The group finished exploring the rather boring fort that Fen had destroyed in the past and decided on a place to camp. As Sophia had promised Maya to teach her earth magic, the cat-girl had gotten too excited for some reason. She eagerly brought the girl to a suitable training place by pushing her by the back all the way, wanting to start immediately.

"The basics, please!" She was really looking forward to it.

"Why are you so... like this, Maya?" Sophia simply gestured at all of her. "I know you love magic, as much as I do, but you're way too excited over it." She was suspicious about why she was acting like that.

"You need fire, water, and earth magic to build a bath, yes?"

"Uhh, yeah?" She failed to see what this had to do with anything.

"Great!" The cat-girl got even more excited, her ears pointing up, together with her tail sticking up and its tip twitching in the same rhythm as her ears.

"What... are you up to?" Sophia didn't like where this was going.

"I want to try my hand on building a bath for us!"

"W-Why would you want that? Is there anything wrong with how I build them?"

"Yeah, it's always way too big."

"W-What's the problem with that?"

"While I tamed you enough over the last weeks that you stopped hiding in the furthest corner when I entered the water… It still lacks a sense of closeness, being in such an oversized bath!"

"T-Tamed?!" She had a strong reaction to the word and seemed embarrassed. "Y-You didn't tame me! Did... you?"

"'Course I did~."

"E-Eh?!" This was clearly news to Sophia.

"I'm just kidding. I think, hope… you're not doing that anymore because you've gotten more comfortable around me." She corrected herself.

"A-Ah, okay... good."

"Can I tame you?" Maya looked quite cheeky.

"W-What do you even mean?"

"Ahaha~. Nothing, don't mind me."

"I-I do, and I want to know! Tell me!" Sophia was curious about it.

"Eventually... Maybe in the future, once I've found out myself what I want." She got evasive all of a sudden. "Anyway, I want to add my own twist to it by building the bath!"

"Uhh, I have a bad feeling..." Sophia said it out loud. "How about we postpone the training session? How does the same time, same date next year sound to you?"

"Not happening."

"Yeah, figured as much." She hadn't much hope in her plea getting accepted. "Whatever, let's get over with it." She gave up. Until it stimulates her feelings too much, Sophia had become rather indifferent to most concerning things.

"Yay, thank you very much!"

"Sure..." Resigning to her fate, Sophia began showing the cat-girl the basics of earth magic. Remembering how Fen had taught her earth magic a while ago, she, too, created a perfectly shaped cube out of the soil and urged Maya to recreate it.

"That's a very pretty cube, I give you that, but how am I supposed to make my own?"

"Hmm, I first got the hang of it by imagining a pair of hands that manipulate the earth for me. Like forming a ball, or cube in this case."

"Imaginary hands?" Maya thought about the idea for a moment. "I kinda get it, but somehow, I don't..."

"Please close your eyes for me."

"No funny business now, Sophia. We're training here!"

"W-What do you mean? What should I do to you with your eyes closed?" She was confused but got embarrassed regardless because of her imagination.

"F-Forget it..." The cat-girl was a bit shy herself. Finally, she closed her eyes as requested by Sophia, almost as if running away.

"Ehh? Y-You always do that... Trying to tease me, I think, and then backing out..."

"I'm waiting~." The topic was over for Maya.

"Urgh, fine!" Sophia felt it would be the healthiest choice to ignore it. "Okay, now that your eyes are closed, think about your hands forming whatever object works best for you with dirt."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Okay... That, I can work with." Having a fitting image, she sooner or later seemed relatively confident. "So, what now?"

"Try to use those imaginary arms on actual soil and manipulate it. Try whatever you want first, but that square's the goal for you to pass." She pointed at the thing she created earlier.

"Ever the tyrant!" Maya glanced at the absolutely perfect 90° angles of the construct after opening her eyes for a moment. "I want a reward for doing something so high level!"

"You're learning earth magic because you want to build a bath... that's nothing reward-worthy. Also, you are building. a. bath... for us! I-If that isn't enough of a reward for y-you, I don't know!"

"I admit, fair point." The cat-girl could follow Sophia's reasoning. "Good, let me train, then."

"Feel free to ask if something doesn't work." Suffering from the results or not, she still planned on helping her.

"Thanks. Ah, didn't you tell me yesterday about wanting to test something out as well? What was it again?"

"Oh, thanks for reminding me, Maya. Right, I wanted to experiment with light magic. Just being able to turn on the light, literally, is a bit lackluster..."

"I don't know. It's pretty impressive to me." If anything, she thought it was one of her most flashy magics, ignoring the time the girl blew up an entire plain. "I-It's not anything dangerous, is it?" Thinking about said explosion made Maya slightly concerned.

"Absolutely not. Actually, it's the most harmless magic I ever wanted to try my hands on."

"That's relieving. This also means you have no reason to run away, great. Let's train together here." Preventing Sophia from running wild by being alone was still the cat-girl's number one task.

"Yeah, yeah, I wasn't planning to run away." She had already accepted not being able to be left alone for the time being, thanks to her track record.

Though their topics were different, both girls began to train together. Maya was trying to figure out earth magic while Sophia played around with her light magic.

----------------

A good couple of hours passed before the two took a break and shared their progress.

"Earth magic's somehow harder than the others."

"Pun intended?" Sophia wondered if she used the word hard, on magic focusing around heavy soil, on purpose.

"Maybe a bit, but it is really complicated to control."

"Well, I do admit that it took me a little while until I had proper control of the details, as well."

"I can kinda manipulate the soil to some degree now, but yeah... I'm still unable to get the details." Maya looked at the pile of failures she created so far. Many shapes somewhat resembling balls, cylinders, cubes, and many others, but nothing seemed good enough to pass. "What about you?"

"I've also hit a bit of a dead-end." She wasn't making as much progress as she hoped to, either.

"Something I can help with?"

"Not really, except if you're injured somewhere, which I really hope you aren't." She scanned Maya from head to toe, and tail.

"Nope, I'm in tip-top shape." She gave her a V-sign. "Wait, why are you asking? Hmm, what are you even trying to do? I totally forgot to ask."

"Healing magic. I think it should work with the image I have in mind, but I obviously can't test it without any injuries."

"H-Healing magic" The cat-girl looked shocked. "Okay, that's my fault. Yeah, my bad." She was apologizing for some reason. "I see now, just having her nearby isn't enough to stop her. You actually have to constantly watch this girl, alright..."

"W-What is wrong?" Sophia didn't understand why she was so surprised.

"Haa, healing magic's not only extremely rare, but it's also basically sacred. Only a chosen few should be able to use it! Those people can make a living and even become rich just by healing others."

"Ehh? Will I get in trouble if I'm able to do it?"

"That's not it... It's even written down in books that only people chosen by a god, or higher existences, depending on who you ask and what their religion is, are supposed to be able to use the high light magic healing... I have no idea what to believe anymore..."

"People... chosen by... a g-god? Ahaha, that's, err, so that's... how it is, huh?" Even with her boosted stats, that cover-up was beyond pathetic.

"S-Sophia, don't tell me..."

"l-I don't think this applies to chantless magic users being able to use original, uncategorized magic..." This excuse of hers sounded much more believable. "I-Imagining fixing a wound with some slight medical knowledge should do the trick pretty well. You only have to take care of what exactly you want to heal to make sure you don’t do more damage than good."

"If-, If you say so..." Maya somehow had a strong feeling she really shouldn't press the issue any further.

The two continued on their own for another couple of hours until the evening. They actually managed to make some good progress before calling it a day. While still not perfect, Maya had gotten really close to recreating the training cube and should be able to do so on the following day. Sophia needed to be a little creative with her healing magic, as she had no living test subjects. Snapping the stem of a nearby plant, she played around for a while until she successfully managed to reattach it without destroying the plant.

----------------

Having found a good stopping point, the two reunited with Fen at their camp before going through their usual evening routine. Being glad Maya had yet to fully master earth-related magic, Sophia felt a bit relieved after heading over to their bath after dinner. She still had complete control over the layout for today. Then again, she wasn't sure how much would change in the first place because she didn't believe that taking a bath with the cat-girl could get any more tiring, anyway.

As expected, being exhausted rather than relaxed afterward, Sophia turned herself in for the night soon, leaving Fen and Maya on their own. She had taken somewhat of a liking to their routine, but it still weighed heavy on her mental sanity at the moment.

"How did it go? Training, that is." The wolf addressed her.

"Not bad, still working on the fine details, but I managed to learn earth magic."

"Good work. What about Sophia? Something ridiculous again?"

"Haa..."

"Huh? I just wanted to make a joke. What happened?"

"She was playing around with healing magic... and succeeding..."

"That girl."

"Fen, has Sophia some sort of connection to a god?"

"..." He tried to think of an answer. "I, too, can use healing magic, you know?" He kept it as vague as possible.

"So, being powerful really is enough?"

"Yeah. After all, we only need a good image of it to work with."

"Wow... Hmm?" Maya was impressed for a moment but then noticed that his answer sounded somewhat evasive around the topic. "Huh?" The cat-girl also remembered who, or what the wolf most likely actually is. With him being who he's supposed to be, having a connection to a god wouldn't be too surprising. She was about to address her concerns when she looked at Fen and noticed that he didn't look like he would answer any more questions. With her mind still full of questions no one wanted to answer her, she ultimately decided to drop the topic and got ready to sleep herself.