“I am,” said Elise.

Who was this woman? If the king asked her personally, she must be someone important, and the way that she was talking down to the royal wizard made Elise think that she must have high status. But how high was it? She needed to be on this woman’s good side. She used {Charm} again, and again saw no visible reaction, but this time, she got a level up notification

[ {Charm} has leveled up! 1 -> 2 ]

“What’s it like?” asked Greta.

“W-well, it’s- it’s… What do you mean?”

“I’ve only ever heard stories. How does the sun feel? What is the rain like?”

“You’ve never been to the surface?”

“Well if I had, I wouldn’t be asking these questions, would I? Now tell me: how does the sun feel?”

Elise looked around at the dwarves, and for the first time, realized how pale their skin was. Now that she noticed it, it was almost disconcerting. It was hard to tell on Jens, since his beard and hair covered most of his face, and his robes covered most of his body, but what little skin she could see was ghostly white. It looked unhealthy.

“The sun feels hot,” answered Elise. “And it’s very bright. If you look directly into it, you’ll go blind.”

“How hot?”

“Well, it depends on the time of year. In the summer it gets very hot, and it’s uncomfortable to be under it for too long, but in the winter when it’s cold, sitting in the sun feels very pleasant and warm.”

“How does that work? Why is summer hot and winter cold?”

“W-well, that’s-”

Elise wasn’t sure how much to say. How much did the people of this world know? If she told them about the orbit of the planet around the sun, would they understand? Would they be suspicious of her?

Even setting that aside, she was supposed to be a rabbit who recently evolved. Even if that was knowledge that existed in this world, was it knowledge she would have access to? The dwarves were clearly uninformed, but it still wouldn’t be good to let on exactly how much she knew.

“Well?” asked Greta. “Spit it out already.”

“I don’t know,” said Elise. “That’s just how it is.”

“I see. And what about the rain? Where does the water come from? How long does it last?”

“The water comes from the sky. And it can last a long time. A full day or more sometimes.”

“How does the water get into the sky?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where does it all go after it hits the ground?”

“I-I think it just gets absorbed into the ground.”

“Hmmm. Well, then what are the stars like? And the moon?”

“Well the moon looks- it’s the same size as the sun, but it’s not as bright. You can look at it safely. And the stars are like little dots of light in the sky.”

“Is it true that the stars form the shapes of people and monsters?”

“I- I don’t know.”

“Hmph. You don’t know much, do you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” said Greta. “Ignorance isn’t a sin. Jens, I’ve decided I’m going to teach this brat. Go tell the runt.”

“Greta, I still need to translate,” he said again.

“Hmph. She needs to learn our language, doesn’t she? How can she do that with that thing here? Take it and go away. I’ll handle things from here.”

Jens glanced between them a few times, then shrugged and picked up his orb and walked away. Elise almost sighed in relief as she watched him leave.

“Alivi evi csy pssomrk. Mx'w xmqi xs wxevx xli piwwsr." said Greta, bringing Elise’s attention back to her. "Fsso."

The old woman pointed a crooked finger at the book on the table in front of her.

“Fsso,” she repeated.

That must mean “book”.

“Fsso,” said Elise.

“Kssh." Greta pointed her finger at the table below the book. "Xefpi."

“Xefpi.”

“Kssh.”

The old woman continued to point at various things and say words in the dwarven language, which Elise then repeated back. The words sounded strange to her ears, and felt awkward in her mouth, but as the lesson went on, Elise found herself actually getting excited. It was much easier than she thought it would be. While she wasn’t bad at them, she never really had a talent for languages back on Earth, so picking up the human language before, and now the dwarf language so quickly came as a surprise to her.

She had two possible theories on why that was. The first was her ears. With her sensitive rabbit ears, she could pick out minute tonal differences, and catch every single sound that came out of the old woman’s mouth, which made it easier to then pronounce the words herself. The second theory was her Intelligence stat. She didn’t really feel much smarter than before, but lately, the clarity of her memories had been surprising her. It also could have been a combination of the two.

Either way, within a few hours, Elise knew the words for just about everything in the room, and was getting started on phrases.

“Qc reqi mw Greta,” said Greta, pointing to herself.

“Qc reqi mw Greta?” repeated Elise, unsure.

The old woman shook her head. “Rs. Qc reqi mw Greta.”

“Ohhh,” said Elise. “Qc reqi mw Elise.”

She wasn’t sure if she was saying “I am Elise” or “My name is Elise,” but she could tell she was learning an introduction.

“Csyv reqi mw Elise,” said Greta, pointing at Elise.

“Csyv reqi mw Greta?” guessed Elise.

“Kssh.”

From greetings, they moved on to directions, and Elise learned up down, left, right, forward, and backward, then she learned to count. All in all, it was a very good lesson. Greta maintained a steady level of terseness and interruption the entire lesson, which Elise took to mean she wasn’t getting impatient or frustrated, which was a good sign.

She was so focused on the lesson that she didn’t even notice how hungry she had gotten until a pair of women in the same brown dresses as the one who had woken her up arrived with trays of food. For Greta, they brought a plate of mushrooms and mystery meat, all chopped up into small chunks, steaming hot, and smelling amazing. For Elise, they brought two whole, uncooked, slightly damaged mushrooms.

When she looked up, she saw that both women had looks of dislike and a hint of fear on their faces. They stepped away so they wouldn’t get in the way, but Elise could see them watching her the whole time.

While a little hurt by how little care they put into her meal, it was still more than enough for her, and it tasted fine, so Elise didn’t complain. She ate all of one mushroom, and half of the other before getting full, then sat down to wait for Greta to finish her food. The old woman noticed Elise staring at her plate, and pulled her food closer to her chest.

“Csy lezi csyv sar jssh.”

When she finished eating, the serving girls cleared the plates away and the lesson resumed. They only made it a few minutes in though before they were interrupted by the arrival of someone else.

It was an older dwarf, with a beard so long that she was sure if it wasn’t braided up, it would be dragging on the ground as he walked. He was wearing decorative armor, but Elise could still tell that he was much skinnier than any of the other dwarves she had seen, save for Greta. He walked with a limp and a slight hunch, but when he approached, he had a certain presence that made the air feel heavier around them.

[ High Councilor of the Forgotten Kingdom, lvl ??? ]

[ {Inspect} has leveled up! 31 -> 33 ]

He stopped at the table right beside Elise, and his eyes were filled with so much hatred that she immediately activated her wings and flew up into the air away from him.

“Alex evi csy hsmrk livi, csy fewxevh?” asked Greta.

“M lievh xli gewxpi leh e vshirx tvsfpiq,” he replied.

“Csy’vi mrxivvytxmrk qc piwwsr,” said Greta.

“Piwwsr?” said the man. “M xlsyklx csy aivi vixmvih.”

“M aew. Rsa M’q rsx. Rsa ks eaec. Ai’vi fywc.”

“Ai? Lew xlex xlmrk ksxxir xs csy xss? M ger’x fipmizi csy’vi lsriwxpc xvcmrk xs vemwi e Jic.”

“M wemh ks eaec. Fijsvi M gepp xli kyevhw.”

“Sl, hsr’x asvvc,” said the old man. “M asr’x hs ercxlmrk.”

“M’q rsx asvvmih csy’pp hs wsqixlmrk, M nywx lexi csyv jegi,” said Greta. “Ks eaec.”

“Ew tpiewerx ew epaecw. M nywx aerxih xs lezi e gpswiv psso.” He looked at Elise and gestured toward himself. “Gsqi hsar livi. Pix qi xeoi e psso ex xlex qevo sr csyv gliwx.”

Heck no, thought Elise.

“Kyevhw!” shouted Greta suddenly, startling Elise.

The old man sighed as the door opened and two armored dwarves burst in.

“Li’w hmwvytxmrk qc piwwsr!” said Greta.

The guards stopped where they were, looking nonplussed. The old man sighed again and turned around.

“Jmri, M’pp piezi,” he said. “Fyx M’pp fi fego.”

He walked out past the guards, who still looked confused. They stayed for a few seconds longer before they too left. The lesson continued on for another hour or so until the old woman started yawning, and when she blinked her eyes stayed shut for longer and longer each time.

Eventually, when Elise started having trouble understanding what she was saying due to the mumbling and yawning, the old woman decided it was time to end the lesson and produced a small silver bell from her pocket and rang it. When it rang, Elise felt a faint wave of mana emanate from it, and a minute or so later, the library door opened and 3 maids and four guards entered. One of the maids was the same one who had awoken Elise, and it didn’t look like their time apart had improved their relationship.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

[ {Charm} has leveled up! 2 -> 3 ]

It can’t hurt, thought Elise.

The other two maids helped Greta out of her chair, and walked her out, accompanied by two of the guards. Elise’s maid gestured at Elise, and then led her and the remaining two guards out as well. From the library, they went to the end of the hallway where there was a stairwell going down. They went down four floors to what Elise thought was the lowest, then the maid pressed a near-invisible button on the stone wall to reveal that the stairs continued down to what would have been ten floors deeper.

When they reached the real bottom of the staircase, they opened a door to an enormous, mostly empty room. On the right side, there were racks of blunted weapons and dented armor, and on the far side, there was what looked like a well with a stack of stone bowls piled as high as a human man beside it. The wall to her left was much further than the one to her right, and looked battered and scarred, like someone had gone at it with an explosive ax.

In fact, the explosive ax-man himself was actively attacking the wall as the door opened, and Elise got to witness a mighty slash that gouged a new scar a foot deep in the wall. He was holding a large ax in either hand, and was dressed in full plate armor. After that final swing, he spun both axes in his hands before sliding them neatly into rings on the belt on his waist before walking toward them.

When he took his helmet off, he revealed the face of a man much younger than Elise initially expected. Hallbjorn had called him a Councilor, and the only other Councilors she had met were Jens, and the strange man in the library, both of whom appeared nearly as old as Greta. While Elise didn’t know how to judge dwarf ages yet, if he was human, Elise would have guessed him to be no older than 30. The skin behind his beard was smooth and unblemished, and his beard was a strong shade of brown without a hint of graying or thinness. It also was the shortest beard she had seen yet, save for Prince Johann’s peach fuzz.

“Hello!” he said in Dwarvish.

Elise was pleased to have recognized the word. Her lesson from earlier that day was already bearing fruit.

“Hello,” she responded, using {Charm} at the same time. “My name is Elise.”

The dwarf raised an eyebrow. “My name is Sindri. M xlsyklx Lmw Qeniwxc wemh csy hmhr’x wtieo Haevzmwl.”

Elise had no idea what he said, so she cocked her head to the side, hoping to indicate her confusion. Sindri sighed.

“Alivi xli lipp mw xlex sph jevx Jens?”

“Jens?” asked Elise

Was he going to come to translate?

“Yes.” Elise was happy to recognize another word. “Li wemh li’h fi livi xs xverwpexi. M orsa li ksx xli wmkrep.”

They waited for another minute or so before Sindri spoke again, though this time, he was looking at one of the two guards.

“Jonas,” he said.

“Ciw, Getxemr?” replied the guard on Elise’s right.

“Lsa’w csyv amji hsmrk?” said Sindri.

“Fixxiv,” said the guard. “Wli’w vigszivmrk. Wli’w rsx jyppc fego cix, fyx wli’w kixxmrk xlivi.”

“Xlex’w kssh,” said Sindri, turning to the other guard. “Fephyv, lsa’w xli pego sj amji hsmrk?”

“El, wlyx yt, qer,” said the guard with a grin. “Csy’vi qsvi wmrkpi xler qi.”

“M'q qevvmih xs qc hyxc,” said Sindri with an overly serious face before breaking out into a smile.

The three guards bantered for a few minutes longer before the door by the stairs opened again, and Jens emerged, walking at an almost exaggeratedly leisurely pace.

“Jens, csy sph jevx, alex xsso csy ws psrk?” called Sindri.

“M aew xeomrk e ret,” said the old wizard. “M leh e asrhivjyp hvieq. Xlivi aew e csyrk fsc, erh li aew kmzmrk qi xli viwtigx e qer sj qc wxexmsr hiwivziw.”

“Xss feh mx aew nywx e hvieq,” said Sindri, smiling.

“Ciw, xss feh,” said Jens, frowning. “Epvmklx, pix’w kix xlmw sziv amxl.”

He waved his arm and a stone chair appeared on the ground behind him. He waved his arm again and the blue orb appeared in his lap, and a moment later, Elise felt the ever-more-familiar sensation of the translation spell taking effect.

“Can you understand me now?” asked Sindri.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Good. I’m going to jump right in then. I don’t trust you. At all. If you didn’t have that rune on your chest, I’d kill you on sight. But you have it, and His Majesty told me to teach you about magic and fighting, so here we are. Any questions for me before we get started? No? Good. Then let’s begin. How much do you know?”

“Wh-what?”

Elise was so taken aback that she couldn’t even begin to formulate an answer.

“His Majesty said you wanted to learn about magic and fighting,” repeated Sindri. “How much do you know already?”

“A-almost nothing.”

“Do you at least know what mana is?”

“Kind of?”

“Right then. Jens, you’re a wizard. Tell her what mana is.”

“No,” said the old man.

Elise looked back to see that he had somehow reclined his stone chair, and had a book open while the orb sat loosely on his lap. The maid and two guards were eying him with hints of jealousy.

“Come on, man,” whined Sindri.

“His Majesty told you to teach her, not me,” said Jens, not looking up from his book. “I’m just here to translate.”

“But you’re better at this than me.”

“Flattery won’t work.”

“Fine,” said Sindri, turning back to Elise. “Mana is magical energy. It’s everywhere, but tends to concentrate inside living beings. No one knows why. As your Mana stat gets higher, the amount of mana you can have within you also increases. The mana in you gets consumed whenever you use a skill that requires mana, and your body slowly absorbs more until you’re back to your maximum capacity. Understand?”

“...Yes,” said Elise.

She started to wonder if she had made the right choice. Sindri didn’t seem like a particularly good or motivated teacher so far, and everything he had just told was information she had already figured out on her own.

“Good,” he said. “Now, do you know how to train your mana?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you know how to train your other stats?”

“You can do that?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t you be able to? How else could we set ourselves apart? The numbers you see on your status window aren’t actual measurements of your stats. They just indicate your limits. If you class up and increase your Strength to 500, you don’t actually have 500 Strength. You have to train your strength if you want the full 500. And it’s the same for all the other stats too.

“Since His Majesty said you wanted to learn magic, we’ll start with Mana and Mana Control. So, what spells do you have?”

“Uhhhh…”

Elise wasn’t sure how much she could say. Or what qualified as a spell. Since they were talking about Mana, that probably meant only the skills that consumed mana, right? In that case, her spells were mostly standard and innocuous. She wouldn’t be revealing {Suggest} though.

“You have spells, right?” asked Sindri.

“I have {Magic Missile}?”

“Good enough. Now, cast it on…” he trailed off as he gestured vaguely to his right side. “Dammit, hold on.”

He marched to the side of room where Elise noticed another door in the stone wall. As he entered, Elise heard him muttering to himself.

“The one time they actually put them away…”

He emerged from the room carrying a vaguely humanoid stone dummy on each shoulder. He set them down about a dozen feet away from Elise, and rotated them so that both of them were facing her. Neither had any distinct features, but Elise noticed that both of them were clearly not dwarves. They were far too tall and thin.

Are they supposed to be the drow?

“Alright, cast your spell on one of these,” said Sindri.

Elise hesitated for a moment, then cast {Magic Missile} on the leftmost dummy, which was also the furthest away from Sindri. The last thing she needed was an accidental misfire that hit Sindri. A misfire wasn’t really something she had to worry too much about with this skill, but it was better to be safe than to be killed by the man who specifically told her he wanted to kill her, all because of a stupid accident.

All three missiles hit their target, approximately in the center of the abdomen area. She felt a bit pleased with herself until Sindri shook his head in disappointment.

“What’s your Mana Control?” he asked.

After a brief internal debate, Elise decided it would be safe to tell him the truth. It wasn’t any great secret, and hopefully it would help them trust her more. At the very least, it might alleviate their concerns if they were worried she was very strong and manipulating them.

“223,” she said.

“223?!” exclaimed Sindri. “I would have guessed 150. Your control is abysmal. No consistency and so much waste.” He unsheathed one of his axes and used it to make a tiny X on the chest of one of the dummies. “Do it again. Try to land all the missiles right on this spot. Also, try not to waste so much mana.”

“How do I do that?” she asked.

“Just focus more,” he said. “Now go, cast it again.”

What’s that supposed to mean? She wanted to ask.

She cast the spell again, trying to focus on her aim. She didn’t bother to think about not wasting her mana, because she didn’t even know what he meant when he said that, but she did try to focus her {Mana Sense} to find out. All three missiles missed the X, but the spread was a little tighter than it had been on her first cast. She also thought she caught a hint of what he might have meant when he talked about waste. Each missile left a trail of stagnant mana behind it as it flew through the air.

[ {Magic Missile} has leveled up! 5 -> 6 ]

[ {Mana Sense} has leveled up! 5 -> 6 ]

“Again,” said Sindri.

She did it again, this time putting more focus on trying to keep the mana within the missiles the whole way through. The waste lessened, but her aim got drastically worse. One of the missiles strayed all the way to the dummy’s shoulder.

“Again. Use less mana this time.”

She cast again, trying to follow his instruction. To her surprise, she managed to cast the spell using half the mana she had before. The missiles were so much easier to control that she ended up overcorrecting on her aim, making it almost as bad as the previous attempt. However, there was almost no waste.

She cast again without waiting for Sindri’s signal, using the same amount of mana, but with a better idea of how to control it. All three missiles hit within an inch of the X, and there was hardly any waste mana.

[ {Magic Missile} has leveled up! 6 -> 7 ]

[ {Mana Sense} has leveled up! 6 -> 7 ]

“Better,” said Sindri, nodding. “Again, with even less power.”

She cast 3 more times, each time reducing the mana until it got so low that the missiles fizzled out before reaching their target.

[ {Magic Missile} has leveled up! 7 -> 8 ]

“Again at that power,” said Sindri. “But don’t let them dissipate. Keep them together.”

Elise cast 4 more times before she finally managed to get all 3 missiles to the dummy. They had almost no impact, but all 3 landed in the dead center of the X, and it barely dipped into her dwindling mana reserves.

[ {Magic Missile} has leveled up! 8 -> 9 ]

[ {Mana Sense} has leveled up! 7 -> 8 ]

“Keep going,” said Sindri. “If you want to truly get good at Mana Control, you need to practice with as little mana as possible until you can control it perfectly. Then work up from there. This method also makes it easier to practice for longer.”

On the fifth cast after he said that, Elise finally managed to cast the spell perfectly. Or at least, it was perfect enough that she could no longer detect any waste with {Mana Sense}. Sindri seemed to approve as well.

[ {Magic Missile} has leveled up! 9 -> 10 ]

[ {Mana Sense} has leveled up! 8 -> 10 ]

“Good,” he said. “Now with a little more mana.”

When she increased the input mana, the waste returned, and her aim slightly lessened. She was able to improve over the next two casts, but by then, her mana was out.

“Again,” said Sindri.

“I can’t,” she said. “I’m out of mana.”

“Already? What’s your Mana stat?”

“193.”

“It’s because you wasted too much on your first few casts,” he said. “You should have been able to go much longer.”

While his words were harsh, his expression looked more contemplative than anything. Elise noticed behind her that Jens was also looking at her with the same expression.

“Well, I suppose that’s all for Mana Control training for now,” said Sindri. “Now, for Mana. You can sense the mana, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you can feel it all flowing back into you, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Now, try to absorb it faster.”

“How?”

“Just focus.”

“Focus on what?”

“Absorbing mana. Close your eyes. It will help.”

Elise wasn’t sure about that answer, but based on how he had been so far, she didn’t expect a better answer, so she did as she was told and closed her eyes and focused on absorbing mana. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then, as she focused more, nothing continued to happen. The mana was still being absorbed back into her body at the same rate as before.

[ {Mana Sense} has leveled up! 10 -> 11 ]

She focused for five more minutes, still with no change.

It’s only been five minutes, she told herself. I’m being impatient.

She tried to focus more, but she was getting frustrated. Improving her mana control had been easy. Despite Sindri’s vague instruction, the progress had been obvious from the moment she started thinking about it. This time, with the same vague instructions though, there was nothing.

[ {Mana Sense} has leveled up! 11 -> 12 ]

Nothing except further levels in {Mana Sense}, at least. What did he mean when he said she should focus on absorbing mana? She tried to will the mana into her body faster, but it did nothing. She didn’t have a skill for anything like that. Was it even possible?

System, is it possible to absorb mana faster without a skill for it?

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand the question.”

I want my mana to recharge faster, but I don’t have a skill for that.

“If you wish to recharge your mana faster, there are multiple methods. First, you can acquire a skill that makes it easier to recharge your mana. Second, you can move to an area where the mana density is higher. However, be aware that a higher mana density also means an increase chance of encountering powerful monsters.”

Elise waited for the System to continue, but it stopped right there. Was that it? It had said “multiple”, but only listed two. When she asked it about leveling, and there were only two methods, it had told her explicitly that there were two.

Is that all? She asked.

“I’m sorry. You do not have permission to access that information.”

That at least confirmed that there were more. That meant that Sindri’s method of “just focus” probably did work. She just had no idea how. No matter how much she tried, nothing seemed to change. Eventually, she gave up and opened her eyes, and looked up at Sindri. He was frowning down at her, most likely due to her lack of success.

“It’s not working,” she said.

“You just need to focus more,” said Sindri.

“Isn’t there something more specific I should be focusing on?” asked Elise. “It’s not working for me.”

“Just focus on absorbing mana,” said Sindri. “That’s what I do.”

“That’s because you’re an idiot,” said Jens suddenly from behind.

Elise looked back to see the old man sitting up and closing his book.

“That method only works for you,” he said. “That’s not how absorbing mana works.”