Day ~65~Part Two~

The first thing Rea noticed was that neither of her two partners could use [Psychometry], that made her draw the conclusion that certain people can only access certain abilities of hers.  Not quite as insane as she thought at first but still very handy.  The second thing she noticed was that Sereda didn't care for books, in less than half an hour she had to ask Dunwalt to take a breather and chase after her partner.  When Rea did happen upon her she was chucking spears at targets along with the other students.

"Got bored?"

"...yeah."

Rea was looking at her perplexed liaison and desperately trying to think of a way to keep her on track, "Think it'd help if I read the some with you?"

Sereda picked up Rea's big horny stick, "Maybe, I just can't understand anything written in it."

As Sereda nervously twisted her hands around Rea's big horny stick she followed her back to the tree where the books lay.  The sound of people's shafts colliding with one another and smell of the nature zones were a little distracting to be honest.  Rea sat down in Sereda's lap and began to absently turn the pages.  It didn't take long for her to realize that aside from basic properties the actual concept wasn't much different than water magic. "You've been making stone armor using your skin as some sort of catalyst right?"

Sereda came back from la la land, "right."

"Well that might sort of be your problem, this is magic, not sorcery or shamanism.  Catalysts increase the effectiveness of magic but we conjure mostly.  This book is for normal mages that focus on conjuring, you shouldn't learn this way.  Take advantage of your gift, focus on forming earthen spells using your skin."

Sereda shifted back and forth, "I wish I'd never been born like this... then again if I was normal father would've been able to marry me off easier."

Rea burrowed into her neckline and took in Sereda's familiar scent of spice, almost like cayenne, "I'm very fond of your skin, it makes you unique.  It also gives you a familiar scent.  The first night was odd, but the second I felt safe sleeping next to you.  Knowing you're there without touching or seeing you."

Rea nearly fell off her lap when Sereda blushed purple, all around her neck the skin suddenly became a metal.  Sereda began to panic, Rea quickly demonstrated how she dispels her own water magic.  "What was that!?"

"If I had to hazard a guess it's a more advanced from of earth magic," Rea pursed her lips while looking her in the eye, "It's a shame you don't wanna be a front line combatant, can you imagine how nice it would be to turn to steel?"

Sereda gave her an apologetic stare, "I don't like pain... but if you think it'll help, teach me to do what you did to me.  I'll still focus on my magic and ranged abilities, but if I can do this,"  Sereda held up a hand as it turned to steel, "you're right I should take advantage."

"Can you project the magic using your skin as a catalyst?"  As a small toothpick sized spire of dirt raised from her skin Rea cracked a smile, her partner just became much more useful.  "Sereda ignore the books for now and focus on this, form a spear that separates from your body."

The woman who had just been using the big horny stick, pulling it out, then using it, then pulling it out over and over again instantly caught on.  With Sereda focused on her magic Rea waltzed back up to Dunwalt.  The level 97 lancer wasn't wasting anytime, as soon as she got back he continued to display every ability, every stance, every grip multiple times.  

Ability [Hive Mastery Rank Up].

When Rea got a little impatient she decided to make a jab with her spear once using [Enwater].  What Sereda was working on at the moment was still fresh in her mind, Rea had not been expecting a massive pillar of earth, three times the width of her weapon, to project forward about ten meters and nearly decapitate a ducking student.  After apologizing she quickly turned back to Sereda, the woman nodded in understanding and was severed from the hive.  Rea tried a dozen times again but all she got was water.  She then reformed the hive with Sereda and tried, on the first thrust it happened again and exploded through the target...

"So it looks like I may spend a few days training with Sereda, sorry Dunwalt mind if we continue at a later date?"

The gaping elf nodded in agreement.  Sereda snickered, "When you did that I learned a spell, [Greater Earthen Lance]." Rea quickly urged her on to try it out, Sereda immediately produced the same effect, "Maybe I really was meant to be an earth mage?"

Rea cut that line of thought off, "If we ever go into combat without being bonded do not depend on your magic, that spell just cost nearly four times the amount of mana you have alone."

Sereda was quickly made aware of how bad a choice it would've been for her to become a mage.  How much training it would've taken for her to catch up to the others, she probably would've ended up coating herself in metal and beating the other mages into submission. "How many times can I use it with you?"

Rea took a few seconds to get a feel for it as she fired a few off, "About twenty-five times, that's as we are now though.  The stronger we get the better our control and capacity gets, mana won't be an issue as long as we don't rely completely on magic in the future.  Come on I'll help you get the hang of summoning spears before we come back here."

Sereda fell in line, "Where are we going?"

"I know the headmaster personally, we dealt with a dragon together once.  I want a private place to train, and the room isn't cutting it for this."

Her eyes beamed, "You fought a dragon!?"

"I swallowed it whole."

"... liar."

Rea grinned while thinking of the situation she was putting Denarius in, if the man wanted to get out of this he'd have to quickly meet her demands, "You can ask Denarius himself, I'm sure he'll tell you all about it."

Sereda jogged ahead, "I will!"

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Ability [Coercion Rank Up].

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The headmaster quickly allowed them the use of a private room beneath his tower office for their training, Sereda really had no clue what just happened.  It really had only taken all a single minute to get what Rea wanted.  It would seem that a determined Rea gets what she wants and gets it quick.  In hindsight she was pretty sure that stunt pissed Thul off even more, oh well.

Once they entered the room that resonated with their small magic cube Rea was very pleased.  This place was huge, and everything any basic mage would need to practice their element.  Streams of water, pits of fire, mounds of earth, and obviously air.  Rea held herself back from running around and snagging some elemental spirit stones.

Rea soon found out that because forming the custom spear was pure earth conjuring she couldn't just unlock a spell and let Sereda have at it.  This was taking a long time because Sereda was terribly unimaginative with her conjuring.  It was starting to annoy Rea a little so finally she got up and sat in her lap again. "Put your hands on the back of mine, get in close, feel me as best you can and pay attention to what I do."

Sereda happily complied as Rea began to conjure and mold earth the way she molds water.  After getting over her initial distraction Sereda zeroed in on exactly what she was doing.  They sat like this for nearly half an hour as Rea molded the dirt into all sorts of shapes.  After every shape she returned it to a spear, "Your turn," Rea slid her hands to Sereda's wrists and held them in front of herself as she leaned her head back against Sereda's left shoulder.  Trying not to get distracted by her scent or the feeling of Sereda's breath upon her neck Rea watched attentively as she began.  There was noticeable improvement right off the bat.  Within five minutes Sereda was copying what Rea had been doing before.  Rea stopped her at that point and made her dispel it.  She then commanded Sereda to use her skin as a catalyst and withdraw an earthen spear.  Sereda did it with little trouble, she was holding a bent shaft about half the size of Rea's big horny stick at this point.  They both marveled at it for a few silent moments, it was a different color than the normal shafts conjured by Rea.  It was at this point they both realized using her skin as a catalyst caused the conjured earth to be tinted bronze.  "Good, now you just have to practice making it any size and shape you please, practice turning it to steel, then you start throwing them.  Got it?"

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Sereda affirmed, "I'll do it."  When Rea tried to remove herself she realized that Sereda had sort of latched her in, setting a head on Rea's shoulder she asked, "am I really that unattractive?"

Rea sighed audibly, "Where did that come from?"

"We've spent a few nights in the same bed, I even offered myself up to you.  I heard earlier what sort of person you are around other women, so why haven't you made a move on me?"

Rea's shoulders drooped as she leaned back into Sereda, "Because you said you love me, I don't wanna hurt you... I enjoy your company, at least I have so far.  You know that I want you, remember?  You said it yourself, you've caught me staring.  I'll say it again, I don't think I can fall in love, I'll care about you, be friends with you, maybe even miss you when you're gone, but I don't fall in love."

Sereda pressed her forehead against Rea's back, "Is it ok for me to love you?"

"I'm not the one who gets hurt out of this, rather, it makes me happy that you can feel that way... although I doubt you'd love me if you knew everything about me.  There are far worse things in my past than wanton trollop."

Sereda kept her head still and closed her eyes, after a few long minutes of silence she spoke again, "Make me a promise," Rea could feel her grip tightening as she spoke, "when I do know everything, and I will someday know.  When that day comes if I still love you, despite all the bad, you won't ignore me...  you'll do more than kiss me."

Rea slid down so that they were face to face with her head in Sereda's lap, "If you could love a worthless person like me, I might just fall in love for the first time.  If you could make me do something I never thought possible, I'd never let you go.  Regardless, even if I don't fall in love, I will fulfill all of your heart's desires."

Sereda smiled sadly, "thank you."

Rea pulled her in for a light kiss, "this isn't the time to be sad, I just told you to make me fall in love.  Do me a favor and try harder than that okay?"

"How?"

Rea pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow, "I wonder how?"  As she got up from the ground Rea added, "good luck Sereda Duranhold, I'll be rooting for you."

As she walked a good distance away Sereda vacantly got back to practicing her magic... *Grumble*

Rea looked back with a smirk, "we should go eat."

"Right..."

After going to the dorm cafeteria they returned to their room where Rea proceeded to dump out her suitcase.  She then packed up their comforters, pillows, and sheets as Sereda went to the nearby vendor to get a bunch of food that wouldn't spoil within the next few days.

Once they got back to the private training area Rea offered a greeting to the headmaster who had come to check on them.  Denarius quickly excused himself after hearing that they were making progress and would be staying here overnight.  Rea was glad he took the coercion in stride, she was sure he would've given them the room eventually even though it was an out of the ordinary request.  

Within the next few hours Rea found out that she couldn't turn earth to metal... that upset her a little, but she was still happy to be able to use earth magic while forming a line with Sereda.  The bronze woman on the other hand had gotten the hang of making decent sized metal spears of about a foot in length now.  Rea was happy with her progress and decided to not tell her yet that she should also be practicing speed.  For now Rea wanted her to focus on the shape.  The ophidian continued to experiment with conjure earth to create spells that she thought they may find useful in the future.  Every time Rea succeeded Sereda would raise both hands and shout hysterically, "It's a miracle!"

So far Rea had focused on defense and utility, [Earthen Wall] was definitely one that she'd have Sereda practice making steel and raising to cover allies.  [Earthen Pillar] was a bit dangerous at the moment because they had to be careful not to fall off the twenty foot high pillar that sprouted out from under them when it was used.  Rea was pretty proud of [Quicksand] until Sereda had to yank on her big horny stick to get Rea to come safely on dry land.  Sereda nearly had a heart attack when Rea used a pillar, covered herself in [Earthen Armor], Sereda's first spell, then leapt off from twenty feet up.  Rea wanted to cry from the tingly sensation it left her with.  Sereda did the same thing but covered her legs in the metal armor, when she landed hard the ground shook.  Nothing special happened but at least it was confirmed that Sereda could take a fall.

The thought of making a bow with conjure earth, and using thin metal as strings had crossed her mind, but she threw it out quickly.  Using mana to sustain something sub par was useless... Freely creating steel arrows on the other hand.  Rea decided she'd go into town tomorrow and get a pair of bows... Rea quickly ran over to Sereda while whipping out her big horny stick.  After giving it a go a few times herself she handed it to Sereda, "Try to make it grow."

As soon as she said that Sereda looked down and it exploded outward, Rea was hit in the chest and sent flying a good five feet.  Sereda cried out in panic as Rea rolled away unconscious.

~Dreaming~

All Rea could see was Airi giving her a vacant look... *pftttAHAHAHAHAHAHA!* "Good job stupid, keep up the brilliant work.  You earned the pity of about a dozen gods in a single second!  I've never seen Thul laugh before, that was damn incredible."

Rea was a bit peeved that she couldn't talk back...

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