A bluish-white glass coated metal sphere is thrown my way. It’s about the size of a bowling ball, an easy catch. I flinch under the weight, it’s extremely heavy, the chair under me is creaking and fighting for its life. Are we playing demolition bowling or what? She threw that like it was weightless, how fucking strong are her arms?

“This little toy is a Poison Steel training ball, this metal is extremely dense and has the interesting property of getting exponentially heavier the more mana you inject into it.”

I figured it was quite dense from the moment the poor chair started crying, there was no more need to tell me! I’m supposed to learn about magic here but I’m really having a workout.

“I usually use it for muscle training but today you’ll use it to train your magic control. When it suddenly gets heavier it means you passed, don't worry about the glass, mana goes straight through.”

Looking at it up close there are a number of small red characters inscribed around the glass, this and what’s on her clothes, should be the runes she mentioned earlier…I already knew but the limits of the universal tongue upgrade are frustrating… more learning to look forward to I guess.

“Won’t it destroy the wooden floor if it gets heavier and I drop it?”

“Not unless you pump it absolutely full of mana no, the flooring here is sturdy, I mean look at me how much do you think someone my size weighs, and I often come here in full armor.”

Alright, that’s nice and all, but I have absolutely no idea how to do this.

Also, a metal this dense, bluish-white, what Poison Steel, this is a god damn Osmium ball isn’t it ?! There are some quirks of the universal tongue upgrade that I need to figure out.

“So what do I do, exactly?”

“Concentrate on your hands, and think very strongly about sending energy from your hands to the ball. For some people it helps to imagine their whole body being attracted and pushed towards the place you want the energy to escape from. This is the most basic form of using mana, straight up sending energy, everyone can do that. What it does exactly depends on what you do it on. For a lot of things it just heats them up, poison steel gets heavy, gold glows, silver hardens… ”

I spend the next twenty five minutes or so trying to send mana to that ball of nightmares, I feel it getting heavier for sure but that’s my muscles getting tired. Meanwhile Miss Guild Master sat back at her desk and is filling out some paperwork.

I need a pause. I slowly get the ball on the ground, locked between my feet.

“Say, oh great Guild Master, is your affinity with electricity ?”

She lifts her head and looks at me for a second. Then gets back to work.

“Not exactly but it is part of it. How did you find out, student monkey leaf?” I probably deserved that one. She sounds moderately curious.

“I had a hunch when the windows closed by themselves and when the chalk stick flew to your hand. The way there is only a very select few metal objects in this room felt suspicious, but what really convinced me in the end is how easily you threw that ball at me. When you were handling it, it looked weightless, and I’ve been holding it for long enough now to be convinced there’s no way in hell you’re strong enough to effortlessly pick this up with one hand like you did.”

“ ‘Hell’? Hmm, well you’re not wrong, it was magnetically hovering near my hand. I could have thrown it to you without ever touching it but I wanted to make sure you understood you needed to catch it.”

“Now get back to the ball, or do you need more babysitting ?”

Do you really have to put it that way? Can’t you give me a shred of face? My self esteem is taking a big enough hit from my clothing or lack thereof.

“I wouldn’t mind some help, please.” Screw this ball. I’ve never shied away from asking for help from those who know better, else I never could have even put on a spacesuit.

She’s quick to come to my side of the room, and proceeds to take off her right glove and offers me her hand as if she’s asking for a handshake. I stand up and grab her hand. It’s very rugged, yeah the swords I saw earlier are definitely not for show.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Nothing happens. We stand like this for a good ten seconds.

Is this some kind of prank? The silence is awkward.

She is looking increasingly shocked by the second.

The blessing!!! Wait. She counts as an artifact? Any and all magic items uh? Living beings are artifacts, noted. Or maybe she’s a very well disguised robot. Also it’s only meant to prevent damage isn’t it! What exactly is she trying to do!

“Uhm, uh, maybe try the other hand?” I break the silence, her face is quite comical right now, she’s even blushing a bit, she probably poured a ton of mana in there only for it to all be eaten by the ridiculous blessing.

She looks lost for a second, like she’s contemplating her life choices, but then she nods and takes away her other glove.

I barely have time to touch her hand before a terrible shock goes through my arm, causing my muscles to contract and a lot of pain, for some reason it stopped before getting to my shoulder. So this is what getting tased feels like…

Judging by Eviniel’s satisfied expression this was the intended outcome. I doubt she has a lot of friends if this is how she usually helps them.

“I sent you a small electric shock, if you still feel the path it took through your arm, this is the way you should feel your manalite going out when you use it, except in reverse. If you don’t manage to directly get it to get to your hand then you can try guiding it along the arm by following this path. But getting it directly to the destination should very quickly become instinctual when you manage to do it even once. Most people struggle for a day or two the first time.”

“If you remember the earlier explanation, what you’re trying to do is getting the manalite to move through you from your crystal to your hand. You’re not trying to cast magic with your affinity, so the manalite will skip going to your brain. You will clearly feel it moving inside you when you get it right. Anyway just keep at it, I’m going back to work, just come to me if you need another shock.”

“I think a single one was fine! Thank you very much.”

I have no idea how long I spent on this but seeing the angle from which the sun shines through the window it’s probably been a few hours, as I focus back on the ball I finally feel it. A great surge of energy escapes my chest and flies through my arms, it has no need for guidance at all, it’s like it cannot wait to get out, the ball in my hands suddenly gets a few shades darker.

Also it probably now weighs a literal ton. I’m already falling from the chair halfway towards the ground, dragged down by the sudden change in weight. I manage to release the damned thing and land hands first on the floor. The ball isn’t rolling, it didn’t break the floorboards per say but it looks like it at least made a nice dent to rest into. My nails may have also made a few holes.

A calm voice sounds from the opposite corner of the room.

“He already got it. That was fast.”

It’s Prina, the winged girl from earlier. I didn’t even hear her coming in.

“Well, he had the best teacher around, it’s only natural.”

“Guild Master, I think it may have to do with him having been able to do it before his amnesia.”

How does she even know about that, did they talk? I can get not hearing her coming in but not hearing them talk? They can’t have discussed it outside, Eviniel never left her desk.

I get up.

"Sorry I think I damaged the floor after all."

"Don't worry about it, follow Prina and get dressed up, we're doing the identification later."

Before leaving the room I turn to the desk and bow.

"I thank you for your guidance, teacher."

I think that made her happy.

As I close the door behind me her voice sound softly from the room “I knew I was a good teacher! These idiots wouldn’t even let me get close to their chi…” I can’t hear the end.

Prina silently guides me through a few corridors. I have a hard time not staring at her back. She enters a room and signals me to follow. It's a small room with a single window, there's a small table, a large chair, a large barrel without a top in a corner, probably the bath, steam is rising out of it, a wooden armor stand and an empty weapon rack against a wall, and lastly a single bed. The bed is clearly intended for one person but it's still the longest I've ever seen, Eisures can grow quite tall…

Prina points at a pile of clothes on the bed.

"Do you know how to put on clothes?"

I'm tempted to say I don't.

"I should manage, thank you."

“Good.” She then rummages through a pocket in her dress and takes out a handful of pointy metal things, probably iron or steel, and a tiny bar of green soap. “Take a bath first and put these on.” She looks at me as she hands me the things. “You might need this also.” After searching in the same pocket she takes out a small wooden hairbrush. Just how much stuff is in that pocket of hers?

She starts going through the door but stops in her tracks “There’s water on the table if you need a drink, the restroom is the last door near the window, I’ll be back to fetch you in an hour, don’t wander around.” She closes the door before I can say anything.

How did she know to heat the bath in advance?