Lily first pulled out Arakil's book and placed him in a good position so that his eye was facing the center of the room. She wanted him to witness this event even if she wasn't actively getting his help.

Plus, he wants knowledge from this era. I could consider this a small payment for his boundless kindness.

Then, she emptied the bag in the corner and sorted the items for her use. She then pulled out a piece of white chalk and examined it briefly by activating her Magesight, revealing that it was clearly no ordinary piece of chalk despite its appearance.

Is this something like my glyph ink? But in chalk form? Did they grind up herbs into it, or did they imbue it?

Sadly, as much as she stared at it, she had no answer. She also looked at the different colors, but they looked identical under her Magesight's gaze. She shrugged and moved on, starting a rough sketch of the inscription on the stone floor.

"This inscription isn't even that complicated, I can't believe they were encouraging such laziness."

Lily wholeheartedly embraced Arakil's tendency for perfection. She felt small moments of delight whenever he genuinely praised her hard work. Even though she could be more wasteful than when she first started, she refused on principle.

Her initial draft looked pretty good, in her opinion, but it was too small to put in her four glyphs of choice. So she erased her first attempt and started a larger version, deciding that she could perfect it while she still tried to think about her four choices.

Which four resonate the most with me? If I think about it in terms of magic, it would need to be something similar to Astral, such as stars or the moon, but there wasn't anything like that. I suppose I could break it down to Astral's sub-concepts, like Arakil has mentioned. Light, darkness, void, cold, heat… I think there might have been others, but I can't remember.

Lily momentarily paused her introspection while carefully drawing out a large circle portion of the inscription. Her hand remained steady with practiced precision, and once it was complete, she gave a happy nod before returning to her musings.

There was a light and dark glyph in that list, although they differed from the ones I know. While there wasn't heat or cold, there was fire and ice. There was nothing for the void, although considering I've not even touched on that subject myself, I don't even know what it could be.

In theory, that meant she had already found four glyphs that "spoke" to her, although she couldn't help but feel she was missing something with the animal-related glyphs.

There isn't a bunny or Lagia glyph… There is a rodent one and a more general mammal one. Would those count? It said I could pick any four, so maybe I don't need one of the animal ones?

Lily continued racking her brain, trying to make her final decision, but by the time she had finished her larger replica of the inscription, she still hadn't made up her mind. While proud of her work, she couldn't help but sigh at her indecision.

I could always attempt without an animal and try again if it doesn't work. I have enough resources for a few goes. Pete mentioned I'd have roughly three chances. If I fail twice, I can always ask Arakil for help—it would be better than failing.

Lily moved away from her completed inscription and began using an unoccupied area to practice drawing the four glyphs she had chosen. Since they were much smaller in scale, she found them relatively easy to draw, and in no time, she felt confident enough to replicate them inside the inscription.

But before doing that, she opted to rest her hands a bit while looking up the needed materials. She could use the red feather for fire or one of the small rubies. For ice, she could use a sapphire or an herb called snowdrop. She could use the vial of monster blood or an onyx for dark, while she could use a small opal or a tiny diamond for light.

While deciding between her choices, Lily couldn't help but wonder if she couldn't get more chances if she directly imbued an object herself. If the ritual used the objects as fuel, then she could quite easily fulfill that role herself—and the Mana would be more directly aligned with herself.

Although I don't know if that would count. Would Astral Mana work for this?

Her curiosity and niggling doubts made her consider asking Arakil right away, but she shook her head. Lily wanted to at least try it twice on her own before asking for help. If Rose could succeed, then why not her?

With her hands feeling recovered enough to continue, she moved over to start drawing the glyphs. This time, she grabbed a different-colored piece of chalk so that she could differentiate them correctly from the main inscription.

Time continued to tick by while Lily was almost in a trance. Any mistakes were quickly erased and fixed, and soon Lily was looking at a complete inscription. While she was proud of herself for accomplishing a very accurate replica, she couldn't help feeling a little upset that she could have done a much better job with paper and ink.

Oh well, as long as it works, I guess I can't complain, Lily thought as she kept referring to illustrations in the book to triple-check her work.

She chose ruby, sapphire, onyx, and opal for her ritual offerings, as she personally felt more attracted to them. She placed them in the center of their corresponding glyphs and then carefully walked over to the center, where she was required to activate the inscription.

"I think that's everything…" Lily muttered, skimming the pages of the book to make sure she hadn't missed anything. "Looks good. Okay, let's give this mysterious ritual a try!"

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Lily gingerly knelt down and placed her hand on the central spot of the inscription. This was effectively the "crest" of the inscription and would be the driving force of whatever this was supposed to achieve.

She confidently spun her Mana Core and felt her body fill with the magical resource, feeling bliss as always. Then, she began directing the Mana into the inscription, similar to how she would if she were imbuing ink.

She could feel the inscription's "brain" sucking up the Mana and equally distributing it to the rest of the ritual, but it remained entirely dormant the entire time. Lily grew nervous but continued until the whole inscription was "full" from her perspective.

She waited and waited, with her anxiety growing as the last portions of chalk became saturated in Mana.

Here it comes, the moment of truth! Lily thought as she held her breath.

Nothing.

Lily frowned and even activated her Magesight to get to the bottom of this. The chalk was glowing with her Mana, but nothing was happening. Even more peculiar, the offerings placed were not interacting with the ritual.

Did I choose wrong? But it's not even reacting at all.

Lily removed her hand while continuing to observe the ritual, but no matter how much she stared at it, nothing was happening. The inscription was dormant despite being full of Mana, and it wasn't draining or dispersing either.

"It's holding my Mana… but it's like a dam and not doing anything with it," Lily began to wonder out loud.

She pulled out the book and checked again, but everything was right. Unless her book was wrong, she couldn't see anything that would result in this strange phenomenon.

She carefully walked out of the circle and then looked at the supplies, thinking maybe she needed to swap out the gems for different offerings.

Her eyes fell on the box, and she had a dark thought.

Oh no… does the ritual need

blood?

Lily was not happy, but then she realized that the ritual wouldn't be keyed to her without it.

And because it's not keyed to me, it's not activating… maybe a safety feature of the magic circle engraved into the floor? Or a requirement of the ritual itself.

"Ugh! I hate this!" Lily cried out in frustration as she reached for the box.

Even opening it, she felt a fermenting sickness in the pit of her stomach as she looked at the small blade. Lily tried looking on the bright side; they had provided her with a healing potion. But it was short-lived at the thought of being forced to do this. She slowly walked to the center once more, this time holding the box while her thoughts continued to stew.

If it's just to key the ritual to me, I probably only need a little bit. I've already saturated it with Mana, so at least I have that going for me. I guess this explains why Rose completed it so soon; she probably scribbled something on the floor and gave it a dose of super dragon blood.

Lily sighed one last time before sitting down and opening the box. She pulled the blade out and tried to put on a brave face as she brought the blade's edge to her thumb.

Just a tiny cut.

She poked her thumb and gave an overdramatic wince as she sucked air through her teeth. In reality, she'd suffered far worse, but having to do it to herself was like torture. She resisted the urge to place her thumb in her mouth and instead gave it a squeeze, helping the drop of blood to form. She held out her hand and waited with bated breath for it to drip and fall onto the ritual.

Right when it dripped off, Lily felt frozen in time. She hoped that this would resolve everything. It touched the inscription, and the chalk instantly took on a shining red hue that spread out from the center like a blossoming flower.

"It worked!" Lily cried for joy.

The ritual was coming to life, and she could see the Mana she had stored in it, which was now finally being used. The four offerings were swallowed up into their glyphs.

Now, this is a ritual!

She was ecstatic, and although she wouldn't admit it, she found this more exciting than the "ritual" they'd performed to fix Arakil's eye.

Lily noted that it was beginning to reach a climax and continued to wonder about the ultimate goal. Then she saw the central circle of the inscription start to darken as if opening up a hole directly into the world. Lily's eyes widened, sparkling with curiosity.

Is something going to come out of the hole?

The inscription flashed in rapid succession and then went dull. The hole closed and winked out of existence.

"What?" Lily asked, feeling dumbfounded and cheated. "Was that it? Or… did I fail?"

It was a dark thought, but she shook her head.

"No, I know I did everything right!" she reassured herself.

She activated her Magesight to see if she could see anything, but all she saw was the dying embers of Mana in the chalk, which were claiming the drawing itself as they faded away.

Lily dropped the dagger; she couldn't believe it.

"I really failed?"

She looked at the corner. She still had more resources to try again, but… would that change anything?

"I checked everything multiple times. The ritual even activated; it should have immediately failed if I screwed up…" she muttered and then wondered. "Am I the problem?"

While she didn't want to believe it, she couldn't help but think it might be a possibility. She had a Mana Core, not a bloodline. She scrambled to the edge of the room and picked up Arakil's book.

"I failed… and I'm not sure why. I feel like I did everything just as instructed. I triple-checked!"

[Lily, you did everything right. However, the reason you failed is actually my fault.]

"Your fault? How?" Lily asked; she couldn't believe it.

[It was some time ago, but do you recall the downsides of receiving an Astral affinity?]

Lily paused, trying to remember it had been quite some time ago.

"Necromancy and… hexes?" Lily eventually replied, feeling very unsure. It had felt so unimportant back then that she'd almost ignored it.

[Correct. But you forgot one—Summoning.]

"Summoning…" Lily whispered. "So this was a summoning ritual? That hole was like a door to let something in?"

[Yes. It's been quite modified from my time, with some intriguing new additions. But, at the crux, this is very much a ritual to summon and bind yourself with a familiar. Your selections are to narrow down the candidates and then make offerings to draw them in. Ideally, you'd want one that suits your style of magic and is compatible with your Mana to form a symbiosis.]

Lily opened her mouth to say something but then paused. She wasn't actually sure what she wanted to say. What could she even say? The final test to enter Regarth was to perform a summoning ritual, one of the very few things she couldn't do with her Astral Mana Core.

Lily felt cheated, not by Arakil but by the school. She'd done everything to the best of her abilities, going above and beyond, and now she was going to fail at the door to the school of her dreams!