A month had passed since then, and Ron's reputation had only continued to rise. Known to possess a peak rank 5, rumored even to possibly be a grade 6, talent, a potioneering genius capable of making incredible potions within months of starting, and also a fearsome fighter despite his young age.

However, in all honesty, Ron cared very, very little about his reputation. After all, as far as he was concerned, these acolytes who spent their time gossiping and doing nothing useful with their time would soon be left far behind him. What did it matter what they thought of him?

Ron shook his head and sighed, banishing those useless thoughts behind, instead returning his concentration on the feather in his hand. It had intricate patterns running all over it, and even Ron, who had more or less become immune to normal fire and heat, felt that it was scorching to the touch.

Nonetheless, Ron didn't let it go. His Ten Sacred Flames, while it was completely possible to cultivate it without any help, would progress faster if aided by external materials, something that he'd only figured out recently. Well, rather than figured out, it would be more appropriate to say that it only became relevant recently.

If he was to attempt using external aid without the proper foundation and strength, he might just explode. Thankfully, under Loki's watchful eyes, Ron wouldn't be able to do something that stupid even if he wanted to.

Tucking his long hair behind his ear, something that had become sort of a habit as of late, Ron mulled over some more useless thoughts for a while, allowing his mind to rest before returning back to his meditation.

Small flames shaped like snakes crawled their way out of Ron's eyes, ears, mouth and nose, all of them not smaller than a normal worm. They made their way to the feather in Ron's hands, which upon being touched by those worms, began to sizzle and release an intoxicating smoke.

The worms let out small cries of joy as they rushed to the smoke, absorbing it into their bodies. This caused them to inflate, but despite that, they did not stop absorbing the smoke right up until they were on the verge of exploding, at which point they crawled their way back into Ron's body.

Within his sea of consciousness, the bloated worms obediently waited as they passed one by one through the ever-hungry flame, being quickly devoured by it, their bodies turning into the sweetest nectar that fed both the flame itself as well as the growing lake beneath.

Once each worm had passed and been consumed, the flame settled down, and Ron awoke from his meditation.

He breathed out, the air in front of him trembling from the heat of his breath, slight traces of smoke rising from the edges of his lips. He quirked a happy smile, feeling reinvigorated.

"Using this is thing feels really different from normal cultivation..." Ron murmured to himself, feeling a little speechless. While each feather could only be used a total of five times, it was already quite insane. After all, compared to slowly absorbing the energy around him, taking it from the feather was both faster and easier, and on top of that, the feather's energy was on a whole level higher compared to the energy in the air.

Standing up, Ron performed some simple stretches, enjoying the dull burn of her muscles being pulled. With each meditation, while her body appeared to have remained unchanged, at a fundamental level, it was being slowly upgraded. Her mind felt sharper, her body became even more responsive to her wishes, and her spiritual force only became stronger and purer.

'I'm about to reach the bottleneck... I think that after two more sessions, I'll be there.' Ron thought, feeling giddy at the prospect. He wasn't stupid, and his teacher had dropped a lot of hints that more or less meant that the moment Ron became an official magus, he would likely be made into a professor and officially be recognized as the academy's darling, and the resources being poured into him would likely increase by an exponential amount.

After all, someone becoming an official magus in less than a year? Completely unheard of. If Ron could achieve it, then his life would likely become a lot easier, but also harder. After all, what better way to damage an enemy school than to kill it's most prominent student?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Despite that lingering fear of assassination, Ron wasn't actually all that worried. His teacher had obviously already been acting in the shadows, and with him being a rank 2 magus, the chances of someone slipping by his notice unseen was null.

Furthermore, although Ron hadn't yet seen him, the supposed 'Great elder' of the Fire Mausoleum was a rank 3, and even he had started to take notice of Ron. With all of this attention being directed at him, it could be seen as either the greatest danger or the best shield.

Ron chose to think of it as a good thing, if only to simply to spare himself the anxiety it would otherwise bring.

'Besides, once I become an official magus, I can change my sex back!' Ron thought to himself, expecting to get cheered up by the thought. However, all he felt was dull indifference at the thought.

'Do I even want to change back, though?' A small voice at the back of his head whispered. Ron bit his lips, but he didn't flat out dismiss the notion as he would have done when he first transmigrated.

He wasn't particularly happy about being a little girl... However, he didn't find it so bad either. After all, 50% of the human population was female, if he was to start complaining about how being a woman sucked, he'd be offending a lot of people.

But that wasn't even the main point. Maybe it was the hormones in him, or maybe it was the fact he had much bigger things to worry about, or hell, maybe he was just a closet transgender without knowing it, but Ron didn't feel at all like he wanted to change back.

This wasn't some sort of grand revelation. Perhaps he'd already started changing before this, and in retrospect, perhaps he had. It wasn't even some big change, rather, it was a combination of little things. The longer hair, the more time spent on caring for his appearance, his changing tastes in clothing, his sudden desire to look 'girlier', etc.

Ron dropped himself on his bed, spreading out starfish-style. With a sigh, he just murmured a "Fuck it.", and just decided to see where it led. Once he became an official magus, while it wouldn't be easy, changing gender wouldn't be impossible either.

He knew he'd started doing it already, but at this point, thinking of himself as a he inside his own mind was starting to feel wrong and weird. Thus, he chose to at least attempt to switch.

He... she... ugh. SHE let out yet another sigh, feeling quite strange. Still, she wasn't unhappy, even if it felt weird.

Getting up from her shameful position on the bed, Ron... fell deep in thought. Calling herself Ron would just create problems, and besides, that was the old him/her. Perhaps it was time for a complete overhaul.

Hence, Alice made her return. She'd been using that name for the outside world to see since she arrived, hence, the switch wasn't at all strange for her. She'd long since grown used to reacting to that name rather than the name Ron, after all.

With all of that drama sorted out, Alice... And wasn't that weird, calling herself that... Promptly decided that, in order to clear her thoughts, making some complicated potions would be the perfect solution.

Throwing on the lab coat, she descended down into her lab, immediately immersing herself within the world of dangerous chemicals and ingredients that try their best to kill you. Alice didn't even find it strange anymore, rather, she even found some of the ingredients funny.

The next morning, she showed up at her teacher's lab right on time, as always. Opening the door, she peeked her head in, finding her teacher tinkering away with his things as he always did, looking as unruffled and perfect as he was on basically every hour of every day.

"Come in, princess. I've just got my hands on a new breed of Shining Silk Spiders, and I'm eager to experiment on them." Loki greeted, but unknowing to him, his words caused Alice to feel a pang of regret.

"Teacher... May I have the week off?" She asked nervously, not even having the time to ogle at him as she usually did.

The man paused, turning around to face his student. She looked nervous, but there was a feeling of decisiveness within her.

"So... You're ready?" He asked, the hidden meaning within his words not lost on the newly minted girl.

"Not yet, but if I can dedicate a couple of days in their entirety on my cultivation alone, I will be. I hope Teacher understands, and I apologize..." Alice quickly said, but her frantic words were halted as Loki put his large hand on Alice's head.

"Don't worry about it. Go and do your thing. I'll gladly wait for as long as I have to. Just to make sure you've got everything you need, I'll have some errand-boy deliver some more Flaming Flamingo Feathers to you, just in case." Loki winked at her, causing her frantically beating heart to calm down.

"T-thank you, Teacher." Alice bowed. She knew the man treated her very well, and she was grateful, but she just could not shake off the knowledge that a single thought from him would be enough to exterminate her soul. It unnerved her.

After handling a few other matters with her teacher, Alice eventually returned to her room. There, she laid down a comfortable mattress on the floor before sitting on it cross-legged.

"Alright, here goes nothing..." Alice murmured to herself before falling deep into meditation, a beautiful feather at hand.