John sighed as he looked at the sheet of paper Katheryn had handed him.

“You know, I thought it’d be him, but I didn’t want it to be him. Seriously…”

Two weeks had passed without anything eventful happening. There was training. And more training. And not much else. Eventually, John had gone to check on the progress of the other participants, only to see that his prediction had come true. The son of the noble was coming.

“I don’t want to deal with him… I don’t like reading about these characters, so why do I have to personally deal with one?”

John slumped onto the counter, ignoring the strange looks he was getting.

“Um, thanks,” John coughed awkwardly, getting up and pushing the sheet of paper back. “Do you know when others will sign up?”

“Likely within the next week. The slots will be closed by then, so we expect some solo adventurers to try their hand at a dungeon.”

“Great. See you later.”

John shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked at the ground as he and Prota left the building. She offered John a piece of jerky from the bag she’d been snacking from, but he shook his head.

“Argh, this sucks… really. He might actually just kill us.”

~~~

Draco was smiling as he sat in the mercenary guild building, his two attendants behind him. They weren’t in their usual outfits, in order to stand out less, but the build of the knight was unmistakable.

“So you want us to kill those guys?”

“Precisely,” Draco nodded. “You will register as adventurers for the dungeon raid. From there, I don’t care what you do, as long as you get the job done,” he sneered. “Surely you’re capable of that much, right?”

“Capable? Boy, you just better have the money ready.”

“Half now, half once it’s done. That’s the deal.”

Draco pulled a bag of gold coins out and pushed it towards the mercenary. “Do we have an understanding?”

“You got it.”

The man snickered as he took the bag, but Draco was unconcerned as he left the building.

“Sir, are you sure about this one?” the knight said.

“Sure? Marcus. Do you not understand? Those peasants don’t understand their place. They don’t have the right to interfere with me! And yet… and yet, they continue to stand in my way. This much is just the bare minimum. It’s what they deserve, understood? They need to learn their place!”

“...yes, my lord,” Marcus said.

“And you, Elena?”

The caster nodded. “I understand. But sir, are you not worried-”

“Of what? They can’t possibly do anything to me,” Draco snorted. “They’re peasants. Since when could mortals touch a god?”

~~~

“I see you saw the news,” Fate said. He, too, seemed disappointed.

“Yeah, well, there’s not much we can do, right?”

“Was this the bullshit you were expecting?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

John shrugged.

Fate sighed in frustration as he leaned back against a tree. He’d been planning on seeing how everyone had been doing, but it seemed that this would be a venting session instead.

“Mm… this does raise a small problem, though. It would be best if we tried not to associate with Danjo.”

“What?”

Fate turned to look at Danjo, who started trembling. What did John mean?

“Come on. Big smart boy over here. Can you figure it out on your own?”

“...what?”

“Look. There’s a decent chance that people are going to be trying to kill us. I’m not saying they will, but it’s very possible. Danjo is not “us” at the moment.”

“H-hey, hold on!” Danjo protested. “What’s this about people trying to kill us?”

“What? You thought we were gonna go and have a picnic?”

“This is a dungeon, right?” Danjo stammered. “Then why are people trying to kill us? Isn’t the dungeon dangerous enough?”

Fate rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

“Ah, that… we got involved with a little rat bastard of a noble,” John explained. “Um… yeah.”

“You got on the bad side of a noble? How- what-”

“Don’t worry about it!” John grinned. “Like I said. You’re not “us.” Yet. So how about we keep it that way for now?”

“But…”

John paused, waiting. Danjo looked like he was really struggling to get this out.

“If you guys are letting me join your team… then… shouldn’t I be a part of the team?”

John’s grin dropped in an instant. “Yeah, yeah, let’s get all sentimental,” he muttered to himself.

Fate, on the other hand, looked touched. “Danjo. It’s up to you. I’m not going to blame you if you want to take the safer route, ok? You were told the risks. What you do is up to you. You want to save your sister. Any more than that isn’t necessary.”

“I… I’ll think about it,” Danjo said quietly.

“Great. We’ve got it all figured out. I’m going to sleep,” John said, lying down.

With that, he really did close his eyes. Prota got up as if this was to be expected and started casting spells as if it was routine.

“Come on, Danjo, let’s go,” Fate sighed. John was truly the strange one, but it was even stranger to see someone used to John’s antics.

~~~

Prota was starting to understand why John slept all day and read books at night. Everything was getting boring.

It wasn’t like she didn’t know what to do. She was training. She was improving. Her response time, her ability to control magic, her chanting, it was all improving, but still, something felt wrong. She wanted to do something. She was getting tired of sitting around without doing much.

There just wasn’t anything to do, though, so she kept chanting.

“Prota,” she heard.

Kit changed into her human form and walked towards Prota. She could feel the mirage barrier around them.

“You’ve learned quite a bit, right?” Kit smiled. Her tail swung back and forth as she looked at Prota. “But this is really just the beginning.”

“Beginning?”

“Most people would consider you a genius. But you have the power of the dragons inside of you. So really, you’re just a fletchling.”

Lightning flickered between Kit’s fingertips.

“Magic, at a certain point, becomes what individuals create on their own. 9th circle mages are also known as “creators.” They do not master magic. They create it.”

A second tail appeared behind Kit. Then a third, and a fourth.

“John. Are you sure no one is watching?”

There was no response. Prota sighed and walked over, frost gathering at her fingertips, which was more than enough to snap John out of his rest.

“Wh- hey, whoah, hold on, what? What do you want?”

“Are you absolutely sure no one is around?”

John frowned. “...no?”

Kit stared at John. “Really? I thought you were confident-”

“No, I said I thought. I can’t guarantee anything. I mean, if someone does catch us, I’ll take responsibility. Don’t worry about it.”

“And how will you do that?”

John shrugged. “Turn back time.”

Kit stared at John. “You’ll do what?”

“Turn back time. It’s pretty easy.”

Kit looked at Prota, hoping for some kind of ally, but she just shook her head. Kit frowned. John was serious?

“You cannot say something like that so casually,” Kit said cautiously.

John shrugged. “What? It’s pretty easy. Just carry on, will you?”

Kit shook her head, trying to forget what she’d just heard.

She turned back to Prota. “Remember. Mana is what binds the universe. We can reshape reality with it. Our minds are just too small to do so.”

A fifth, then a sixth tail appeared. The lightning intensified, sparking all over Kit’s body.

“Fate is a talented boy. But he is not a magician. He is a mage. He deals with mana, but he is not a creator. You are.”

Prota nodded. [Creation]. Was that something unique to her? She’d always thought it was just an ability. But was it something more?

“Just as Fate is meant to push the limits of mortal beings, you… you can push the limits of magic.”

A seventh and eighth tail appeared. As a ninth finally formed, there was a giant flash of light, and then nothing. Prota rubbed her eyes, trying to recover, only to find that a crown of flowers had been placed on her head. A petal fell in front of her face as she breathed in, causing her to shake her head and sneeze. The petals fell all around her, landing on the ground in a perfect circle.

What? How did this happen?

She turned her head to see John clapping slowly.

“Hm. Pretty good.”

“Please,” Kit scoffed. “Don’t tell me someone like you understood what happened.”

Prota spun around to find Kit sitting on the ground behind her, holding a group of flower stems. When did she get there?

“I mean, why did you get all that lightning worked up before?” John had a smug look on his face. “You probably just moved at slightly sub light speeds or something, right?”

“You- does this have something to do with the ‘science’ you mentioned? How did you know?”

John shrugged. “I guessed.”

Kit frowned.

“I mean, it’s still super impressive. I didn’t know anyone could do something of that level. How’d you do it?”?

Kit smiled proudly. “Trial and error. Experimentation. Trying over and over until finding out what accomplished what.”

Prota was listening, but she was also staring intently at her hands. Trial and error. Experimentation. Creation.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The rules of the world.

What did her ability really do? The ability to absorb mana. The ability to copy magic. The ability to create brand new spells and manipulate mana freely. It made her strong. But was that really all there was to it?

“Prota. Do you understand?” Kit said softly, her tails vanishing. “That was lightning magic. And yet, what I did is almost unrelated to lightning. As long as your brain can comprehend it… you will be able to do it.”

[Your understanding of your creation ability increases]

[Level up! Creation: Lv 3]

The level up messages were never consistent, but Prota wasn’t thinking about that. As long as she could comprehend it, she could do it.

Wasn’t that ability… kind of like playing god?

“I see. You’ve figured it out already.”

Kit’s tails disappeared as she summoned a flame in her hands.

“The ability to freely manipulate mana is something that has traditionally been reserved for the Mystics, the dragons, and certain Heroes that chose to excel in magic. You, however… you feel different. You’re like a dragon, but not whole. That irregularity in existence could almost be called an anomaly.”

Prota looked down. Yeah. That was right. No matter what, she was always out of the norm.

Demon. Orphan. Alone.

“That’s what makes you strong.”

Prota looked back up to see Kit looking at her proudly.

“Prota. Your ability is something no one would have ever seen before. What you choose to do with it ultimately depends on you. Got it?”

Prota nodded. The ability to create and play god. Something sounded familiar about that.

~~~

Breaker and Doctor were in a room full of large tubes filled with potion liquid. Inside were various disfigured corpses and flesh. Despite the gruesome scene, the room itself was quite clean and quiet, with stainless white walls and floors, a soft hum emitting from the electrical light that hung overhead.

Breaker didn’t like this room, but Doctor didn’t like being ordered around, so Breaker had to go to him.

“So you’re telling me we should eliminate the coreless boy first?”

“Yes. While he’s not strong, they seem to hold his opinion in high regard.”

“Mm, alright.”

Breaker frowned. “You’re not questioning why?”

“I don’t really care why as long as you meet my one little request.”

“...which is what?”

“Capture him alive.”

Breaker frowned. “You have dozens of test subjects already.”

“Ah, but this one, my dear Breaker, is special. He’s coreless. No mana.”

Doctor opened his arms wide as if trying to embrace someone.

“Do you see all this, Breaker? Do you know what it takes to extract a soul?”

“...do I want to know?”

“The will to live. You need to remove it.”

Breaker felt his heartbeat quicken. Did he really want to know this?

“Do you know why I put these people through this? It’s fun, definitely, but I also believe it to be necessary. Because it is only when they’ve truly given up that we can use them properly.”

Doctor’s words didn’t reflect his facial expression. He was grinning ear to ear, like a child on Christmas day.

“It’s quite the art. You have to give them hope. “Maybe I can escape. Maybe I can live,” they think in their cells. They feel fear. But that goes away, eventually, so you have to reignite it with pain. That, too, eventually goes away, so you have to do it in bursts. It’s a long, slow burn, Breaker. But it’s so delicious. They need to stop praying for escape. They need to start praying for death.”

Doctor walked up to a certain test tube with a relatively normal looking dwarf, tracing his fingers on the glass.

“And even that needs to be removed. You need to remove the ability to feel. You need to give them a little bit of hope before burning it all away. No matter how much we try, we are beings of hope. And once all hope is gone, what is left?”

Doctor pushed a button and the potion liquid began to drain.

“Pain and suffering. They need to struggle to the point of exhaustion, only to hope for death, but death will never come for them.”

Doctor’s voice was soft, dangerously so.

“At that point, it’s complete. Their minds snap, but no matter how much they break they’re still there. Inside their souls.”

Doctor pulled an orb out of his pocket. “Somewhere in here, a mind is crying out to be destroyed. But we can’t do that. No, no, this is much more useful as an energy source.”

“You’re telling me all those slaves still exist?” Breaker cried out. “I thought they died once they were extracted!”

“What? Of course. Those aren’t dolls, Breaker, they’re more like golems. If you remove the sense of self, you’d also remove the soul. The soul is you, Breaker. We can’t kill them. That would defeat the purpose.”

Breaker shuddered. Why was Doctor telling him all this? He didn’t want to know this. He didn’t like it.

“That boy… someone who is already hopeless, manaless… what will happen if I break him? What kind of toy will I get next? What kind of soul will I get? This is new. Exciting.”

He giggled to himself.

“I can’t wait to find out.”

~~~

After Kit’s speech, Prota felt like she understood her ability a bit better.

First, she was capable of seeing the mana around her a bit clearer. When casting spells, if she focused hard enough, she could see the movement of energy gathering to form spells. Different elements had different styles. Fire, for example, was fast and chaotic, while ice was slow but sharp.

This, in turn, allowed her to understand how to activate her magic better. A noticeable result of this was the speed at which she could cast blue fire and a Blossom of Ice. While both had originally been ultimate spells or sorts, she could now summon one of each within about five seconds, at the cost of them being a little weaker than before. They were still powerful spells, of course, but they were no longer the giant explosions they’d once been. However, a spell that took half a minute to cast was simply impractical.

Finally, her new spell was capable of forming under her control. Even in calm conditions, it took her nearly a minute to make, but that wasn’t the point. It was coming along.

“You have to name it,” Kit told her. “It’s important.”

“Why, so that she can yell the name out right before casting it?” John grumbled. “Or what, so she can pose menacingly while explaining what it does?”

“You’re really hopeless, you know that?” Kit sighed, her ears drooping. “Really, if you were any uglier, I wouldn’t even hang around you.”

“...what? Hey, why’re we bringing my looks into this?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Mm, you’ve got potential. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s possible to bring any of that potential out. You’re quite average looking. Not a single interesting thing about you.”

“What the fuck- what, you’re hanging around because I look decent?”

Kit winked, giving a flirtatious flick of her tail. John frowned and shook his head. She was getting into his head. She was winning. Dammit.

John subdued, Kit continued. “The name of a spell is important because it confirms what the user wanted it to be. If you have to picture the movement of mana every time you cast a spell, the time you’d take would be incredibly inefficient. You need a label to associate a certain movement of mana with.”

Kit picked up a stick. “Think of it like this. If I want to write the word “hello,” I could do it one of two ways. I could think of the letter h, then e, then l, then l again, then o. Or, since I know the spelling, if I just think of the word ‘hello,’ then I could let my body do the rest. That is the basis of chanting.”

“Similarly, if you have a name you know will work for your spell, it’ll be much easier to cast. The quality of the name doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you know what it’ll do. Obviously, this is better than a full chant, but the principal is the same. Just because you can perform chantless casting doesn’t mean you need to.”

Prota nodded once, but she was stuck. She wasn’t good at this sort of thing.

Name… name…

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t think of anything. In the first place, the name “Blossom of Ice” was pretty straight forward. It was a blossom that was made of ice. Besides, the name had been given to her back in the cave. What was this? A burning blossom of ice? That was a little too long.

“Prota. Think about the nature of the spell,” John said quietly. “What did you make? What do you feel when you cast that spell?”

Feel. She’d made the spell from the verge of unconsciousness. She thought back to that time. Her body was cold. Numb. She couldn’t move. It was like she was freezing. Yet, at the same time, inside of her was a burning flame. A flaming desire. One to protect, to save.

Freezing. Burning.

“Frozen… frozen flame,” Prota muttered.

[New user! Would you like to make a list of spells?]

This. It felt like the old system, not a voice speaking to her. She’d ask John later, only to learn that it was apparently a feature he’d implemented when he’d first made the system in order to make it feel more like a game.

He’d never known it would come in handy like this.

[Confirmation confirmed. Compiling list…]

[Spellbook:

Blossom of Ice

Frozen Flame]

“Blue fire?” Prota said, cocking her head to the side. Why wasn’t that there?

“I wouldn’t say that blue fire is really a spell, per se,” Kit said, misunderstanding Prota’s question. “More like a better version of spells that already exist.”

She’d answered the question, though. Blue fire wasn’t a spell; it was simply a different state of an element that already existed. A hotter fire was still fire, no matter how you looked at it.

“What is… stronger ice?”

“Stronger ice… dunno,” Kit shrugged. “I’ve never really looked into ice magic.”

That was disappointing, but things were going well. New spells. New abilities.

What was next?

~~~

A week passed with Prota toying around with her new abilities. It was odd to see her enjoying herself with such a blank look on her face, but whenever John asked if it was really fun, she’d nod twice instead of once, so she must’ve really been having a good time.

She also seemed to feel more comfortable around Kit now, although it might’ve been because Kit wasn’t a normal person. Perhaps she’d been going through exposure therapy of sorts. By letting Kit sit on her head, she was letting a “person” touch her in a way she was comfortable. Then, when the fox turned into a person, Prota was more familiar with her. Something like that. It didn’t matter. John had noticed that while she was better at hiding it, her fear of other people was still there.

He thought back to her past. She was afraid of killing others by accident, and she was afraid of being hurt. She didn’t want to touch others, and she didn’t want to be touched. He was an exception, and so was Kit while she was in her fox form, but still…

John sighed as he walked towards the guild building. It’d get resolved eventually.

“Ah, hello,” Katheryn said as John approached the desk. “Are you here to check on the remaining applicants?”

“Yeah. Can I take a look?”

“Of course.”

He was alone today, leaving Prota to practice with Kit. She didn’t like it when they were separated, but it was only for a little bit, so she’d be fine.

“Hm… Kenina, Azar and Cyrus…”

They had last names written down, but John didn’t care about that kind of stuff. He just needed to be able to identify his targets.

“Good to know… and there won’t be any others, right?”

“That is correct. The roster has been filled.”

John nodded and turned around.

“Good to know.”

He walked slowly, muttering to himself as he pushed the door open. He knew the way back to the forest, so he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going as he walked down the streets.

He was thinking hard.

Prota wanted to protect him. But at her current state, the most she could really protect him from was monsters and petty attackers that held no significance. If anyone was actually set on killing them, it wasn’t a matter of strength.

It was a matter of considering what would happen next.

Monsters might be strong, but a strong monster could be dealt with. A tricky person was much, much harder to deal with. Someone with a working brain would always be more of a monster than any beast.

Monsters were better off dead. Fate wouldn’t strike first. Prota… well, there was no need to make her do the dirty work.

So in the end, it was up to him, right?