I take some time to find a quiet uninhabited corner of the city, this is apparently a part of the city that partially collapsed, so everyone had to move out. Sure looks the part, abandoned dwellings, dust, fallen rocks everywhere, but I can still somewhat navigate the place. I find my way deep inside the abandoned district and stop in a relatively large clearing.

Alright. Time to try out some magic.

Growth affinity. Expansion of time and space.

What I can do so far is speeding up my whole body, speeding up a few muscles for added punch, and speeding up an object’s time. That’s quite lame. There’s more to it no doubt. Maybe let’s start with the space part…

I spent the whole night practicing old and new spells, the main thing I noticed is that with ten times the mana, I can now be a lot less subtle about how I apply my magic.

I have a few I can reliably cast now, let’s mark that down in the notebook.

I even allow myself a bit of fantasy on the formatting, inspired by the karma shop.

I feel in my element with some nicely ordered data.

Eisure : [Arren Sapin], Age : [20 Mansian solar years]

Affiliations : [Blessed of Adroxas] [Follower of the goddess of sculptors?]

Job: [Explorer][Sham linguist]

Affinity : [Greater Affinity of Growth]

Crystal : [4th Level of the blue rank, cubic cluster type formation]

[Sustained Spells]

[Mind speed] : Speeds up the whole body, slowing time perception by around 15%.

[Body speed]: Speeds up specific parts of the body, granting limited time doubled strength.

[Growth]: Speeds up a plant, allowing for instant growth, limited by available nutrients.

[Withering touch]: Extremely speeds up the target allowing for fast deterioration. Only works on organic matter. Direct and prolonged contact with the body is needed.

[Levitation]: Constantly dilate space around the body to allow for slow flight. Only works close to the ground.

[Thin air]: Expands space in a dome, gradually dispersing airborne gas and particles.

[Instant Spells]

[Dead zone]: Dilates time and space in a narrow barrier, slowing down anything going through by about 70% for a second. The barrier is very short lived. Two meters range.

[Push] : Dilates space to push things. Three meters range, any direction. Can push even large rocks. Mana cost varies a lot depending on usage.

[Mind stop] : Tremendously speed up my own brain. Slowing my perception of time down by 99%, allowing for up to three seconds of safe thinking. Cannot move during slowed time but can pre-cast spells.

[Shift] : Dilates space around myself for quick movement in a specific direction.

I close the notebook. Just like that, I can now cast ten spells rather reliably, it needs more testing in live situations, but having so much mana to work with really makes this kind of self exploration quite easy. I spent about an hour and a half on each spell. It’s probably morning already. It helps that days here are four hours longer. I take a nap to restore my mana back to full. The ground isn’t very comfortable.

I spend some time of the day buying things I need, mainly I got the help of an armorer. He added some belts to my centipede poncho, making it a tighter fit on my body, less likely to hinder me or leave large parts of my sides exposed during battle. I also got a padded gambeson and an old iron chainmail, it was found on a dead Cenek in the cavern a while ago. I couldn't buy the leg pieces since it’s a different anatomy. And I was out of money. It’s not much but I feel a bit safer for when I go outside.

I decide against buying books since I can’t read yet, and instead sit down for a coffee while using the books I already have to begin learning how to read the common language.

It’s surprisingly easy to learn reading when you can already talk. I’m just starting out but I can already make out some words in the two other books I have, just a few more sessions like this and I should be able to at least read most basic things.

As the gold lights outside start to dim, I return to Nalu’s place, not forgetting to use my last 10 silver coins to buy an Odon fur bedroll on the way.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I don’t find the relaxed atmosphere and good smell of food that I expected when I get there. Instead, Nalu is alone on the first floor, fully decked in silver armor, copper rune threads running all over the various pieces. Even her tails are covered. I might have not even recognized her if not for the open helmet visor. She’s currently sharpening her weapon, a warpick just as tall as her, the handle similarly inlaid with copper threads. Is she going on a holy crusade all of a sudden?

“Arren is friend, yes?” Wow, I’m not the only one that has been working on his linguistic skills today, it seems. Maybe she was frustrated by how hard it was to communicate with me?

“I am.”

“Want help friend? yes?”

“Will it be dangerous?”

“Lot dangerous, yes…”

“Then why do you want my help instead of asking for Big or the guards to help? I’m not that great of a fighter.”

“Arren need money, yes? Nalu need lot money. Know lot money secret yes!”

“Oh so we can’t get more people or we need to share…”

“Help yes?”

“We’re not doing something illegal I trust?”

“Legal. Lot dangerous yes.”

“I’ll come then, do we need to prepare anything in particular?”

“Arren ready. Fight centipede yes. Need go, party hide yes.” So she was waiting for the festival to cover up whatever we’re going to do, I get why she wants to go right now, Verdi told me the festivities start early in the morning and last all day, we probably have ten hours until the start.

“Ah! Take gift yes!” she runs around the table and grabs a ring. Am I about to get married or what? Does this concept even exist here?

She presents the ring in her tiny gauntlet clad hand, it’s a relatively inconspicuous gold band with a fine line of copper runes set inside… I know this design, wasn’t this thrown in a volcano? No I think this one had writings on both sides, it’s a nice touch to hide the runes like this.

“It looks nice, what does it do?”

“Gold light! Draw make durable. Take ,yes!”

“Thank you, I appreciate the thought, really. I’d give you a hug if not for… actually you know what” as it turns out hugging an armored short person isn’t the most practical thing to do, but I wanted to anyway.

“Gift friend, happy yes!” the three armored wagging tails make a serious lot of noise.

I’m having a hard time controlling my smile. She’s cute.

It really is a practical gift for the occasion, as bringing the lemon against a bunch of centipedes is not only useless but would attract them to us. It can’t cost too much to make… right? Anyway as is customary, I need to try it, let there be light!

It glows about as far as a torch would, can’t complain about it, I’ll keep it on my right hand, hopefully the blessing will protect it a bit. I need to find her a gift too now. Let’s just focus on the task ahead.

“I’m happy too. Are we going right now then?”

“Yes, hold pickaxe, yes!” I’m handling the warpick then, well, I don’t use weapons anyway. Maybe I should learn? Or just get better at magic.

I get why I have to hold that, as she’s handling a metal chest decked out in three concentric circles of runes, that looks a lot like the guild’s safe door.

“So what’s the plan?”

“Leave sleep. Explosion centipede, party sound hide, yes.” she’s nodding in approval to her own master plan.

“Alright let’s go then, do we avoid the guards.”

“Party make, guard enough no. Yes.” so there just won’t be any. I’m a bit worried about the whole explosion part of the plan but she must know what she’s doing.

She doesn’t know what she’s doing. It’s incredible that she could craft makeshift explosives in the first place but she’s no demolition expert. She threw three packs of explosives at the wall already, the first blew up before it could reach the wall. The second hit it but didn’t have enough power to completely go through, and the third just didn’t explode. Fire in the hole! Fourth explosive pack on its way. Looks like a winner.

The explosion finally breaks the wall, it’s good that we are in a large cave or the shockwave might have sent us flying. Even just now I had to use my dead zone spell to slow some of the debris mid-air or it would have been in our face. Mana at 99%.

If I understood correctly, Vehi likes drawing maps while he’s out to get food, he couldn’t find any way to get to wherever we are going now, but he heard sounds coming from the other side of this wall. Nalu’s guess is that it’s a small centipede nest, the real and only entrance should be a hole in the floor of it, linking it back to the mother centipede’s cave in some way.

The interesting part is, this place we’re in is the deep end of a seemingly exhausted copper mine. She assured me that Big wouldn’t mind even if we found something. It took us a while to get here, I recognize some of the moss growing on the walls as one of the ingredients in the local food, it’s a bit spicy.

We stay far away as the dust settles. No centipedes coming out of there so far. We both have a light ring turned on, Nalu took back the warpick, I’m back to fighting barehanded, maybe I should get a shield. Doesn’t help that the only weapons I’m familiar with are remote control combat drones and my spaceship’s emergency artillery. Well, I did cut off my arm that one time so I’m a bit familiar with machetes, in a very unhelpful way. It’s good that incidents like this aren’t so permanent with my new body, even if the prostheses did their job very well.

Man I just hope the giant centipede won’t come anywhere near. Must still be mad about the fruit.

Can’t see much inside the new cave, but it indeed looks unexplored compared to the rest of the mineshaft here.

I don’t like the familiar clicking sounds coming from inside there all of a sudden. That sounds like a lot more than one of them.

Nalu doesn’t seem like she’s going to wait for them. Her eyes are glowing like fires in the night through her visor.

“NALU STRONG, YES!” her mana is rushing through her like a mad wave.

She jumps into the opening with enough force that the wall might have just collapsed from the impact if it was still standing. Who needs explosives? She is the explosives.

I can already hear the centipedes’ chitin breaking.

My turn now.