Lee sat at his singular wooden table and took his last pastry from his Hidden Cache. The strudel was still fresh, with it being soft, flakey, and delicious but not warm like it had been.

He spent several minutes transitioning the strawberry strudel to and fro from his Hidden Cache, testing the effects. Why was he doing this?

He had to do better.

Previously, he thought he was doing his best. He learned magic, was thrown into this new and unfamiliar world, and survived. In hindsight, that was the bare minimum that was required of him. He needs to test his abilities, skills, and spells and how they interact with one another.

His attempt at saving Neia during his battle solidified this in his mind. For all the power he wielded, he was using it poorly. If he hadn’t spotted Neia falling from the sky with his Aquavista, she would be dead. Line of sight was such a basic limitation for a spell or skill, but Lee had just assumed Miraculous Return would work. That was idiotic.

And while mentioning spells and skills, his only reliable basic combat spell is Earthen Strike. While it’s a decent spell, it is not enough. He needs to add to his spell repertoire and fast. His first immediate thought was to think of what he knew and how they would interact with his elements.

Fire, he knew a decent bit about. Most people probably knew quite a bit about fire; there’s not too much to learn about it. Too bad he didn’t have this element. A classic Fireball would have been nice to have.

Water. Well, his water spells were mainly focused on utility or defense, and that could probably change. Water pressure was a thing, after all, and water could be a fearsome foe to almost everything. You could drown enemies, and you could create a rapid beam of pressurized water.

While thinking, Lee took out his notes for the lecture and began writing with Darkness on the back of the paper, as he didn’t have any more on him.

From watching Neia’s battle with the Troll, Lee learned about some more applications of earth magic. Spires and spears of the earth would be much more effective for dealing damage than a lump of whatever ground he was standing on.

Air was harder for Lee to conceptualize as purely offensive. His immediate thought was, again, suffocation, just like water. He spent a minute thinking about other possible offensive spells but couldn’t wrap his mind around anything else. Perhaps he would ask Neia or someone else in the consortium.

While thinking about others he could ask, he immediately thought of Artus Maiven. The friendly, spell research junkie with the piercings. He seemed quite nice and would probably be more than willing to talk shop about spells. He wrote this down on his paper as well.

Dark was even harder to conceptualize than air. Controlling the shadows or blocking the light was what Lee could immediately think of, but that was about as far as he could go without any research. Another avenue of power he felt he left uncared for.

Light… He could do stuff with light. From all of the knowledge he brought from Earth, light was probably placed second in importance when compared to his knowledge of healing. He knew a lot about light, from wavelengths to speed and intensity.

If he could figure out a way to solidify light, it would be a potent element for damage.

Even though he was alone, his cheeks started to turn a faint shade of pink from blushing in embarrassment. The reason? His first thought when making light a weapon was something every child on Earth wanted at one point in time. A sword of intense light, ranging from the heroic blue and greens all the way to the evil red.

Knock Knock

Lee jerked and quickly vanished his notes into his Hidden Cache as he heard the knock at his door. He stumbled over while trying to rid himself of his own personal embarrassment about his childish dreams. This was supposed to be about being serious and finding ways to shore up his weaknesses and knowledge, not about… that.

Opening the door revealed an unexpected guest, Elder Sono.

“Ah. Hello, Lee. I’ve come to you as a representative of the city in regard to your share of the loot from the siege.”

Elder Sono took in Lee’s attire. Seeing Lee not in his Robes of the Genesis, he came to a wrong conclusion. Coughing into his fist slightly, Elder Sono spoke once more.

“Oh. I’m very sorry for waking you. I forgot about your need for much more sleep. I can return later…?”

Lee gave a slight forced smile in return and opened the door further.

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“It’s no problem. I was already awake. Would you like to come in?”

Elder Sono politely nodded and made his way indoors. He looked about the quite barren home and sat down at the table.

Lee didn’t have much in the way of hospitality. He had no tea or any kind of snack to offer, so he awkwardly sat down with Sono at the table.

“I don’t normally get visitors, as you can imagine, so I don’t have anything to offer you other than some water.”

Elder Sono waved away the expectation.

“There’s no need. Normally you would get your share of loot along with the others who participated later on. But, in your case, as the Elder of Others, I thought it would be nice to deliver them to you.”

Elder Sono gave a very formal nod of the head before he continued on more seriously.

“Lee Barnes, as a combat support during the monster siege of Neldam in the year 1722. I award you your share of the loot. As you would be considered a foreign dignitary in the defense of another nation, your share has been slightly increased.”

He paused for a second, gave a small wink, then whispered conspiratorially to Lee.

“I make the laws of foreign affairs.”

Going back to being serious, Elder Sono continued on.

“Your share has been calculated, with it totaling seventy-two silver, twelve copper, and a singular magical item looted from the corpses of our enemies decided at random.”

Elder Sono reached into a bag at his side and withdrew the coinage. The coins were inside a small leather coin purse, which was actually larger than the small bag he grabbed it from. Indication to Lee that he just saw his second-ever Bag of Holding.

After handing the coin purse to Lee with two hands, he reached back into his Bag of Holding and produced a small round glassy orb, which flared with a dull blue color from within its center. It was the size of a marble, and when Lee grabbed it, he felt the magic inside of it clearly.

Lee used Identify on the magical marble.

Pearl of Permanence. - Epic

This pearl of solidified non-elemental mana may store a singular type of elemental mana within. You may draw from the mana within and replenish it at will.

Mana: 0/25

Current Element: None.

Lee was surprised that this item dropped from any of the monsters at all. From what he saw from his Aquavista, the only monsters capable of casting magic were the trolls.

“Was this taken from a Troll? I didn’t do enough to deserve loot from something Neia killed.”

Lee began to push the Pearl of Permanace back across the table to Elder Sono but locked up as Elder Sono gave him a small smirk. Lee physically couldn’t move the orb across the table to refuse.

“With this, you have been rewarded for your contribution. Sorry Lee, you didn’t think I didn’t have any skills, did you? Insisted Incentives. That pearl is yours.”

Well damn. To Lee’s knowledge, this was the first time someone had used a skill on him other than Identify. It was off-putting, to say the least.

He held the orb up as both Lee and Elder Sono gazed upon it. Then it vanished. Elder Sono’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor as Lee put it into his Hidden Cache.

Seeing the Elder’s reaction, Lee gave a smirk of his own.

“What? You didn’t think I didn’t have any abilities, did you?”

Elder Sono chuckled slightly upon being hit back with his own words. Elder Sono got up from the chair and extended a hand to shake with Lee.

Lee stood and took the Elder's hand and spoke a thanks.

“Thanks for doing this personally. I know you didn’t have to.”

The Elder’s smile was a tad sad as he replied.

“I have had this position for hundreds of years and never had any real reason to use it. Every one hundred years, I meet an emissary from Thexis, but that’s about it. That always ends the same way, after all.”

He kept holding Lee’s hand for a minute before he spoke softly again.

“Take care of yourself, Lee. You look much better than when you first arrived, but those bags under your eyes are showing some of your… problems. It’s okay to reach out and talk to others about trauma.”

Lee was not expecting any sort of advice about his mental health, and this threw him for a loop. He stood there awkwardly for another second before Elder Sono let go of his hand and changed the topic.

“We are having a funeral service for those who have fallen tomorrow. You are free to participate. I’m not sure what the human custom is for your fallen, but you may come. You needn’t say anything or participate. Your presence alone would be enough.”

Lee nodded and replied while leading the Elder toward the door.

“I’ll be there. Thanks for letting me know.”

Elder Sono left without any more words as Lee sat back down at his table and had a sobering thought.

With him dying on Earth. His family probably had a funeral for him. A single tear rolled down his cheek as he thought about his parents and his uncle, who were there for him at his end.

He wondered about what they were going through. Were they better off not having to watch over him and paying for his hospital bills? He knew they were devastated about losing him, but he hoped that in the future, they would recover. He was, after all, a large burden toward the end of his life—excuses of love or not.

He recalled his uncle's last words to him right before he passed.

“I will make sure they are okay; you do not need to worry about their future.”

Lee recalled the look his uncle, Shane, gave him at his end. It was so vastly different than anything he had known. He wondered what Shane was up to as he crawled back into bed to attempt to get some more sleep.