If I was to be honest with myself, I could have left Lia to catch some more sleep. But, sadly for her, I was not that nice, not today, not after getting woken up far too early. Instead, I made sure to wake Lia just as I woke Luna, who I wanted to have with me while teaching these people the foundational parts of magic. Thanks to her connection to Lady Hecate and the lessons she had previously listened to, she was quite competent when it came to them and had a few abilities that amplified that even further.

Lia, on the other hand, had little actual magical knowledge, she could use what I had taught her but when it came to the more esoteric and theoretical parts, she was a bit of a dunce. Or maybe simply not interested, instead preferring to hit things with her hands, claws, cleaver or anything else, as long as it hurt. She was passionate like that.

Either way, it didn’t take long for the three of us to get ready, all the while I noticed Silva look at us with that canine grin of amusement I knew so well. She was awake right now, but given that she hadn’t moved beyond raising her head for a moment, I was fairly certain that she’d get back to sleep as soon as we left. Or maybe she’d follow us, but only to look for some nice spot of sunshine to continue sleeping. Sadly, I couldn’t go napping in the sun, mostly because I hated the sun, but also because I had to teach these people magic.

And so, I took both of my daughters along after we finished breakfast. Luna, obviously, to help with the lessons I had in mind, Lia, on the other hand, might find someone she could teach how to fight. From what I had seen last night, the locals relied on ambush tactics and ranged attacks, not bad from a tactical point but strategically, it was suicide. If they only had ranged attackers used to and skilled in working from ambushes, they’d get utterly annihilated if their base was ever attacked, or worse, breached.

There was a reason why almost all groups travelling on Mundus had some sort of melee attackers, some people to get up with the enemy and force them into a fight, even if in many cases the killing could be done easier from a distance. Mostly, because it was only in ‘many’ cases, not always and in the cases where it couldn’t be done, a group that completely relied on ranged attacks could be utterly destroyed without a chance to fight back. There was a reason why I tried to give all my companions the skills to work up close or from a distance, though Luna was currently exempt from that. No matter what her attributes said, or how her high level forced her to mature artificially fast, she was only a child, I didn’t need to add that to the things I felt guilty about. And forcing her to fight in melee without her magic was just not necessary. Or so I hoped.

But these people here didn’t have a powerful mother who was willing to keep them safe, while they had some basic protection from their location and a guard at the entrance, that wouldn’t keep them safe. It was only luck that had made it so they hadn’t been attacked already, luck or maybe providence, I wasn’t sure. Either way, it wasn’t something that could be relied upon, at some point, they’d get attacked and that day would mark the loss of yet another pocket of humanity. There weren’t enough of those left for my taste, I didn’t want to imagine a world where my group were the only thinking people left. Even with the four of them for company, that’d get lonely, to say nothing of the hassle that would come with growing our own food. If there was one area I wasn’t interested in, agriculture would be it. No, that kind of hard labour was not for me, nor could I see a simple work-around with my magic, be it current or future.

And so, it was a group of three that addressed the gathered people, of which there were surprisingly many. Not everyone was in attendance, though that might have had to do with the size of the room, but a lot more than back when I had given this very lecture at Mrs Wu’s gym. The lecture about the system, about Astral Power and the Astral River, about elements and what magic could do. The rules about conjuring, about meditating and warnings about the dangers of the Astral River, interspersed with examples and demonstrations. All the while, Luna was sitting nearby, quietly using her divinely granted abilities to bolster the understanding of the people before me, hoping to draw them onto the Arcane Path.

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The reasons why Luna’s divine powers worked as they did were something I was only beginning to understand, or at least I thought I understood. It was fairly simple, one of the first things I had learned about Lady Hecate, back when I was creating my Avatar in the capsule, was that the Lady wasn’t interested in blind, sheep-like followers. She, to my understanding, wanted people capable of reaching the end of the Arcane Path and pushing it further. Like any good scientist, she understood that progress wasn’t made by a lone genius, but by the work of countless people, all creating their own small bricks that constructed the Tower of Knowledge. These small bricks could then be replicated and fill in gaps of another project, sometimes in ways the original creator of the brick hadn’t even imagined, and all the while, the tower was growing. And it was that tower that gave Lady Hecate her power. She wasn’t just a goddess, she was the Goddess of Magic, or at least of a part of magic, so I’d take almost any bet that she was an accomplished Arcanist herself.

To put it in the simplest words, she didn’t need believers to fuel her power, she simply needed people who pushed the boundaries of the Arcane and took inspiration from them to grow her own abilities. Those she deemed talented, or maybe simply those who did something insane or brilliant, not that there was a big difference when it came to magic, she probably blessed, lending them a bit of her power in order to get a direct channel to them. Maybe to give them a bit of guidance, maybe to simply observe, I wasn’t sure and it didn’t really matter, she gave power and I was quite grateful.

Maybe that was the reason why I gained EXP when teaching people magic lessons, she added it to her blessing to incentivise the teaching of arcane magic, thus spreading the skills she thrived on even further, hopefully reaching all those who had the potential to push the boundaries. It sounded fairly rational to me, though what sounded rational to me might be utter insanity to a deity, I wasn’t sure. And it didn’t really matter, so far, it felt as if she was thoroughly benevolent, though her benevolence brought massive future benefits to her if my theory was correct.

By the end of my lesson, we got to the point where I invited the people here to ask questions. I had to thoroughly smother my amusement when the first, and loudest, question asked was about the conjuration of water, especially warm water. It sounded as if the shower I had conjured for them earlier was the biggest incentive to learn magic anyone could offer, to the point that the one person who had an affinity for Water and Fire Magic was elected to be the first I would help gain his magic within the Astral River. They wanted her to be taught as much as possible, though the same was true for anyone who could conjure water, followed by those who could interact with Nature.

Fairly rational, in my opinion, to focus on the skills that would benefit the community the most. They had shelter, if they got water and a secure source of food, things would get better for them. Fighting was, to them, currently of secondary importance, I think they believed that their base was secure, a belief I would have to correct at some point, but that would come, soon. Well, maybe I would, I wasn’t sure how long I really wanted to stay here. The people were fairly interesting but the lack of leadership was annoying, as was the lack of opportunity. Maybe I should stay until the people here had a good understanding of magic, I might even push Lia to help them get a functioning leadership if they couldn’t get it done by themself.

That sounded like a fairly reasonable plan, stay until those interested and talented had unlocked their magic, maybe watch as they gained classes if they hadn’t already, work with Luna to set up the beginning of a shrine to Hecate and explore the area.

There had been two dungeons near my hometown, maybe there was one here, too. Maybe even one that would give me a bit of a challenge, as long as it wasn’t a puzzle-challenge.