While Miria went to eat dinner with the adults, Felix pondered what he had learned during the day. And as he thought about everything they had learned, he tried not to manically grin in delight.

He was finally delving into the secrets of alchemy. At long last, after years of unsuccessfully searching on his own, he knew how to progress.

Felix had been the most excited when Miria asked who wanted to go to alchemy prep school. Unlike other essences, binding essence seemed hard to use intuitively, even with his exceptional affinity.

The first class of school had clarified a lot of things for him. Felix had never realized that binding essence needed to work as a sort of external sense before it could be used for alchemy. Once he’d realized what the ‘correct’ direction was, using his binding essence to go further had felt… easy. Natural. It was like learning how to breathe. It felt exactly the same way the others had described their own extreme affinities.

Felix finally gave in, and grinned with delight. He was finally learning the magic system meant for him. He started running through the exercise they had learned in class again. He didn't have any of the fancy liquids their teacher had used, but that was fine. He could sense his own essence well enough to confirm that binding essence was leaving his body.

said Anise over the communication bracelet, interrupting Felix’s sixth repetition of the exercise.

He asked, trying not to wince as his attempt to sense parts of the bowl of liquid in front of him fell apart.

said Anise.

asked Felix, trying not to show his surprise. The Zelyrian magic system was harder to learn than the magic system from the world of the black sun. And Anise wanted to do everything on her own , so that she wouldn’t miss out on a keyword ability. So the idea that Anise was asking for help surprised him. Why was Anise risking missing out on her keyword ability?

said Felix.

said Anise.

said Felix. He had barely started figuring out the alchemy of this world. He started feeling a bit nervous. If Anise wanted a training aid, Felix would love to help - but he wasn't sure if he could do it yet.

said Anise, after a few moments.

Felix nodded - before he realized that he and Anise were a few houses apart, and so she couldn’t see him nodding.

he said. Then, he frowned. he said.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

said Anise. Anise paused.

asked Felix, feeling bewildered. He hadn’t expected Anise to come up with that idea. How would that even work?

she said.

said Felix, trying to figure out how that would work. He didn’t know quite enough about light to bind it to a piece of paper… but he could fix that with some research. He would need to get some books describing what light was and how it worked, of course. But if it would help Anise, he didn’t mind spending some time on it. And it also sounded like a fascinating project. It might even help him form his own keyword ability. Still, he was a bit confused.

Felix asked.

Felix thought about it, and chuckled. Anise had barely stepped into the Zelyrian magic system, but she was already experimenting with it. If her idea worked, she would circumvent one of the major weaknesses of the system.

said Felix. Felix found himself getting excited at the thought of Anise’s project.

For a long time, he had felt bad about how lacking his combat prowess was. Miria had her extinguishes and her renewals, and they were utterly terrifying. Sallia had her swordsmanship, and she was a monster when it came to physical combat. Anise wasn't very powerful yet, but Felix was sure she would get there soon. Meanwhile, Felix's best idea so far was to optimize prosthetics. That would certainly help - he would be able to drastically enhance his physique with the right modifications. But it felt a little lackluster if that was the only thing he could contribute to future fights. Especially the fight to buy more lives. If the group failed that, everyone would really die.

On the other hand, if he also learned how to make training aids for everyone, he could enhance the group a lot. Making training aids had a lot of potential for future worlds.

he asked.

said Anise.

Felix grinned, and started making his way towards the yard of Anise’s apartment. His thoughts constantly circled around Anise's new project as he thought of new ideas and ways to make it work. He might not have the expertise to build what Anise wanted yet, but one thing was certain. He was incredibly excited to see if Anise's idea would work.