[https://i.imgur.com/U6wPWsd.png]

Thus I became the student of the famed [Lio the Cauterizer], who was said to have such powerful fire magic that those hit by his spell had their wounds immediately cauterized. Of course, though, I was exaggerating. I wasn’t even sure if his name was that well known. Maybe people heard of him in the neighborhood, but for him to be famous was quite a long stretch.

Anyway, I was starting to question my decision to learn Offensive Magic under Lio. Why, you might ask? Well, as of now, I was laying face first in a field of grass, not able to move a single muscle and my consciousness waning. Let’s rewind a bit up until this point.

X X X

20 minutes ago, outskirts of Galligar City

I was following Lio as he trekked through the tall grass at the outskirts of the city. This location was primarily used for cattle to graze and for the occasional picnics done by two lovebirds. But that wasn’t our purpose here. Lio had brought me to this area to practice Offensive Magic without damaging any infrastructure. Offensive Magic was that dangerous, apparently.

Lio was wearing that same Fire Mage robe that he always dons. I too had my Water Mage attire on. I looked the part of a powerful mage, but I really only had the strength of a toddler gently tapping their parent on the leg. But that was going to change. I will get stronger.

All of sudden, Lio stopped and turned around. His chestnut hair fluttered in the wind and he gave out a sigh. “Okay this is far enough.”

This time he had his staff on him. The base of the staff was made of some pearl-white material, while the big orb that sat at the tip of it was a blood red. It shone majestically. Just like the dungeon master we had battled before, he also planted the butt of his staff on the earth, taking in a deep breath.

“Okay, listen closely. This is the first step to learning any kind of Offensive Magic: You must first choose a subcategory and a stance. It takes insane effort and sheer determination to be competent in just one subcategory, therefore you must choose only one. Not two or all three, but only one. Unless you want to be subpar in two subcategories but a master of none.”

I nodded my head. Made sense, I wasn’t complaining. But the issue was what category would I pick? Fire, water, terrace… I didn’t know which one fit me the best. I had to ask my new master.

“Uh, Master Lio?” I said.

His head jerked at me addressing him as such. It was the first time I ever called him that. But afterwards, he puffed his chest out, as if I fueled his ego. “Yes? What is it?”

“I’m not sure what subcategory to pick. What do you recommend?”

“Hmm…” He put his fingers on his chin, thinking deeply. While he did so, his eyes wandered to me. They stared at my body, my clothes, then my face.

He had that pose for a couple of minutes, and I stood there idly kicking up grass in boredom. He was silent for what seemed forever, until he finally spoke up very quietly. “Let’s have you try water magic. You do have a Water Mage robe on, after all.”

“Okay, what now?” We had decided on my subcategory. Next was the “stance” he mentioned. I wasn’t aware of what he meant like that.

“Now we pick a stance for you. Each subcategory of Offensive Magic has two stances to pick from: a projectile and grounded stance. I myself am a projectile Fire Mage, meaning I specialize in fire magic that is meant to be shot out as a projectile. As for grounded, that includes magic that stays attached to whatever your magic is coming from, like a staff, your hands, or a tome.”

Okay, then. What stance should I pick? I didn’t want to have Master Lio decide for me again. I had to make my own choices for once. I was an adult, I could at least do that.

So… grounded or projectile? Was I even good at aiming things? My use of Stasis in the past was proof of that. Any more than a handful of targets together made it difficult for me to hit the desired enemy out of the group.

As for grounded, I assumed it was more defense or close-combat related spells. I was far better with a dagger than I was aiming spells, so that was the reasoning I used to finally decide on a stance.

“Let’s go with a grounded stance,” I oozed resolve saying that sentence.

My master nodded his head. He had all the info we needed to begin my training. Now he knew what spells for me to practice with.

“Great, then let us start with a simple water spell, ‘Waterwark.’”

He explained the spell to me. Casting water magic was way different than Displacement magic. Even for Offensive Magic, water magic was a bit funkier to cast than the likes of fire. To cast the spell, I had to basically draw a circle in the air with whatever tool I’d be using. In this case, it was my bare hands.

What was supposed to happen was that as I drew the circle in the air while concentrating magical energy on my hands, it would form a circular shield made of water that stuck to one of my palms. Its use for combat was redirecting spells that came at it. Because of how elastic the water was, spells that flew at it would bounce right back at the angle the caster directed the shield at. So it was possible for me to redirect a spell right back at an enemy, unless it was a very powerful spell that could pierce right through the shield.

I did as Lio instructed me. I fed magical energy to my palms and drew a circle in the air with them. I saw water appear out of nowhere to start creating the shield, but something unexpected happened.

Without warning, way more magical energy than I had anticipated was sucked out of me. Too much energy. As a result, the spell failed, and I collapsed face first into the ground. That one spell had drained me of all my magical energy. I was out like a light.

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

X X X

I could feel myself waking up gradually. My eyes weren’t open quite yet, but I could feel a sensation of my body pressing against something soft. Soft. Huh. Strange.

I opened my eyes slowly. I was still drowsy and I yawned, but I forced my eyes open to see an unfamilar environment. First thing I did was look at what I was sleeping on. It was a mattress. I was on a bed. Even stranger. Last thing I remembered was that I slumped into the grass, not a mattress.

I sat up from the bed and looked around, only to find someone was also sitting at the end of the bed on the other side. Their red mage robe stood out in a room made of dark wood. It was my master.

He heard me sitting up and yawning, thus snapping his body around to face me. His face looked concerned, and he opened his mouth as if to speak. No words came out. Guess it was my turn to speak then.

“What? Why are we here?”

“You passed out from magical exhaustion. I would have never expected your magical energy reserves to be that low. Sorry,” he said while bowing his head in an apology.

“No it's not your fault! Please keep your head up,” I said. It was true though. It wasn’t his fault that I was born with very little magical energy in my system. Guess I was not cut out to be a mage after all. Might have to ask Kueler to teach me how to use a sword.

He listened to my orders, but still had an apologetic expression. “Anyways, I figured you wouldn’t want to be carried into my house, given we’re still pretty much strangers. That’s why I decided to rent you a room at an inn here in the adventurer district.”

“Woah! Thank you master.” I in turn bobbed my head down. He read me like a book. I didn’t know what I would’ve thought had he just tossed me into his room, unconscious and vulnerable. Yikes! Scares me just thinking about it more.

Lio also got up to his feet and moved a curtain from one of the windows to look at the scenery. His golden eyes just stared blankly out the window. As for me, I just strolled around the room, staring at trinkets that were left behind as decorations. Cows were an important figure in the cuisine and culture of Kori Soaro, so there were various carved figurines of cows, and some paintings of pastures where the cows roamed. It was a quaint little room. Like a log cabin one would see in the countryside by the lakes.

It was clear, by our meaningless actions, that we didn’t know what to do. I had never realized my magical energy reserve was extremely low, meaning I didn’t have much to work with. That was just genetics, though. I had drawn the short stick of the genetic pool when it came to that.

All this time, with spells like Disperse, I had assumed it just cost too much magical energy for anyone to use. But that wasn't the case. It wasn’t that it took up too much energy, it just was that I genetically did not have a lot of magical energy in the first place. It wasn’t the spell’s issue, but my own.

It wasn’t like I could fix this issue either. I couldn’t just suddenly force my body to expand its magic energy reserves. I was stuck with it for the rest of my life. That in mind, only one question swam around in my head:

How was Master Lio going to teach me magic now?

He tried to teach me a simple spell. If the simple spells suck me dry, then there was no hope of learning the more powerful ones. Should I just quit? Tear off my magic robe and live the rest of my life as a magicless mapper? Or even just get a job as a maid or something?

“Charliette,” Lio calling my name had broken me from my reverie.

“Oh! Huh?” was the only reply I could give.

“Do you still want to learn Offensive Magic?” His eyes were sharp and his face had a stoic look to it.

Why? Was he going to give up teaching me too? He didn’t look like he was going to, but his question might suggest it.

Did I want to give up? Did I truly want to? When I found out that I couldn’t use Offensive Magic nor any of the standard types of magic without being exhausted, I did admit to wanting to quit. What use was it for me to be a mage if I can’t use much magic at all? I’d much better use a sword, for that matter.

“I… I can’t use Offensive Magic. I’ll just pass out again. There’s no way I can learn.” The words that came out of my mouth were heartbreaking, but the truth. There’d be no use in me lying to myself. If I couldn’t use Offensive Magic, then I couldn’t. There would be nothing changing that.

Lio nodded at my response. Guess I couldn’t call him master anymore. But he walked closer to me, almost to my face. We both stared back into each other’s eyes. We were so close that I could hear his quick breaths. Why was he breathing so rapidly?

“But you can learn. There is a way.”

“What? How?”

That exchange made Lio smile. I didn’t know why, but he smiled. So he had a plan after all.

“You could use a tome as your magical tool. It’ll work perfectly for your circumstance.”

“A tome?” I repeated.

“Yes! A friend of mine figured out a way to write spells on it in a way that’ll minimize energy consumption to its maximum.”

Tomes. I never really came across them. They were magical books used to jot down and memorize casting procedures for many different spells. But there was a way to write down spells that can minimize my energy usage?

I grabbed Lio by the shoulders tightly. I was just too excited that I wouldn’t have to give up. I held his shoulders and yelled in his face.

“Tell me now!”

“Uh… But—”

“Please!”

He had his mouth gaped for a moment, then stared back at me. “We need to buy a tome first.”

That wasn’t an issue! Sure I wasn’t rich enough to buy a staff, but I could definitely buy a tome! How expensive could they be?

In that instant, I dragged Master Lio out of the inn and back onto the streets to find a magic tome.

1 Hour Later, Merchant District, Galligar City, Kori Soaro Kingdom.

There we stood, in front of a tome. It had a dark green hardcover, with gold engraving designs all over it. It was gorgeous… until I looked at the price.

“Two hundred gold Soaran coins?!” I felt like crying right then and there. There the tome sat, displayed elegantly on a shelf, among dozens of other ones. This was the cheapest one they had. Two hundred gold Soaran coins. It was almost as expensive as a staff, which averaged around two hundred and fifty gold coins. For reference, I only had around fifty gold coins in my pockets.

Yeah, we were in quite the pickle. I stared at Lio, who stood next to me. He was similarly stumped. There was only one thing we had to do. We had to earn that money through sheer hard work.

“Master,” I said.

“Hmm?” He turned his head to face me.

“Looks like we have to head right back into a dungeon.”

He sighed, but nodded his head in agreement. If he were going to teach me magic, we needed that tome. Therefore, it had to be done.

We had to grind dungeon quests.