A nudge against my face stirs me from my sleep, and I push Aluci's paw away as I open my eyes. I slept pretty well after all that work expanding my cabin and building the interior, enough so that I slept past my normal time. It seems my efforts yesterday yielded quite a lot. Despite that, it shows the standard opening to the message, as always.

As you slept, you have grown a little more… [Building] is now Level 1! [Crafting] is now Level 6! [Gathering] is now Level 1! [Combat] is now Level 7! [Casting] is now Level 6! [Arcane Magic] is now Level 10! [Spatial Magic] is now Level 11! [Time Magic] is now Level 8! +100 HP +4 Strength +1 Constitution +3 Dexterity +500 MP +5 Magic +1 Mind

[Arcane Magic] has reached a Mastery Threshold! +[Arcane Magic Mastery 1] Title

Increasing the Levels of eight different Skills is still just "a little" growth, according to the System. I've never seen it say anything more than that, and eight is the most I've ever had at once before. Yesterday definitely involved more things than I normally do, several of which were fairly low in Level to start with, some of which didn't even have a Level before now.

Even though the cabin's update was technically mundane construction, it was into a magical space, which boosted the Skill Experience gains by a decent bit. That's why [Building] went up. [Crafting] simply had enough gains from the various things I crafted yesterday before going to sleep to boost it. [Gathering] went up thanks to how much I gathered from the more potent boulders and crystals in the mines yesterday pushing me pretty far before factoring in the gains from sleeping.

All of the force magics I used yesterday, both in the mines and during the construction, was enough to push me to the edge once I slept. I did several bits of complex spell casting yesterday, including for both spatial and time magics.

I should probably take things a little bit easier in the future. Yesterday was way too full of work for me to consider it to be a shift from my life before I came here.

I call up my Status to check on how things are now.

Rowan Zovanzik HP: 700/800 HP Regen: 0.008/second MP: 4,218/6,100 MP Regen: 0.061/second Strength: 30 Constitution: 17 Dexterity: 24 Magic: 65 Mind: 21

As I examine it, Aluci nudges my cheek again.

"What is it?" I ask, and he looks toward the door of my room.

I moved the furs I'm using as a bed to the room I set up for me and am in the corner furthest from the door. I can't sense anything in the direction of it, but I think Aluci isn't indicating that. He might be wanting to let me know about something outside of the cabin. My [Empathy] is unhindered by the spatial expansion of the building, but it treats the space within as the distance it is within. That means that if someone is more than 63' feet away from me, I can't sense their mind.

The distance from here to the front door is further than that due to being in the opposite corner of the cabin from here,so I can't sense if someone is outside. Judging by my sense for time, it's just-after eight in the morning.

Dylan and Nolan. They just arrived are probably knocking on the door. Aluci woke me to let me know I have guests.

"Alright," I get out of bed and slip on some pants, then leave my room.

I use a little bit of wind magic to straighten my hair as I make my way to the door and just as I reach it, I hear Dylan speaking softly.

"Maybe he's not here right now," Dylan says. "Let's head back home and come back later, alright?"

"I'm here," I open the door. "Was up until about three this morning. Got caught up in a project."

"Oh," he says, then his eyes fix on the space behind me and confusion fill his mind. "Uh… was that your project? The cabin's the same outside, though?"

"I used spatial magic enchantments to expand the space within," I tell him. "So that I could fit in more space than it should be able to contain. Have you two eaten breakfast? Since I just woke up, I could use some."

"We had something," Dylan says as Nolan looks at me. "But I think Nolan likes your cooking a little."

There's a little guilt in Dylan's mind, probably over how he can't provide as well for his son. At the same time, there is some hope. He likes my cooking, too.

"I'll make hash," I say. "Then we can do the lesson."

"Will that be alright?" He asks. "It's a bit muddy… we kind of got some all over your porch."

There's quite a lot of mud as most of my space isn't protected from the rains. That won't be a problem for me, though.

"No worries," I say. "I don't have a cooking station set up inside, and there are rain wards on the various zones I set up outside. They prevent rain from entering more than what's needed to water the plants within, so the ground in them should be relatively dry. And I think Nolan wants to play in the mud, he seemed to get excited at the mention of it."

That's the first real emotion I've seen on his face – it actually lit up. My [Empathy] and using [Telepathy] to peek into his mind wasn't necessary to know what he wants.

"You want to play in the mud?" Dylan asks Nolan, who vigorously nods – the first time he's ever directly responded to something he's been asked around me. "Whoa. Here I am, always trying to keep you out of the mud… you like playing in it?" Nolan vigorously nods again. "After breakfast, then."

I slip on my boots and lead them around to the fire ring, and Dylan sits on a stool with Nolan on his lap while I grab ingredients to make breakfast hash. I don't have any eggs since Thomas didn't bring food to trade for a reading lesson yesterday, but I still have plenty of butter so I'm only out part of the ingredients I don't raise on my own.

Nolan is wary of the new food, but his dad manages to talk him into trying it. Once he does, the kid tucks in like there's no tomorrow. A peek into his mind reveals that it's "better than 'tatoes Papa made".

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After breakfast, I wash the dishes while Dylan supervises Nolan, who runs through the mud and squishes it with his toes and fingers. As I'm finishing up, I notice Nolan having an intense focus in his mind and look over in time to see him jump and belly-flop into the mud.

"Wait!" Dylan exclaims just as he realizes what his son was thinking, but it's too late and mud flies everywhere. "Argh! Nolan!"

I laugh with the exasperated father as his son starts rolling around, a look of pure joy on the boy's face.

"At least it's just something that can be washed off," I chuckle. "Since everything is wet and muddy, we won't be cleaning up the brush today. That's too difficult and messy unless we use magic to dry the ground first and I don't feel like doing that."

"Oh," he says. "So what'll we be doing in exchange for the lessons?"

"I was thinking we could take a day off from that," I tell him. "I'm honestly a bit tired since I stayed up so late. It's been awhile since I got to play with spatial magics like that and I kind of got a bit excited to do so."

"I think Nolan's more interested in playing in the mud," he says. "And I'd need to supervise him for that. If there ain't lessons, I should probably clean him up and take him home, then."

"No need," I say. "He can stay and play here."

I make a swirling motion with a finger and a glob of mud floats up into the air, then soars forward and slams into the back of Nolan's head. That causes the boy to jump and look around, confused about where the mud shot came from. After a few more times of me doing this when he's not looking, he scoops up some mud as best he can and looks around.

Then a shot hits him from behind again and he turns around to find an earth spirit with his hands behind his back, silently whistling. Nolan's eyes widen and a grin forms on his face, and he goes to throw his mud at the spirit, only to get hit in the back of the head with more mud. When he looks back, a pair of water spirits quickly point at each other.

The spirits keep playing with Nolan for a bit as Dylan and I watch and eventually, the boy wears out a little and lies down on his stomach in the mud, looking over in the direction of my lessons space. Some of the spirits join him for the relaxation, some of them even lying on his back or head while others cluster on the ground around him, his usual nature spirit manifesting as well.

After a couple of minutes of that, I feel Nolan's curiosity piques and he looks between the learning zone and the area we've been clearing of brush and trees. Something is making him both curious and confused, and I take a peek into his mind to find out what.

"I'll just chalk that up to my experiences," I mutter.

"What's that?" Dylan asks.

"Sorry," I say. "Before I came out here, with a team of others, I could clear out an entire area of brush with ease and didn't usually have to deal with things regrowing, either, due to less mana being present in the soil.

"Here, though," I say. "There are several things which makes it more complicated to do. And I think your son thought of something I hadn't. At least, if I'm right about why he keeps looking between the path and the brush."

By saying it's a guess, that should eliminate the chance that he'll think I'm using mind magics. He's accepted my teaching and that we can have sex to handle those urges, but finding out that I use mind magics will more than likely turn him against me. It does have a negative stigma, after all.

"Which is?" He asks.

"Why I'm not using the same trick for the boundaries of where we've cleared to as I am for the path leading to the creek from the lessons zone."

It really is for the reason I mentioned: my experience is different, even if the full reason is different. I used to be able to clear it at all in minutes entirely on my own. With the space cleared out and then palisades built, overgrowth was never a concern.

I never had to do it in stages like I am now.

"Oh," Dylan says, then looks at the path. "Wait. Those slices. That's magic that's keeping the forest from spreading back into the path, not just the slices blocking them?"

"Yeah," I answer. "The space is too narrow for that to work – things would just sprout up – so I enchanted the tree slices with a magic that creates a defined 'boundary'. It's a bit more complicated than that, but I can't be bothered to go into the full explanation. I'll make some now, while Nolan plays. I think I'm awake enough for that."

Dylan looks at his son and at me, and I can tell by his expression he wants to watch me do enchanting but doesn't want to leave his son unsupervised. Based on the feel of the kid's mind, that's not a bad idea. He's getting ready to start playing again.

"Alright," Dylan goes over to watch his son.

I begin working on making more of the boundary's slices. First, I use alchemy to create paint with mana crystal and magic crystal as ingredients. After that, I draw water out of the ground in such a way to turn the mud to just soil – but not dry soil. This creates a dry zone around fifty feet in diameter around where I'm working on this. A dry space means I can place the pieces on the ground once I finish enchanting them, giving me more work space.

My normal action for drawing out water like this is to either dump it into barrels for storage (when in certain situations) or send it to the nearest water source. I can do the latter from right here despite the stream being so far away… except Nolan is having a lot of fun with the spirits.

So I send the water to him in a thick stream. His back is mostly to the water stream and he doesn't notice it until it's about ten feet away. Upon spotting it, the tyke lets out a squeal of delight, then goes tumbling through the air as the water picks him up and flips him over several times.

The pure, unfiltered joy in his mind at the tumble is the strongest emotion I've felt from him yet. That's saying something, too, considering how much fun he's been having since starting to play in the mud and with the spirits.

His father, on the other hand, is full of panic as Nolan lands in the mud. Dylan rushes over to his son and goes to pick him up, only for Nolan to roll away, giggling.

"I have enough control over my magic," I say, and Dylan looks at me. "To never hurt someone without intending it when using a spell."

"Yeah," he sighs. "It's still frightening, though, to see a mass of water just pick him and carry him away. I've seen and heard of beasts that use it to rip flesh from bone."

"From the ocean, right?" I ask, and he nods. "Those are likely rather strong beasts. Ones I'll be avoiding for now.

It's probably best to not tell him that I can cast [Water Jet], the spell he's referring to.

"Okay," the relief in his mind lets me know that was the right move.

He's accepted me as a mage and an outsider who's moved into the area as well as a teacher, not someone he has deeper feelings for.

Not only that, but I'm no doubt his first proper experience with a full-fledged mage since the other magi here don't seem to have interacted with the locals with their magic too much. The mercenaries who came through here probably either never showed what magic they might have known, or showed off something flashy. Potentially even using a magic item to create the effect.

He knows I use it to hunt monsters, but likely thinks I use it in similar manners to a hunter would with weapons – by striking with spells such as [Magic Missile] or [Arc Slash], slicing and piercing them. Maybe binding them up.

If he knew the full extent of what I could do, he no doubt would refuse to come near me again. I don't have deeper feelings for him, either, but I don't want to scare him. The goal is to become accepted by the locals, not terrify them.

So it's probably better that he doesn't know I can do the spell he thought I was using against his son.

"This is what it feels like, by the way," I tell Dylan as a thick stream of water slams into his back and flows around him.

Heavier and more stable on his feet than a four-year-old, Dylan doesn't tumble, though he does end up taking a few steps forward. I could have picked him up with the spell if I wanted to, but I'm using the same amount of force as I did for Nolan so he knows it's not dangerous.

"Jeez!" He exclaims. "That's icy!"

"Sorry!" I laugh. "But anyway, that's as strong as what I hit Nolan with, just with a little extra effect to pick him up."

The kid seems like he wants me to do it again, by the way he's bouncing on his feet and looking at me expectantly. I really should do at least some work right now, but… it won't hurt to play with the tyke for a little bit.

Not that he'll last much longer. The kid might be eating better now that he's visiting me every couple of days and I'm making sure to send them back with some meat, but it takes longer than a week and a half to build up stamina.

"Mind if I use it on him a bit more?" I ask. "He seems to want it."

I could just go straight to using it again, but it's probably best to ask Dylan first. That will probably make him more comfortable. The idea seems to make him uncomfortable, but one look at his son's hopeful face changes his mind.

"Sure," he tells me. "Just… don't hurt him."

"As I said," I smile and walk toward the kid. "I have enough control over my magic to never hurt someone unless I want to. And why would I want to hurt a kid? Come on, Nolan! Want to see how far you can tumble through the air before plopping back into the mud?"

Nolan starts nodding vigorously, then lets out another squeal of delight as water grabs him from behind. I'm tempted to carry him up into the air, then drop him down to see how he reacts to the catch – I'm sure he'd love the drop – but that'd probably terrify his dad.

So I'll stick to keeping the kid close to the ground… where the spirits will just try to pelt him with mud as I move him around.