"Did learning my method at least help?" Sighed Aki after hearing about the demon's way of improving bloodlines and more normal talents.

With the amount of Aether he was pumping out, there was very little difference between the two as long as the person in question tried hard enough.

"A little?" Shrugged Septima. The fact that she had unrestricted access to one of the smartest people around and his knowledge didn't always mean she could understand what he tried to convey.

In this case, there was just too much theory behind the mesh of energy Aki suggested, while the demon way was literally just fight and meditate, watch and meditate, eat and meditate, which according to the person with a bigger vocabulary was basically the equivalent to trying to solve a puzzle by mashing every piece together one at a time while blindfolded.

Due to the increased lifespan gained through the system, even a human could feasibly try the method through any method of self introspection they could get their hands on, but the problem was that this method had exponential increases in difficulty, which was not necessarily the limit to the necessary amount of time for progress due to the very nature of the endeavour.

"I realize it’s hard as hell, but it’s also highly rewarding, otherwise paths like the spellweaver one wouldn’t be locked behind so much bullshit like age requirements, spell development and research. I still need several months or years to actually cash in those paths since there’s plenty I want to do first, but you also saw how ridiculous the third levels and above are, you know those things were only available to tempt me into something or the other.” He pointed out, a serious look on his face.

“And I still think that being a sorcerer is bullshit! I don’t have the talent and you know it.” Her rebuttal was angry at first, but taking a deep breath, the red head continued on a calmer tone only to see the young man giving her a smirk.

“And I have the library of arrogance and wisdom. If I can't even use it to help someone I care about then what good is it for? This time it can be different, my skills changed and I have my image formed. You know I wasn't expecting to have my second tribulation so soon, but now that is over and done with, we can research emotion until you are able to slap every dragon spawn and priest into killing themselves out of shame." He exclaimed with vigor badly hidden by his low tone of voice.

"Ok, let's say I learn proper magic despite not knowing shit about all those complicated formulas that come naturally to you." Spreading her hands around, the farvit woman sighed. "I still don't have a lick of your efficiency, stats or sheer fascination with magic." She said, as if challenging him.

"I have over a thousand different spells on a list, several of which are so complex they can't even be properly compiled into one big skill by the system, and an Aether well ready to be abused. We farm you the stats until you have a hundred of each and I help you advance your mental stats' grade. If by then you still don't have a growing soul and extra multipliers, I will find a way to eat my own ass and then do it." He explained with an extremely serious face.

"...And does this have to do with your infatuation for me?" The statement in much the same tone of challenge, though it was like something had been put to the table and she expected the tension to rise.

"Just my platonic feeling would have driven me to offer this help." Aki shook his head, ears becoming a bit red but otherwise maintaining his serious expression. "This childish love is something I understand and I work towards crushing it into a more purposeful drive, but know that I would not blemish our friendship with it. At the very least, it would be very unhealthy to try, so I'd much prefer to remain like this."

"Why? Would you be jealous of my harem?" She snickered, taken aback by the honesty and decisiveness. The sudden nod to her rhetorical question also a bit strange.

"And your promiscuity, nevermind I'd become even more worried about your health in general so I'd start butting in every time I saw you trying to consume a drug or another, add to that my trust issues and swaying sense of self worth and I'd be hurting myself even more by trying to love you like that than by suffocating this feeling. I don't need to be patronised Set, I know about matters of the heart despite my young age. I ask you again though, are you willing to learn my magic and make it yours." He rebutted, bringing their conversation back around without some dramatic fall out.

The woman didn't answer immediately, mouth half open in surprise before she started grumbling to herself. Sighing after a few minutes, she turned back to looking at Aki, who was patiently waiting.

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"I am very scared of all of this. I don't trust myself with giving my emotions so much power." She admitted. "If I have another episode I don't want to turn everything around me into an unlivable landscape, and I don't know how much longer I will have this control over myself. Even though I didn't lose much with the coming of the system it's still been difficult." As she hugged herself and steeled her voice, Aki approached, arms open, but seeing as he didn't go further, Septima rolled her eyes but nodded and enjoyed his warm hug and the way he brushed her hair with his fingers. They stayed like that for a few minutes, just calming down a bit with the warmth of each other’s body. He’d sworn he did not have a skill for it, but his hands honestly felt a bit too good for that to be…

“Ha, turns out there ARE skills for hugging and petting!” Aki said, suddenly laughing and sharing the notification for the two new skills, Hugging and Soothing (O), which prompted her to hide a half smile while giving his chest a light hit. They goofed about it a bit, but eventually he just gave her a reassuring smile. “Even if you have some kind of split personality or returning depression, don’t think I won't beat your ass until you stop trying to do something you’d regret. If it means you will learn magic I'll prioritize figuring out long range teleportation and put an anchor on your head, that way I'll be able to save you even if you are suddenly decapitated.” He explained with a grin and a maniacal glint in his eyes.

“That would work, really?” Asked the woman who was not affected by that at all, surprised to hear that was even an option.

“Only if it is immediate and your soul isn’t destroyed in the process, but otherwise i’d be able to save even your system access if i am fast enough, which yes, you lose after dying once, but it’s more like you lose the opportunities given out then the system not recognizing your existence.” Shrugging, the young man explained as if it was a completely normal topic everyone knew about.

“If you can do that then i guess i don’t have any more excuses to not be your apprentice.” She sighed, far more relaxed after their talk.

“Good to hear. Now, i’ve always wanted to do this, but relax, it’s not going to hurt me even a bit.” He grinned, and before she could fully process what was said, his index finger touched the space between her eyebrows and pain flooded her head, making the newly minted sorcerers pass out.

…………..

It was an hour later that a certain rabbit-eared woman woke up to a homework induced headache, having received the memories of casting a dozen different spells.

When getting up, she then saw a rather taut Aki trying to wield a metal bow with a magic arrow and a weird pose.

"I hate you, but thanks for figuring out a way to show me memories. I haven't been that great at figuring out the feelings for those spontaneous spells you suggested, so I was wondering how you'd finally teach me." She admitted while approaching, her would-be master relaxing and giving her a smile and what she now recognised as a gun, his bow and arrow disappearing into storage.

"To be fair, that was the first time I used the spell, but I even got several levels in the process and it isn’t like it is particularly harmful. Wanna figure out how to properly shoot these with me? I teach you magic, you teach me marksmanship, you promised.” He admitted while making puppy eyes, which was rather weird considering how menacing he normally looked, though the shoulder length hair and soft features were easily glossed over in normal times.

“Fine, fine, but how powerful are these things anyway? Humans say they are weapons of mass murder, but at this point i guess you’d have a hard time killing anyone above level ten with it. You swear your magical variants won’t explode on my hand?” She agreed, giving him a look as she pretended a shooting range hadn’t popped out of nowhere in the forest clearing they were at.

“Of course it isn’t going to explode. It’s far more likely to misfire. I know the metals well enough, but it’s not like I can just enchant stuff to their maximum potential with this little time. Also, I only have the designs for a revolver, a pistol and a military sniper rifle, so unless we can find some kind of gun maniac those are all we’re going to have until I figure out how to reverse engineer those elven plasma and rail weaponry. On the bright side, most skills for bows also work with these, so I'm saving a lot of my time by getting them like this." He explained.

"So you already got trick shot, rapid firing, quick draw, infused shot, disarm, hawk eye and deadshot?" She cocketishly asked while examining the weapon.

"I don't even have aiming yet!" Aki scoffed. "Though I did figure out infused shot, and would you look at it, the skill shot directly to yellow grade. More importantly though, I managed to make a new spell to summon ammunition, which actually allowed me to gain a skill called Prismatic shot, which is green grade, and the whole thing is about infusing the most magic of different elements into a single shot while making them work together.” As he explained, they both started becoming more serious as they started discussing skills and builds to form around these.

While one fumbled about trying to right his posture and take the most out of his draw power while keeping aim steady over hundreds of meters and with moving targets, the other kept misfiring her spells, missing her targets or not putting enough power despite the amount of shots and the simplicity of the spell she tried to infuse. As each one failed though, the other tried their best to help them and correct any mistake in their actions, each slowly getting better with the help.