Zaki seemed down for some time after that. "Don't mind him" Mr. Merydian said while he looked at a panel on his desk. "I just got word from my men, that Angela was captured together with her companions. They talked with your family and they are safe, they also know that you are safe. We can teleport you to Cragwarf and Zaki can escort you home from there." He said. Arya stood up from her chair. She hadn't expected a response so soon. It had only been a couple of hours. "Whaaaat?! Why me?" Zaki complained. "You need to socialize more, it is important" Mr. Merydian answered. Arya giggled and Zaki groaned. Arya was a bit worried that Mr. Merydian was trying to set them up as a couple. Arya had no interest in 13-year-old children. Now that she thought about it, she had never had any interest in love at all. She had never had a lover in her past life. She was too busy exploring and doing her own stuff, having a lover just seemed like a waste of time to her.

Zaki teleported himself, Mr. Merydian, and Arya to a new room. It was a beautiful dome with engravings on the walls. They were at the top of the tower and Arya could see the sky above. In the middle of the room was a circular platform with a lot of intricate engravings covering it. Around the platform, there were 4 crystals embedded into the floor. The crystals were radiating with mana. "Woah, what is this? What are those crystals?" Arya asked. "Those are mana stones, and this is a teleportation chamber. I could speak about it for ages but I think we should hurry. You are welcome to visit the fire magic tower at a later time." Mr. Merydian said. He took out a letter and handed it to Arya. "This is an invitation, show it if you visit the tower in the future, you can also use it to grant access to a teleportation chamber in any town. Only to teleport to the fire tower though." Mr. Merydian said. "Thank you! I will definitely visit!" Arya answered.

Using the teleportation chamber was magical. One second she was in the fire tower, and the next she was in a similar, but less grand, teleportation chamber in Cragwarf.

The trip home went quickly and Zaki disappeared as soon as they entered the village. Arya ran to their house. She threw the door open and saw her parents in the living room. She ran over and hugged them. "Arya! We were so worried!" Her mom cried. "We looked everywhere for you... and then some odd people came and said you were fine and coming home soon. We tried to ask them questions, but they just left!" Her dad said.

They sat down and Arya explained everything to them, only leaving out the part with the blessing.

After a while, they calmed down. "So you got an invitation letter from the fire tower head?" Her dad asked. "Yeah... I don't know if I should accept or not." Arya answered. "Absolutely not! Someone from that tower kidnapped you!" Her mom said. "But I need to get stronger so that doesn't happen again!" Arya protested. "You can do that here." Her mom said and crossed her arms. Arya sighed. "I just don't want something like that to happen again..." Arya said defeated. Her mom hugged her.

Her aunt knocked on the door, and her father quickly went to open it. "Arya! I'm so sorry... I tried to run after the carriage as soon as I heard what happened! They knew I was coming and had prepared a decoy. I was running after an empty carriage. The guy in the carriage didn't even know where the original was going!" Vanessa said with a grim look. "I'm so happy you made it out..." She said and pulled Arya into a hug.

Arya retold the story of what happened. Her aunt thought the magic tower might be a good idea when she was a bit older. "You're still a child Arya, you don't need to worry about getting stronger yet! We will protect you." Her aunt told her.

A few days later Arya was lying in bed thinking. She did see her mom's and her aunt's point of view, but she was also worried about what could happen to her family if she stayed here. If she studied magic in the tower she would probably be better equipped to deal with such situations.

Arya heard a knock on her door. "Come in" She said. It was her little brother. "Sister! Can we play outside? Dad says I can't go alone!" He said and pouted. Arya smiled. "Sure, let's go" Arya said and stood up from the bed.

Arya and Runo walked hand in hand outside. They greeted some of the villagers and Arya had to explain a couple of times why she was away for a few days. She didn't tell the whole truth, she just said that she was kidnapped and thankfully saved by someone. The villagers were all shocked something like that could happen in their small village.

Arya saw Mika sitting outside of his house and they went over to him. "Hey, Mika! Why are you sitting outside?" Arya asked. Runo tilted his head, and then went over and hugged him. "Mikaaa!" He said and giggled. Despite their age gap Arya, Mika, and Runo often hung out together. Mika was really shy around new people so he was only comfortable with his childhood friends. Besides Mika was the only one Arya could practice magic with when her aunt wasn't home. Arya had taught him how to use and she was trying to explain how worked, but Arya wasn't the best teacher and he didn't have any luck with that yet. They hadn't had that much time to practice since Mika got his system activated. He didn't know he had before then. "Arya! I was worried! Mom said you got kidnapped! I wanted to check on you when you got back, but I didn't want to interrupt your reunion with your parents and Runo." Mika hastily explained. "It felt empty when it was only me and Runo playing..." He said. "Aw, I appreciate it. I am fine now though." Arya answered and dragged Mika and Runo in a group hug.

Arya spent her time practicing magic with her aunt and playing with her brother and Mika. She also started helping around the house. Arya was glad women were not oppressed the same way they were in her world in the Middle Ages, or maybe it was after the Middle Ages women began to suffer. Arya never studied history. Here the husband also helped with the housework, and both her parents had respectable jobs. Arya had asked if she could join them at work to learn about what they did. They said she had to wait until she was a bit older, but they were happy that she showed interest. Arya asked if they had job-related skills and they did. Her father had and her mom had . The fishing skill made her dad better at fishing apparently and her mom's skill made her able to copy writing exactly as she saw it, she was also able to write with a lot of different handwritings. Arya wondered what counted as a skill and not, sadly no one knew the answer. There was a lot of speculation about the topic, and most people thought the god of effort decided what should be a skill and not, but no one knew for sure.

She had asked her aunt a lot of questions, but Vanessa didn't know the answer to most of them. Her aunt knew more than most people, but she was only a middle-ranked adventurer. Arya obviously never called her a 'middle-ranked adventurer' out loud, but from the color ranking, she was middle-ranked.

Arya got to know that there were four magic towers, the fire tower, water tower, earth tower, and wind tower. Vanessa said they specialized in one type of mana. That didn't mean they necessarily only knew one type of magic though.

Arya also learned that she should never tell people the specifics of her skills, especially . She told her aunt the skill description of the skill and her aunt told her that she had never heard about anyone having the ability to sense all types of mana. The weird thing was that Arya's skill didn't specify any specific type of mana, which Vanessa thought was really odd. Her aunt told her that the types of mana you were able to sense usually correlated with what types of mana you could use for . They were unsure if this meant that she was able to see all types of mana, or if it was just her skill description that was weird.

Arya told her aunt and her parents that she learned too. Vanessa asked her what elements she had an affinity for. Arya was unsure what she should answer but ended up saying that she had the earth, air, water, and fire elements. These were the basic elements after all. "Wow, four of them? That's amazing! I only have the fire and light elements! You have all the four basic elements! It is said that the basic elements are basic because they are the ground elements upon which everything is built. It's amazing to have all of them!" Vanessa said. "Thank you!" Arya said with a giggle.

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Arya and her aunt practiced the fire element together since they both had that element. Her aunt was shocked by her mana regeneration. If her aunt used up her mana she had to wait for at least a day before it was full again. Arya just had to wait a few hours, and Arya had a much bigger mana pool!

Arya was sitting on a rock on the outside of the village. She was practicing . She tried to create fissures in space, but it felt like trying to create mana out of nothing, it just wasn't something one could do! She was stumped on the matter. If only there was an existing space fissure she could study.

Arya recalled how Zaki's storage ring had mana that seemed to tear apart the ambient mana and create a space fissure. She wondered if she could do something similar with and combined.

Arya didn't have any success so far, but she kept trying. Then she heard a familiar bell. She remembered that when she was a baby this bell went off. Apparently because of a monster horde? She couldn't believe she had forgotten to ask about monsters before! Well, in her defense it took many years for her to be able to ask about it. She was too young to ask about it back then. She couldn't randomly start speaking before she was even a year old! She had never heard anyone talk about monsters after that. It wasn't clear that monsters were attacking, maybe it was bandits or something else.

Now was not the time to be lost in thoughts. Arya stood up and ran towards the village. She saw villagers panicking and running towards the village center. Others hurried inside and closed their doors. Arya asked a random person what had happened. "Something is attacking the village! Everyone capable is to meet at the village center for instructions." The person shouted and hurried along. Arya was still on the outskirts of the village, so she began running towards the center.

Arya saw her aunt running towards her and stopped running. "I'm glad you're ok! There is a monster attack going on. We are not sure about the scale yet. Your family should be at the village center, let's hurry over!" Vanessa said and they began running again. "What are monsters?!" Arya asked while they were running. "We call all aggressive mana beasts for monsters. A monster horde sometimes attacks settlements when they are chased out of their territory by stronger beasts or if they don't have enough food, it is quite rare luckily" Vanessa answered.

They reached the village center. A lot of people were gathered. She saw her brother in the middle of the crowd. He looked panicked and her parents were nowhere to be seen. Arya and her aunt walked over to him. "Have you seen mom and dad?" Arya asked him while hugging him. "N-no I was playing with Mika" Runo answered. Arya looked up and saw Mika standing beside Runo, she didn't notice him before.

"Thank you for looking after him" Arya said to Mika. He was about to answer when a loud whistle interrupted him. "Everyone please be quiet!" A man said. Arya recognized him as the village head. "There is a monster horde attacking us. They are goblins and orcs! Everyone that can fight stays here and everyone else, go to your homes and stay inside! They are attacking from the south, if you cannot fight and your house is in that direction go inside the stores and hide!" The village head said. Arya was conflicted if she should stay or not. People began moving and around half ran away towards their homes. "Arya, take Runo and Mika to your house and look for your parents, I will stay here ok?" Her aunt said. Arya nodded and took the hand of Runo.

They began running towards their house. Arya was a bit scared since their house was on the outskirts of the village, but it was towards the east so it should be fine. They saw James outside the house and hurried over.

They got to the house and quickly made their way inside. "Mom?" Arya said. Her mother came running towards her. "Runo, Arya! I'm glad you are ok. Good to see you too Mika." Her mom said and let out a sigh of relief. "I need to go to the village center, you guys need to stay here ok?" Her dad said. "What! Dad let me come with you if you are going out. I'm worried..." Arya said. "It will be ok, you have to be here to protect your brother ok?" Her dad said and hugged her. "But..." Arya started. "No buts! You are only 9 years old Arya." Her dad interrupted her. Her mom nodded and put her hands on Arya's shoulders. "Don't worry, your dad will handle this." Her mom said. Arya could hear the worry in her mom's voice but she felt powerless to change her parent's opinions. She let out a sigh. "Please be careful dad..." Arya said. She wondered for a split second if she should try to use her to change their opinion, but quickly shut it down. She didn't want to use that skill on her parents. "I will be careful." Her dad said and gave them all a hug.

Her dad opened the door and stepped outside. Arya saw a little green humanoid creature with long ears running towards her dad as soon as he stepped out. It was only slightly bigger than Runo. Before James could react Arya dragged her dad back in and closed the door. "Is that a goblin?" Arya asked. "Yes we're lucky it wasn't an orc, they could have knocked the door down." Her dad said with a frown. The goblin clawed at the door but wasn't strong enough to get through it. Runo cried and Tinala picked him up and walked backwards. "What do we do, honey?" Tinala asked her husband. James pondered a bit before he answered "You guys stand back, I will open the door and take care of it. Arya, can you get me a knife from the kitchen?" Arya quickly went to the kitchen to get the knife. "Honey, are you sure? We could wait for help..." Tinala said. "It will be ok, goblins are not strong, and this one does not have a weapon" James answered.

Arya came back with the knife and handed it to her dad. "Dad, can I try to cast magic on it through the door?" She asked. "Uh.. I guess so?" He said and looked towards his wife for input. "If you don't open the door..." Tinala answered. "Mika, can you take Runo to the bedroom?" She asked. Mika nodded and took Runo's hand. They walked to the bedroom and closed the door. Some seconds later they heard Runo crying. Tinala quickly went after them after saying "Be careful! Ok?" To Arya and James.

Arya got ready to try casting magic through the door. She didn't know if it would work or not. She first tried to feel the mana through the door but found that it wasn't easy with the door blocking the way. She put her hand at the door and let her mana spread through the small gaps in the wood. "Dad, do you think it would be fine if I cast fire on it? I think I can stop it from spreading to the door but I'm not 100% sure." She asked and looked towards her dad with a questioning gaze. "Hmm.. ok, we have some water in the kitchen should it go wrong." He answered and nodded. With the go-ahead from her dad she started casting and chanting for a better chance at success. She took inspiration from her and tried to do something similar with the door "Fire go through the wood, protective mana layer on the door" She whispered and her sprang to life. The protective layer of mana quickly burnt away but it seemed like it was enough to not destroy the door. She heard the goblin wailing through the door and she shivered. She thought she would feel more bad about it but she didn't. They were attacking the village first, and who knows how many they have harmed. The wailing stopped and Arya looked towards her dad again. "I will open the door to check, stay here ok?" Her dad said. Arya nodded and took a few steps away from the door.

James opened the door and found a dead goblin burnt to a crisp. A small marble was all that was left of the goblin. He also saw that the other side of the door was on fire. Arya quickly cast a small water spell on the door, but it was already a bit burnt. "I'm sorry about the door..." Arya said with a pout. She was so sure it had worked but it seemed like the mana layer burnt too quickly. "It's ok, it's just a door, it probably already had claw marks from the goblin" Her dad said and waved his hand dismissively. "But you sure are impressive with your magic, I've never seen someone cast magic through a door before!" Her dad said with a smile. Arya found it a bit weird for her dad to be in such high spirits during the goblin invasion but maybe this sort of thing was more common than she thought. She did live in a different world after all. "Look, the goblin dropped a goblin core! Monsters have cores, depending on the type of monster it might be worth a few coins" Her dad said and handed her what looked like a marble. "Why do they drop these?" Arya asked. "No clue! Ask your aunt later" Her dad answered.

She wondered if she could cast on someone else. If her dad was going out to fight more goblins that would be a nice insurance. "Dad, are you going out to fight more goblins?" Arya asked. "Yeah, but you are too young to come with me, maybe we can go hunting together when you are a bit older." Her dad said with a grin. "Can I try to cast a protective spell on you? I'm not sure if it will work though..." Arya asked. "Sure thing, what is the worst that could happen, haha" He answered. He soon regretted that.