Vacuum Touch," which is an Expert Mage-level Destruction spell, or in the game, considered an Adept-level Destruction spell. Even though he knows it is too far for him to handle, as always, what is important to him is the idea and knowledge behind these high-level spells and how to create them.

Essentially, the idea behind the Vacuum Touch spell is to condense electrical charge into the front of his finger and then release it upon touching something, consequently vacuuming the air around the touched area to damage the opponent. He acknowledges that this explanation is a simplification of the complexity of the spell, but it captures the basic concept that will serve as the initial push for the Mystic Bullet.

So, he goes back to practicing the spell construct, revises the spell construct, corrects the spell construct, and returns to practice again. Eight months since he arrived at the college, he finally has a fully working spell that catapults his bullet projectile into the distance.

Although it still only has the speed of an arrow released from a bow, he is still satisfied with the result, as what makes it deadly like that of a sniper rifle, is the Infinite Extension that he still hasn't developed yet, not the initial push of the Mystic Bullet.

Because he knows he is a novice in researching the arcane, and perhaps some of the knowledge that is supposed to make this spell powerful just passed through his head, that's why he set aside this research until everything else is ready.

Now, for the last piece of the puzzle that officially makes him a Journey-level mage in terms of firepower, William decides to make this magical barrel resemble that of a railgun.

By giving each binding ring a magnetic field that stacks up with one another, interacting with the binding agent inside the bullet, the force of the summoning itself pushes this projectile to become more accelerated, traveling the length of the rails, in which essentially aims to create a very high-velocity Mystic Bullet that he hopes will travel at the speed of kilometers upon kilometers per second—an incomprehensible comparison with an arrow that travels only 30 to 90 m/s.

Oooh boy, how hard it is to make that. William remembers the grueling exercise, not only in terms of manipulating the Magicka but also the calculations that he must do inside his head and on the table, drawing the runic mathematical diagram so that the ring itself stays intact and doesn't fizzle out of control. But by the second and a half years of his study in the College, he manages to create three rings of Infinite Extension that can make his bullet travel at 1500 m/s.

The classes that he attended to make that? Too many. From Geomancer elemental spells with any kind of topic related to the magnetic field, Aerothurge elemental spells with any topic related to the electro side of the magnetic field, Hydrosophist spells that focused on the cryogenic stasis to keep the ring cool and prevent it from exploding, Psychokinesis spells that focused on automatic chains of spells from a distance, and many, much, much—triple the charm—more.

—

[Morning, College Walls.]

Sipping tea in this cold winter weather, William sees hundreds upon hundreds of Nilfgaardian fleets in the distance, preparing to disembark from the private harbor of the College of Winterhold.

Looking around him at the dilapidated castle, almost empty with students who usually come and go, he couldn't help but sigh. Unable to help himself, he then turns back to the culprit that is the reason this College has become like this, even before the people Beyond the Sea Ghost arrived here, and even before the Saarthal incident ever happened.

There, in the largest armada of them all, stood many sorcerers led by one of the franchise protagonists who smelled of lilac and gooseberries. They were checking the magical chain that bound the entity, which could also be classified as a djinn now, from wreaking havoc again, right in the center of the ship.

Roaring and groaning, the entity with the name Augur of Dunlain, that already fused with the Eye of Magnus, is being taken hostage to essentially use him as a tool for war against the Aldmeri Dominion and their new ally that comes from an entirely different planet.

"Let's go, everyone. To our ship."

Gazing at the leader of the Chronicle Explorers, who has a conflicted expression, not looking at the entity like him but at Skyrim as a whole, especially the Stormcloak banner in the distant Winterhold city, while wearing a golden-black enchanted robe like himself, William followed everyone to step out of the castle wall and out of the front gate of the College.

Pausing for a moment, William couldn't help but have a very short glance back after a couple of steps out of the gate.

Remembering his very first day stepping on this quarried snowy stone, the ninth member of Chronicle Explorers continues his journey down the stairs and into his designated ship.

=== End of Volume 1: Dawn of Chronicle. ====

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