It had been a pretty ordinary morning, all things considered. Lily woke up around the same time as Sunica, and they cooked together. Well, Sunica laughed while Lily burned eggs, and then they ate a subpar meal together to the tune of Lily grumbling about using the scientific method and finding the perfect magic circle to cook eggs for her.
But, the routine finally broke when Lily had to ask a simple question.
“Hey Sunica? Remember yesterday when I electrocuted you?”
Sunica’s face turned a little sour.
“Yesss?”
“Sorry. I mean. Did it hurt?”
“Yeah?”
“Like… a lot?”
“Lily, what are you getting at?”
“Well, it’s just, I’ve been thinking a bit about self defense you know? That was my panicked solution, but I could probably rig something better up if I put some effort into it. And I probably should, now that there are people around. What if you actually had been a thief?”
“Or worse, a monster.”
“A… monster?”
Sunica gave Lily one of her patented confused looks. Lily returned it.
“Yeah. A monster. Don’t tell me you don’t have them in your world either?”
“Well. That depends. Are we just talking about big aggressive animals, or what?”
“No. A monster is different.”
“Okay. Well. How so? In my world, people used to think animals like elephants were monsters when they hadn’t seen them before. What’s different here?”
Sunica rolled her eyes.
“This is why I followed you yesterday. You don’t even know about monsters? Okay. Listen up. Monsters come in a ton of different varieties, and most of them are dangerous in some way.”
“So, like wildlife? Like, is a bear a monster?”
“No.”
“Why not? It’s big and scary and dangerous.”
“I’m getting to that, so shut it Miss Human.”
“Sorry. Please, go on.”
Sunica took a deep breath followed by another bite of eggs before she continued.
“Monsters are different. They’re often smarter than animals, or have magic effects. Sometimes they don’t seem all that different though. But, they are. See, when you kill a monster you tend to level up a lot faster than if you’re killing anything else. If you have a combat class anyway. That’s how you know.”
“Huh. That seems… Are you sure?”
“Very.”
“Well, okay. But, if they’re more dangerous than animals, how do you know it’s not just because it’s harder?”
The balaur girl shook her head and took a sip of tea.
“No, that’s not it. Even relative to the difficulty, monsters make you level faster. It’s a known fact. For example, goblins are often easier to kill than soldiers in war but it’s known that clearing a goblin camp will usually make you level faster than if you’d cleared out a camp of soldiers at the same general difficulty.”
“I– That’s so weird. What the hell? Why would it be like that?”
“I don’t know. The church claims it’s a blessing from their goddess, meant to reward the people of the world for cooperating rather than fighting each other. But that seems like a load of crap to me.”
“Yeah? Don’t believe in the goddess, or what?”
The girl laughed, and a small puff of smoke came out.
“How could you not believe in the goddess? Her [Clerics] and so on use her power regularly. No, it’s not that. It just seems like if that was her goal she could do better. War still happens all the time, you know?”
“I see. I guess. Uh, sorry if this is insulting your religion or whatever, but how do you know her [Clerics] get power from her?”
“What do you mean? They go around saying it and casting spells that are different than what [Mages] learn.”
“Yeah but… Couldn’t they just be learning different spells? How do you know? Have they tested it somehow?”
“Do you have to be skeptical of everything?”
Lily giggled.
“Yes. I’m a scientist at heart.”
“I don’t have an answer for you. Ask a [Cleric] if you ever meet one.”
“I guess I’ll do that. What’s her name, by the way?”
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“Dunno. I’m not exactly devout, and it’s impolite to call her by name. There’s a church up in Avezare if you ever want to visit. But I’ve never been.”
“Hmm.”
There was silence for a little while as they finished their meals. The tea was wonderful. Lily now recognized it as having a slightly kindleberry flavor to it, giving it a small amount of pulp and a slightly cranberry flavor. Avea had been right, those things were all over the place.
“So, about my self defense?”
“Don’t ask me to test it.”
“Awww. But how am I supposed to know if it works?”
“Not my problem.”
“You’re no fun!”
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It was already getting close to evening when Lily stopped to take a breath and realized how much time had passed. She had a working prototype! It was a little invasive though. Specifically, it made all her scars glow. She also suspected that if someone could sense mana, they’d see it all over her. But for a prototype it was pretty cool!
It was formed out of two basic concepts. First, her tension building circuitry technique was there so that she could build up a good amount of mana ready to be activated, and when activated it would just use the push glyph with an absurd amount of mana behind it to fling the offending thing away from her..
The real genius of it though was the activation mechanism! It had taken some work, but she’d designed a circle that covered almost her entire body. It wasn’t exactly… circular. But, it worked! If something broke her skin, the circle would be broken too, and the spell would activate.
She wouldn’t want to try to take an arrow or a bullet or something, but she was feeling confident that if she did it’d barely break the skin before it got flung away. Of course, it would only protect her from one. And it was a roundabout way to do it.
This was going to be a process. But, for a prototype she was quite proud of herself. Although, she’d have to explain the damage to Sunica when she got back.
When she first had the idea she tested it on a piece of paper from her notebook. She’d gotten one of the kitchen knives and stabbed it into the paper. The moment it broke through the paper, it flew violently from her hand and now it was stuck in the wooden ceiling. Lily couldn’t reach it to get it down.
“Not exactly excalibur…”
She’d made a point of not sitting under it since then, but it had yet to fall down.
Sunica was out checking her traps. Apparently when she used her skill some of them were full. Lily had asked her meekly to do any killing she needed to do outside. Sunica thought she was joking at first, but when Lily insisted she just laughed and agreed.
Lily knew she was going to have to get used to that sort of thing eventually in this world. This wasn’t like her home where if an animal needed to die for food or a pelt it was happening in some warehouse where she never needed to think about it or see it. People here kept animals to eat, and did the killing and butchering themselves for the most part.
Lily caught herself yawning. She’d been at this all day without really putting much thought into it. How long ago did Sunica leave? Should she have been back by now? She was probably overthinking things. Sunica had lived here since she was little, alone for the most part. So it was unlikely she was in any trouble. Next time she’d ask how long her companion intended to be away.
She laid out on the couch, and pulled the blanket over her. It was nap time. She’d been using a lot of magic, but hadn’t realized how tired she was getting. It was really easy to just get in the zone while working on circles. She felt like it took so much of her active thinking space there wasn’t a lot left over for anything else. Even with her new skill. But, maybe that was for the best. Being alone with herself was never a particularly fun experience. She needed something to focus on, otherwise her mind would start to drift. At least magic was better than TV or the internet. The old her would just sit and rot consuming content like that. Weeks could pass by like minutes. A slow suicide.
She shook her head. No. That wasn’t her life now. What should she add to her spell? Ideally a way to discharge less than all of the energy at once, so she could block multiple projectiles. Maybe a manually activated version that would electrify and burn anything touching her?
If she did that, she’d have to be careful to find some way to exclude her clothes… But then if anyone grabbed her they’d be in for a shock.
“Heh. Stupid jokes…”
Sleep was overtaking her. That was fine. She could get some rest. She’d wake back up when Sunica got home. Maybe she could get the girl to take her out and throw snowballs at her or something. Although, that probably wouldn’t break the skin. Huh.
Lily drifted off, imagining a snowball fight.
[Student] - Level 3
Skill - [Mental Notes] Obtained!
…huh?
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Lily woke to a knock at the door. It was loud and persistent. She jolted awake, and stumbled off the couch and onto the floor. Sunica was back? She tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes as she rose off the floor.
“You can just open it! It’s your house!”
Nearly tripping over the small table and dodging the furnace, Lily groggily reached the door and threw it open.
“Sunica! Guess what, I leveled u— Who are you?”
In front of her stood a balaur girl. If she was human, she would have been 15 or 16 years old. She stood about as tall as Lily, with absolutely pristine white scales, white hair, and blue eyes that shone like glacial ice. She was wearing some very, very expensive looking robes, and her hair reached her shoulders in a straight and almost jagged looking cut. The girl stepped forward, eyeing Lily like she was looking down at an insect, clearly a little offended at Lily’s shabby dress and appearance.
Nevertheless, the girl bowed lightly.
“It’s nice to meet you. My name is Adelina Nor, representing the Nor Family. I assume you are [Lady] Flamewalker?”
Oh no. Oh shit. Nobility. How had that happened so fast…?
“I- Yeah. That’s me. How can I help you?”
The girl smiled politely, but there was an air of force behind her, somehow.
“Gather your things. You’ll be returning to Avazare with me.”
“Wha– I–”
“Also, that is some interesting looking magic on your body. I’ve never seen the like before. What kind of [Mage] are you?”
Lily’s eyes slowly drifted down to her hands. Glowing stars of mana flowed under her skin from the self defense spell she had been working on. No. This was a nightmare. A nightmare! She focused and cut the spell instantly. The glow vanished. But the other spell activated. Lily tried to stifle it, as she felt the circle within her coming undone, but it was like trying to push back the worst sneeze she’d ever felt. She clutched at her chest for a second, and nearly lost balance. The mana was trying to set off the spell. It was only her force of will holding it back. It needed a way out of her! She couldn’t just let it go! Her insides would be pushed hard enough to become her outsides!
“Are you okay?”
The girl reached out and put a hand on Lily’s shoulder. For just a second, that sudden touch had all of Lily’s attention. The spell activated, flowing out of her and Adelina let out a sudden yelp of realization before getting flung at least thirty feet from Lily and slamming into a tree.
She flew so fast she left a trail in the snow where it had been blown away! Lily stood there, staring in absolute shock and horror for a moment.
“I am so, so sor–”
“Dead.”
The girl was staggering to her feet, a look of absolute murderous fury on her face.
“You are so, so dead!”
Lily had her first clear thought since waking up. She scanned the room, and grabbed the nearest thing that might be useful, which happened to be Bay.
Then, she fled.