“And yours…yours would have killed us all,”

Six words. A single sentence and yet it hit Arthur harder than any punch ever had. If he’d been standing he would have had to sit down. As it was, Arthur relaxed the muscles in his stomach and lower back and allowed gravity to do its work.

He fell back onto the grass and looked up at the fake sky. If he focused, he could notice the slight inconsistencies in it, the way the light was too bright and unnatural, how the clouds were a little too bloated and puffy, even the grass beneath him felt a little strange, its texture too smooth and flawless. It was fake. Everything in this place and the next layers were fake, and yet it was still beautiful.

And you almost destroyed it all. I almost killed myself. I would've killed Alyssia. Maybe thousands... millions.

The truth haunted Arthur, and he turned to gaze at Alyssia who had joined him in lying on the ground. Her green skin, Arthur noted, was a shade lighter than the grass she was resting on and he could see the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in and out. A young woman, strange in so many ways, powerful in her own right but more vulnerable than most. A woman whose company Arthur was beginning to enjoy.

She's definitely real, and you almost killed her.

Arthur didn’t even know how he was supposed to feel right now. He hadn’t had any bad intentions when he’d started experimenting with his skills and yet he’d just found out how catastrophically things could have ended. Was he supposed to feel guilty? Disgusted with himself or just disappointed.

As he lay there, with the steadily darkening sky above him, Arthur chose to be grateful. Grateful that a disaster hadn’t occurred and grateful that he had learned such an important lesson without paying the appropriate price. Ether was energy more dangerous than uranium when handed improperly and magic was not a game to be approached carelessly.

It was an art form older than his very planet and far more nuanced than the system portrayed it to be. It had a nigh-omnipotent potential for creation and destruction, a force more primal than nature and just as difficult to control. And most importantly, it was not something Arthur was prepared to face. Not without the aid of a teacher. Maybe he could dabble a little now, but he needed some proper instruction. Fast.

He would've been responsible for so much death and destruction.

If Arthur had heard the same words a year ago, he probably wouldn’t have handled it so well, but over those 365 days, Arthur had learned that you couldn’t wallow in regret and remorse forever. Especially when his actions had hurt no one but himself for once.

The two of them lay there in companionable silence, not saying a word. Alyssia’s even breathing told him that she’d bought her emotions under control and calmed down and even the annoying Stormwalker seemed to have read the mood and fucked off somewhere. If Arthur had known that it had stolen his food in the process, he wouldn’t be anywhere near as happy but ignorance was bliss and Arthur was as content as he could be for a short while.

“So, what were you even doing to get mageburn in the first place?” Alyssia asked softly.

Arthur startled into awareness. He’d thought Alyssia was resting and had almost dozed off himself.

“You don’t have to tell me if it was a personal endeavour you were attempting or something.”

Arthur chuckled.

“No, it was nothing dramatic like that. I was just trying to replicate one of my skills effects without the system's aid. You know, actually channelling the ether instead of pouring it into a skill matrix.”

Silence greeted his words. Alyssia didn’t say anything for a long, long while.

“Arthur.”

He could hear the astonishment and disbelief in her voice just from the way she said his name.

“Are you telling me that you got MAGEBURN from trying to replicate one of those terrible system-given skills? They’re so simple a child could do better. Surely you must be joking.”

“Right?”

They're supposed to be simple. What the hell! If they were considered easy, Arthur dreaded what the future had in store for him.

“I’m not joking. I really was trying to do one of those ‘simple’ spells.”

The word was more than a little difficult to say and it came out sounding strange and accented.

Myriad Tongues (Unique-Rare) has reached level 2

He ignored the ill-timed notification. It was as if the system itself was mocking him. Alyssia certainly was with how loud she was laughing. Everyone in the whole bloody grasslands could probably hear her. Arthur let her mockery slide considering how emotional he’d made her, but his patience was tested when she showed no sign of stopping after almost twenty seconds had passed. Arthur turned his gaze away from the sky to look at her.

She was on her side, in a foetal position, her whole body being wracked with laughter.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” she finally said after calming down. You remind me more and more of a thunder-duck the more I get to know about you. Only a creature that stupid would struggle with such simple magic. I’ve only just realised how many unexplained explosions in the wild can be accounted for. Those little bastards have probably killed so many people by detonating from soul burn.”

She broke into laughter again.

“Their danger levels should be raised from moderate to apocalypse-grade. Or should it be unique? I don’t even know anymore.”

Arthur couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the vivid image Alyssia had helped create in his mind. He imagined a bunch of fat chickens running around the streets, people all around completely oblivious to the ticking time bombs in their midst. His joy was tempered a little when he remembered that Alyssia had compared him to them.

“Is it wrong of me to say I’m a little relieved you are so poor at magic? At least now you won't have so many hyenas circling you like you are a dead carcass. No organisation would want someone that’s so terrible with ether. Or maybe I’m being too harsh. I don't know what the standards are here in your dimension.”

“Cut me some slack,” Arthur protested, “I’ve literally had no experience working with ether.”

“That's not an excuse for being so shit you get MAGEBURN travelling down an already established path, though. You're actually pretty talented you know. I don’t think anyone else could be afflicted with it so easily even if they tried.”

Alyssia went on teasing him for a while and Arthur quickly learned that the best way to get her to stop was to just ignore her. Their conversation then steered to much more normal topics and Arthur listened attentively as she recounted some of her experiences from childhood. Maybe the mageburn had affected him a lot more than he’d initially realised because he found himself retelling a particularly embarrassing story from his childhood which may or may have involved him urinating all over one of his kindergarten classmates.

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That particular story set Alyssia off and Arthur couldn’t help but join her in her laughter. It was infectious. Time was strange like that. It made moments that seemed like the end of the world into memories to reminisce upon and look back at with nostalgia. Who knows, maybe ten years from now, Arthur would look back at his foolish first attempts with magic and laugh about them with someone he hadn’t even met yet.

“It’s gotten late,” Alyssia said, “get some sleep and eat what's left of your rations you packed if you have anything left. Bambam ran away with your meal.”

It took a moment for Arthur to realise that Bambam was in fact the horse that Arthur, unfortunately, knew so intimately and that the meal in question was the food that had teased him with its aroma when he’d awoken. Why'd she name him Bambam? After checking to confirm the truth of Alyssia’s words, a dismayed Arthur opened up his tattered backpack to retrieve the last of his rations, a few dried nuts and leaves that Alyssia claimed were extremely nutritious, but tasted blander than stale bread. Joy and happiness now relics of the past, Arthur began to eat.

Alyssia laughed at his sullen countenance and her promise of some amazing cooking tomorrow did little to alleviate his gloom.

“I swear Arthur. Your emotions change faster than the weather.” Alyssia chuckled.

Arthur didn’t deign the insult with a reply, instead retaking his spot on the ground beside her. He’d gotten used to sleeping under the night sky with only the stars and an annoying woman for company. The cold didn’t bother him with his incredible constitution, and the firm ground did wonders for his back. Most of the time at least.

"I'm sorry, Arthur." Alyssia spoke softly.

"Why?"

"As much as I try to deflect with jokes, this was my fault. I should've warned you how things could go wrong. Sure, I didn't expect you to struggle so much with mirroring a system skill, but judging you according to the standards I was held to was too harsh. Not when I received an education people would kill for."

Arthur didn't say anything. A few seconds later, she continued.

"I said I would teach you but so far, I've done nothing," she whispered. "I'm not like my mother. Or my sister. They'd know what to do right now. And here I am. Just me and Artemo." She chuckled mirthlessly. "I need to teach him about our people, you know. Teach him magic, teach him fucking everything. He wanted to be an artificer. That's all he ever used to go on about. And I don't know WHAT those people even fucking do."

The conversation had quickly changed from her initial apology to her dumping all her worries on him. Arthur let her go on, though. She told him about her fears, about her worry that Artemo would grow up to resent her when he grew up as nothing but a fighter, forced to travel down a route he didn't want to because she knew nothing else to teach him. Arthur tried to reassure her but he wasn't sure if his words were getting through.

"I can't do anything right," she mumbled. "Here I am, trying to apologise and it somehow became a therapy session."

Arthur laughed. "Don't worry about it. Sure, you're a dick, but we've all had our moments. If my friends had pushed me away when I was being self-destructive, god knows where I would've ended up. That's not to say it's an excuse for your shitty behaviour. Just that I can understand and tolerate it." He explained. It was important that he drew a few boundaries now. She might have different social norms to humanity, but that didn't mean he had to accept them wholly. She would learn decorum or they would have problems.

"That's fair," Alyssia replied, suitably chastised. "I'm sorry for hitting you too. I wasn't thinking straight at the time and I went too far. I'll take responsibility and try to teach you properly but you have to understand. Alverin are big on self-discovery. We let our youth experiment on their own first. With EVERYTHING. It's how I was taught, how my mother was taught and her grandmother before. It's how I would've taught you. Probably how I still will, just dialled back a little."

"But I stand by what I've said about your race. Objectively speaking, humans are a weak race. Sure, they have outliers like you, but you're an exception. On my planet, your kind would've been subordinated by another race, perhaps even my own." She sighed. "That being said, I'll try to stop insulting them at every turn. And yourself. Unless you do something stupid. All gloves are off then."

It was honestly more and less than he'd expected. He'd rate her apology a 6.5/10. The part about humanity being a subordinate race didn't bode well for his race's future in the wider universe but Arthur hoped the standards were just higher on Alyssia's home world.

“Go to sleep. You’re going to need it for tomorrow. Being unconscious doesn't count as rest.”

Her words had an ominous undertone to it and almost sounded like a warning.

“Why?” Arthur asked the question, all the while hoping that he already knew the answer. He sure wished his suspicions were right. Alyssia shortly confirmed them.

“Because I’m going to start teaching you personally. God knows you won't get anywhere yourself. Heck, you actually managed to get worse since the last time I saw you. And besides, I need some teaching experience for when Artemo starts bugging me.”

Arthur could literally hear the wicked grin in her voice when she mentioned her brother and he couldn’t help but feel sorry for what lay ahead in the young boy's future. And his own.

Maybe he shouldn’t be so eager for some proper instruction if whatever Alyssia had planned could even be counted as such. ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ the age-old adage came to mind and Arthur hoped that the wise words wouldn’t have to be applied to himself. The hope was fleeting, though, and died mere seconds after its conception. Alyssia was a woman of many talents, but Arthur knew that teaching was not among them.

Despite his misgivings, however, Arthur couldn’t help but feel excited, and it was with those emotions that he eventually managed to fall asleep. He would soon come to regret ever entering the locus of power with Alyssia, but for now, he was happy.

In accordance with Alyssia’s promise, Arthur woke up the next day to the smell of a delicious breakfast. His headache had now gone and with nothing else stopping him, Arthur immediately set about devouring the dishes Alyssia had prepared for him. That bastard horse would NOT be getting his food today.

He finished the food in record time, wolfing down an assortment of delicious eggs of strange origin, mushrooms that were definitely not addictive and a golden brown alternative to rice as if he hadn’t eaten for years. Arthur doubted anyone else on Earth would react differently to Alyssia’s cooking.

The alverin in question was looking at him with eyes filled with satisfaction. Arthur could relate, at least a little. There was nothing better than knowing that your food was appreciated and it was one of the main reasons why he enjoyed cooking, even if he hadn’t practised it to the realms of perfection as Alyssia had.

Once he’d finished with everything, he used his upgraded water bullet skill to generate some non-lethal H20 in a bowl which he then used to clean himself. Only after doing so did he remember that he had his new purifying skill. It took time to get used to the fact that he now had magic to call upon in his day-to-day life and not just for combat. With a quick blast of purify, everything within a three-meter vicinity was cleaned to perfectionist standards. Or maybe Arthur’s were just really low.

He turned to look at Alyssia, who was packing away all her stuff into her special storage bag with terrifyingly fast efficiency. Arthur briefly wondered why her ceramic plates weren't shattering when she grabbed them at speeds faster than a car on the highway but then chalked it up to some magic fuckery. If his flesh could stop a bullet now, who was he to question the integrity of physics laws?

“Arthur, do you use any weapons when you fight?” Alyssia asked.

“No, I don’t.” the question came out of the blue, and Arthur answered it honestly. He saw no point in using a weapon, not when he didn't know how to use one. Maybe knuckle-dusters to enhance hand-to-hand combat, but he doubted there was any out there that could best his bare fists in terms of durability. Until then, Arthur was perfectly fine with the weapons he’d been born with.

“Why do you ask?”

“Good. I prefer barehanded too. As for why. Well, I don’t want you making excuses when I beat you to a pulp.”

She grinned at him wickedly and Arthur felt a little sweat trickle down his back.

“What do you mean?”

Alyssia smiled.

“You told me that you had to be done with this place in a day or two, right?” she didn’t answer his question, instead asking one of her own. Arthur nodded his head yea.

“Well, with the time dilation here, we probably have fifteen days to use before things get weird. I want to complete this locus in ten. There are a lot of nasty side effects associated with abusing the time-dilation that loci possess.”

“That leaves us with around a week on this layer to get you into ship-shape. After that, we’ll have to start challenging this place properly.”

“And no matter how great a teacher I may turn out to be, and who knows, I might actually be amazing, it won't be enough for your magical capabilities to make much of a difference in this place or against the threats waiting outside. Not if you're still working with those system-given skills. You say you're a talented combatant. We need to get a baseline for your abilities before I can think about enhancing them with magic.”

Arthur nodded his head. It was a hard truth, but a necessary one to face. Arthur would not become some sort of Dumbledore in a week, no matter how much effort he may put into magic.

“That means the best thing you have to offer for now is your physical capabilities. At least until I help you enhance it with magic. You'll be a real powerhouse then.”

“I want to know what you’re made of. I can already tell you have some absurd investments in your physical stats. Even more than me actually.” She grinned.

“Now I just need to see if you can use them.”