Martha expected to see the girl around this time since she went to bed relatively early. The real surprise would’ve been if Elyssia hadn’t appeared here before daylight and stuck to the rules. Maybe a huge selection of Classes could’ve caused her to stay longer in her soul’s realm but it seems she finished in an average time.

Punishing her would be a hypocritical move from Martha since without a doubt her younger self would’ve acted no differently. Rules are just vague guidelines with curiosity taking the helm for any great mage.

The problem with Elyssia is that her curious nature almost killed her already. More than once. The even bigger problem, in Martha’s opinion, is that the Journey Guide rewards her suicidal deeds with plenty of levels every single time. Pain and grief are fleeting deterrents when she can run up the steps of progress with every idiotic decision she makes.

Let’s hope she matures before one of her stupid stunts causes irreversible damage. For now, let’s see if my theory was right.

“Don’t just gawk at me like that,” Martha teleports beside the girl. “out with it already! Was my guess spot on?” This is really what it's all about.

Elyssia seems to get over her surprise pretty fast, getting used to the shenanigans of the centuries-old war mage.

She’s too sharp, I won’t have my fun much longer.

“So what do I get if the guess wasn’t so spot on?” She asks hesitantly.

Impossible, was I wrong? Did I just waste months of a child's life?

“Oh, dear I’m so~o sorry. I’ll… uhm… I’ll help however I can help you climb back your levels.” Martha is in total panic mode. “I’ll take you to the market, so we can get you some equipment. Maybe that can aid your progress a bit when I take you more often to the forest. Okay?” She pulls the girl into a hug, trying to console a disappointed heart.

“Damn, that sounds sweet… I almost regret choosing the right Class then.” The muffled voice responds from the embrace.

Martha pulls away, shock and realization passing through her mind. “Say that again if you dare!” She says in an even tone with her eyes narrowing to slits, challenging Elyssia to repeat the words that left her mouth.

The girl in question visibly shrinks, an innocent smile and puppy eyes finding their way onto her face.

“Uhm… It worked. The Skills merged and I just wanted to try them out. Are you curious too, granny Martha?” The deception almost works, especially since it's the child she’s raising and is constantly on her mind calling her what every older woman dreams of.

Awww, if it weren’t for you trying to weasel your way out of what’s coming I might’ve even melted. I always wanted children and grandchildren. A small smile appears on Martha’s face. If only she didn’t try to deceive me like this… And the smile continues to grow. If only she knew the consequences...

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

I don’t like that smile. That’s a very concerning smile, one that makes a cold shiver run down my spine. I try to wiggle my way out of her embrace but her hold on me is rock solid, way too strong for a mage.

The grin reaches its crescendo and Martha releases a small “Hihi” Before she teleports me away. Not anywhere inside the castle or the courtyard, oh no… upwards, far upwards.

My heart leaps into my throat as I start to plummet towards the ground while shrieking in fright. “Kyaaa, help me, Martha, help!!”

She just waves at me, pleased as punch and smiling like a gremlin. “Okay okay, I’m sorry, I’m sor~ry!” I cry desperately while flailing in the air. She does nothing.

C’mon Eli, you have magic, do magic! I need some thrust to slow my fall.

And so the simplest form of wind magic is employed, namely a strong, unconcentrated gust of air. It does slow my fall, a bit, before I start spinning and feeling nauseous.

I just close my eyes and scream as I fall. However, instead of a deadly impact, all I feel is a tug before falling onto my rump and hearing a certain someone laugh herself ragged. There’s nothing else I can do but indignantly wait for her to catch her breath and give her the death stare which just makes her laugh harder.

“Oh Eli, that was hilarious. Your face, and when you started spinning.” She loses it again, kneeling on the ground by now.

Almost a minute passes.

“Your prank was a good one,” Martha finally straightens up and takes a deep breath. “but you’re too young to play me like that. Only make jokes on someone of your own level, else they might make you cry.” She says with a mocking grin. “Enough of the jokes, what do you have?” She urges

Although I sulk and frown, I know that I kinda deserved that. “Wielder of the Arcane, a Class that merged the four Skills you mentioned and focuses on controlled combat.”

All the previous jabs and pranks are shredded to bits in Martha’s mind at the mention of my Class and Skill. She just leans forward with gleaming eyes, nodding for me to continue.

“So I had a few cyan options and-”

“What? Cyan at your level, that’s incredibly rare. Just what could’ve…” Her face darkens. “That spear?”

“Yeah, that and the sword against the locusts, the Class-”

“So you got a cyan Class already, that's a huge upgrade, what is the merged Skill called? Wait, let me guess… Arcane Squire?” Her enthusiasm just keeps on rising.

“I hate to break it to you but I didn’t take any of the cyan Classes, mine is just blue.” I say it quickly before she can interrupt me again. Seeing the confusion on her face I clarify. “One of the cyan Classes was called Flame Sword. It was really good actually, except I didn’t want to lose the versatility of the arcane element and melee just isn't my style.” Although she still seems unsure she nods. “The other was Divine Kindle. As a servant of Althea, I would’ve-”

“You did well,” She pats my shoulder. “The Classes bound to Gods are very restrictive. They offer great power in exchange for basically becoming a glorified lackey. Good job resisting the temptation of power and don’t worry she won’t hold a grudge. It would be unjust to force something onto you.”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

This takes a huge weight off my shoulders. I was honestly worried the Goddess might take offense to that. I did just reject her and nobody likes that and hopefully, I’m probably not that important on a godly scale.

Unjust… wait, does that mean the other Gods would get mad?

“Okay, so your Class is blue, that’s still very good. At your age probably only one percent of kids have something similar, even though that rate is a lot higher here… but peasants don't need a strong Class to grow potatoes.” She dismisses it.

That sounds slightly degrading even if factually correct…

“The Skill is called Arcane Arsenal and I also got something called Mana Vision.” I read the full description of my Status screen.

“Mana Vision is a difficult-to-get General Skill, quite a useful one mind you. Although you got it as a Class Skill…” Martha starts tapping her chin. “I wanted you to acquire it later on so this just makes my work faster. Arcane Arsenal is completely new, although sounds similar to a few Skills I’ve heard of before. How does it work?”

Does curiosity make her stupid? That’s why I’m here, duh. It’s as if Kayla’s spirit has settled into her body with all this talking…

“Why don’t I test it?” I suggest, and that's what we do.

The Skill description was pretty accurate, I can create almost any weapon using mana with surprising ease. The constructs are pretty sturdy and require very little mana to maintain, although it has its limitations. No wind mace or lightning sword, it works with shadows somehow. It also makes it easier to combine elements into an attack, since the shaping process is assisted by the Skill itself.

“Why do I need this skill, Martha? Didn’t you say that anything we can do ourselves is a waste to get a skill for?” I ask, remembering her old saying and seeing how the Skill just helps me out.

“Read the description well; ‘Command sturdier constructs of mana with much more ease.’ This means anything you’re trying to make will form faster and more solid than if you did it by yourself. This is a huge boon, not being the one to fire the magic first can cost you your life.”

That makes a lot of sense. Maybe this skill is why the Class gives fewer stat-points. It’s just stupidly powerful in the way she describes it.

Mana Vision is even more wonky. When I turn it on it siphons mana incredibly slowly, like 0.1/second, but the sight… It’s beautiful. The air swirls green, the ground radiates brown, wherever the sun shines appears more brilliant, and anything in the shadows is more hazy. Fire shows dancing red mana clouds and water is just a mass of blue particles.

What a sight. What a headache, damn.

I quickly turn off the skill. By the looks of it, my little head isn’t made to comprehend this sight for too long, not with my current stats that is.

With nothing else to discover I play around a bit more with my new Skills. Earth mana works pretty much with anything, just like fire and ice. Wind and water work wonders as blades and shields. The spear construct sucks with light and wind, while explosion magic doesn’t really suit any shape at all.

Metal is a difficult one since different metals can have almost nothing in common despite both having the same type of mana. Generally speaking, they’re somewhat similar structurally but… holy, bless the Earthian knowledge. Also big respect to anyone who made this chemistry thing. All that different atomic structures and shit… ugh. So different metals, different ways of handling them and different ways of using arcane to shape them. It sucks.

***

After the little morning pranks and magic testing, the day went on like any other. Run my legs off in the morning, fight off sleep after lunch while listening to theory, and then the afternoon practice. The usual.

And now it’s finally my time to shine. Martha even told me that I don’t have to hide my Blessing anymore after everyone saw me use maybe three elements when I handed August his ass. The best possible outcome.

If I’m honest with myself, ever since I arrived here I wanted to show off a little. I’ve got something cool and unique so I was hoping for some awe-filled faces when the elements start playing around me.

Most other mages were indeed excited and swarmed around me to see and learn more. The excitement quickly turned into ugly jealousy or in some better cases just dismissal of my skills, calling me a street performer… It felt good. You know you have them under your feet if talking shit is all they can do.

After having my ego fed an opponent is chosen to become my first prey and let’s just say… it doesn’t go stellar.

The earth-shaper dwarf destroying the courtyard along with me is really fucking irritating to fight against. He fights like a turtle with walls of earth snapping up and guarding him from all my shots while he has me running around and pelting me with shots. It’s as if he anticipates my moves, every time I find a gap in his defenses for me to attack, a stone slab already flies at me and I barely manage to steer clear from it.

Breaking through the walls with his mana running through them would be a waste of resources and I’m clearly not made for running around.

[Mage lvl 23]

A totally fair duel by the way so I can’t even complain.

I activate Mana Vision, hoping it’ll give me some hints on how he controls such a large area and the technique he uses to always guess my location. When I look in his general direction I can see a vague outline of what should be my opponent in this round. He seems to be facing in my direction, but that’s not the most conspicuous. The small shining lines running from his foot outwards into the ground like roots are what catch my attention.

How does he know where I’m gonna…?

Footsteps.

He feels my movements through the earth. He changed the entire battleground to his advantage and played me this entire time. I take cover behind one of his walls to catch my breath and come up with a plan.

Okay, two ideas. One, attack from above, throw some fireballs overhead and it maybe hits him or… Option two, fake my movement, deceive the guy and catch him off guard.

Or…option three, just drill through the walls. Last resort. Let’s try the first one.

I start running again and head for one of the previous gaps to make him think nothing changed. On my way, I prepare two scorching balls of fire and throw each of them over the walls in his general direction. They should hit seconds after I reveal myself.

Just as I expected, he expects me, however I expected this outcome. Expect the unexpected. I slide underneath the two earth bullets that would likely hurt a lot if they hit and take cover again. Not a second later two small fiery explosions resound on the other side.

This is my chance, and this is where I make a grave mistake. If someone gets hit by a fireball, there’s no way they don’t cry out in pain. When I round the corner I can see two small pillars erected, both of them scorched.

“You thought Mana Vision is that uncommon of a Skill huh? I saw you form those puny kindles. Hahaha.” The mockery doesn’t stop him from attacking me but this little time window gives me a chance.

Premonition helps me adjust myself to dodge the stone bullets flying at me and I discharge a tiny lightning bolt into him. It hits and so does one of his bullets striking me in the stomach, kicking all the air out of me, and leaving me groaning on the ground. He doesn’t fare any better twitching and groaning on the ground. An even exchange. There’s only one slight problem… I’m almost out of mana.

We both seem to recover at the same time, pushing ourselves to our feet and having a stare-down.

“I can do this all day. Show me what you got, elfie.” He taunts me with a wide grin.

I respond with a wind blade that gets blocked by a thin layer of earth before a wall next to me slams down and I have to dive out of its path. My movement is sluggish and I instinctively know I only have one or two more shots worth of mana in me…

I sigh. “I surrender.” I declare. “I’m almost totally out of mana.”

The crow seems a bit shocked at the sudden turn of events, nonetheless, they eventually accept the outcome and applaud our little show.

The dwarf walks over to me. “That was fun, good fight noobie.” And he slaps me on the back, giving me a coughing fit. He just laughs and adds. “I was also out of mana, but you blinked first.”

As he walks past me I just stare after him with a look of disbelief. The amount of boldness… My stunned face quickly turns grumpy, accompanied by the signature death stare, as I stomp back to the rest of the spectators.

Fuck, I got played! I fought like it’s whack-a-mole while he played a game of chess all along. Levels matter but smarts… Damn, that runs the show.