After sorting out the job situation with the lightning magic tower, he switched back to the ordinary face that Fannie last saw and headed back to their spot in the mid-end suburb.
Oh, I forgot to mention, this identity has a regular face and light brown hair - the kind of face you'd easily forget.
He strolled from the posh areas to the east, past the business district, and landed in the mid-end zone, particularly the suburb called Greenfield. Funny enough, there's not a speck of greenfield in sight. This is where he snagged the house for Fannie.
The place is a cozy 2-story deal with a tiny backyard out back, all walled in by the neighboring houses. No windows from the other places peek into the backyard, so it's pretty secluded.
He rapped on the door, hearing Fannie hustle down from upstairs, cautiously asking who it is. When she realized it was Zack, she flung open the door in a hurry.
Taking in Fannie's vibe, it seemed like she'd been doing just fine for the past 3 days while he was off dealing with the tower gig. Once inside, he plopped down on a chair in the living room, pondering what to do with Fannie.
It was crystal clear that ditching Fannie now wasn't an option if he wanted to steer clear of bigger trouble down the road, at least according to his gut feeling. The real head-scratcher was what to do with her. He toyed with the idea of teaching Fannie magic.
The snag? The stronger Fannie got, the more trouble she might stir up with potential enemies in the future. But the moment he mulled over teaching her magic, his gut feeling kicked in again.
Damn that gut feeling! Now he's got some pretty solid proof that it's not just his experience talking but something bigger, like fate or the world pulling the strings. Or whatever mystical force is out there.
Sighing, he figured he had no choice but to teach her. After all, he couldn't just leave Fannie here twiddling her thumbs. Doing nothing tends to lead to overthinking, and that's a one-way ticket to the depression, in his book. Despite being a bit self-centered and all about himself, he wasn't keen on making other folks miserable.
And keeping Fannie cooped up in this house forever? That'd be too cruel. He knew people besides himself loved getting out and about, enjoying the world. Still, he was dead set on only letting Fannie venture out once she hit level 3 apprentice status.
Once he'd figured out what to do with Fannie, he copied the introduction to meditation book from his badge onto some papers and handed them over to her. Using a spell of course.
Usually, when a wizard gets the boot from a tower, they lose access to the books stored in their badge. But if you sign up to be a member of the tower, you can still keep your collection. Pretty convenient, huh?
Then he told Fannie to give the book a read and wrap her head around it for a couple of hours while he got busy setting up a mana gathering formation in the backyard. When he decided to do something, he went all in, no half measures.
So, he wanted to set up this mana gathering formation for Fannie. See, the world outside the tower was pretty lacking compared to inside. Not only was the mana distribution among the elements even, making it tough for her to gather only lightning particles effectively, but the overall mana concentration was weak too.
Outside the tower, the mana concentration was only half of what it was inside, and lightning particles made up just a fraction of that. He busted out his most advanced mana gathering formation and fine-tuned it to snag only those lightning particles.
With this setup, he managed to crank the concentration up to about double what it was in the tower. Compared to the outside world, it was a whopping five times the concentration, but he was using the tower's levels as the benchmark.
Once the formation was good to go, he headed back inside to check on Fannie's progress. Turns out, she'd grasped the content in just an hour and spent the rest of the time getting a feel for the element.
Dang! She was turning out to be quite the genius, wasn't she? Not quite on his level, of course. Oh, that reminded him, he needed to test her talent. To check her mana manipulation and perception, he'd need a specialized tool he didn't have. But for her mana capacity potential, he could do that himself.
He asked for Fannie's hand and sent his mana inside, ignoring her embarrassed expression as he probed her mana heart. Everyone had a mana heart, but most folks had one too tiny to ever become a wizard.
As expected of someone highly valued by the church, Fannie had a vast mana heart. Now, it's worth mentioning that the size of the mana heart doesn't linearly relate to how much it can hold. Despite Fannie's being ten times the size of an ordinary apprentice's, she could only store about five times as much.
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Of course, only he would call five times "only" when talking about apprentice levels. But that capacity was already monstrous. And, usually, talents went hand in hand. If you had a big mana capacity, your manipulation and perception skills wouldn't be too shabby either.
After he checked Fannie's mana, she shyly asked for his name. Yeah, shyly. Why was she blushing all of a sudden? Maybe that's just how girls in this world are. A girl like Fannie was almost unheard of in his past life - the type who could blush just from asking for a name.
Unfortunately, he'd already decided to play the low-key hidden boss type of protagonist. So, he couldn't exactly reciprocate any feelings the girl might have. Plus, in his past life, he was already 25 while Fannie is only 9 for heaven's sake! No way was he going to be a creep. No thanks.
Hold on a sec, Zack, aren't you getting ahead of yourself? Maybe Fannie's just shy and doesn't have any romantic feelings for you. Damn it! Stop this train of thought, it's too cringy. Romance wasn't his thing anyway. This would be the first and last time he entertained the idea.
Shoving those chaotic, narcissistic thoughts aside, he realized he'd never properly introduced himself. He'd only asked for Fannie's name but hadn't given his own. That... was kinda rude, he thought, mentally facepalming. So, he coughed up an alias - Lucius.
Yeah, he wasn't about to hand out his real name. Bit of a scumbag move, but it was a precaution. Who knew if the church had some memory scanning thing? If Fannie got caught, he didn't want anything leading back to him.
Yep, scumbag move indeed, but that's just how he rolled. Sorry, folks! Oh, speaking of the church, now that the body enhancement spell he'd cast on Fannie was gone, they probably knew she was in Mossley. But since it was a fortress city, they'd have to tread carefully.
They might not be able to barge right in but could try sneaking around instead. To throw them off Fannie's trail, he set up another array all around the house. This one was for subtly siphoning off his mana that he stored inside the formation and sending it to Fannie in small, continuous doses.
So, this mana infusion wouldn't result in any body enhancement, but the mana would just hang out inside, specifically in the back of Fannie's right hand. It would form a softly glowing blue flower pattern. If the glow started to dim, it meant his mana in the formation needed a recharge.
At that point, Fannie could use the communication tablet he'd bought her to reach out and ask for a refill. Now, why a flower pattern, you wonder? Well, Zack figured girls would prefer flowers, but he did ask if she wanted a skull instead. She adamantly refused, though.
Yep, Zack was at a level where he could pretty much improvise any formation up to level 1. If he had to slap a label on his skill, he'd be called a peak level 1 formation master. At this level, he could create and tweak level 1 formations however he pleased.
Which was super handy in this case. Once the mana was inside Fannie, he could use it to apply [Hidden Strength], using his mana as the conduit to conceal Fannie's presence.
With that sorted, he and Fannie could finally take a breather. He'd figure out another method later on that would let Fannie venture out solo while staying under the radar. For now, she could only stay inside the house which is covered by the formation or go out with him by her side.
Of course, he'd explained everything to Fannie, and she'd expressed her understanding, looking both guilty and grateful at the same time when she realized he'd done all this to keep her safe from the church's clutches.
Now that Fannie had been eating well for a few days, her face was filling out, showing off her natural beauty even more. When she looked up at him with those shining, grateful eyes, he couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed.
He snapped himself back to reality with a good old face slap, earning a concerned look from Fannie. Stay focused, Zack, stay focused!
He left Fannie in the mana gathering formation to help her get a better feel for the elements around her, then settled back in the living room.
Now that Fannie was sorted, he started pondering what to do next. He'd pretty much maxed out his understanding of spell patterns and formation knowledge, reaching nearly the peak level. Sure, he hadn't read every single book on level 0 and 1 spells and formations, but he'd covered most of them. And he doubted the remaining ones would offer much more.
In terms of levels, he'd hit the peak as a level 1 formation master and a level 1 spell master. Yep, that's a thing - spell master. These folks specialize in tweaking and combining basic spells to create something new, or even whipping up entirely new spells based on client specifications.
A level 0 spell master could tinker with and blend level 0 spells, while a peak level one could craft a level 0 spell from scratch.
As for level 1 spell masters, they could do the same but with more advanced level 1 spells. Zack had just realized how lucrative and challenging his job could be, almost on par with being a formation master. If he didn't have any requests from the workshop, he could easily operate in the black market.
Having mastered level 1 formation and spell pattern knowledge, he knew he needed level 2 info, which he could only get from the tower. Luckily, he had plenty of contribution points to trade for level 2 books, converted from his remaining tower points.
However, he was wary of drawing too much attention to himself. Learning level 1 knowledge as an apprentice wizard was one thing, but diving into level 2? That would raise too many eyebrows. He decided to hold off on trading for level 2 knowledge until he could do so "legitimately" once he reached level 1.
He figured he'd give it another 2-5 years, a reasonable time frame for apprentices under working contracts to apply for advancement to level 1 wizard status.
In the meantime, he decided to delve into artifact creation, specifically the enchantment side of things. Artifact creation involved both forging the artifact itself and enchanting it. Enchantment overlapped with his knowledge of formations and spell patterns. Once he mastered enchantment, he'd be able to enchant any item, not just specially forged artifacts..
He had plans to create an item that could channel his mana to Fannie, similar to the formation in the house. This could be anything from an ordinary bracelet to a necklace. This would allow Fannie to venture outside by herself freely.