Today is the 27th.
-
Alissa comes back and throws herself into the pile of limbs. Her tail slaps Lina in the face repeatedly, who grabs it and pulls on it weakly making Alissa yelp once.
"This is actually so soft," Lina says and starts to caress Alissa's tail.
-
"The trip itself might actually be boring since we are going slow so I thought about buying some books," Ciel says as runs her fingers through my hair.
"You know what books I like," Alissa says. She closes her eyes when I start to play with her ears.
"Maybe we should buy some card game too," I say and Lina perks up her head.
"There are a few toys too that we could bring with us," Ciel says, "What books do you like, Lina?"
She sends me a glance and puckers her lips.
"You can choose whatever book you want; keep the history ones for when we reach another big library," I say and pat her head.
"Oh, then I want some ro-romance," she says meekly.
"Hm? Am I not enough for you?" I ask and lift an eyebrow at her.
Ciel painfully pulls a strand of my hair and Lina pouts.
"Ow, it's a joke," I say.
"Let a woman dream a little," Ciel says and caress the hurt spot.
"For you, the trip might be boring, but for me, it will be a good exercise -," Alissa says.
-
I don't feel like training this morning so I spend it playing not-backgammon with Lina. She seems to love playing games, I bet she would be a hermit just like me on Earth, addicted to video games or anime.
Lina's still a little too young to compete against me but she's a fast learner. We started off 3-0 in my favor and then finished off at 6-5. I think that the last games were won by luck, her analytical and strategic thought are well developed.
For lunch, we are having mutton since we are going to leave we better enjoy it because we might not find it again so easily. The wine and juice made out of the Gorgon fruit is also a local delicacy so we are stocking some of it.
The High Forest has a large number of fruits and veggies so we are not too worried about missing the taste unless it's something specific we crave. Ciel seems a little guilty over the number of luxuries we have so we send some gold coins as a donation to the temple.
The money is starting to run low again but the job will give us a lot of money so we aren't worried. Any monster we kill we get full rights over the body and proof of extermination so it's also a good supplement.
Nature class is the final test, just by showing Gify I pass but I decided to show my javelin creation.
"Have you been learning dual-casting, Mr. Ryder?" Professor Tanya asks.
"Yes, little by little I have been forcing my brain to learn how to create sub-processes," I say.
"Then this javelin creation is a worthy pursuit, learn a few levels in [Throw] and it will be a handy tool for close-range support."
Most other students focused on [Grow], [Animal Tongue], or [Manasynthesis], most combat-oriented mages seek that last spell just for the increased mana regeneration it gives.
At night Roxanne and Ciel start a proper [Mana Control] class.
"Feel the mana, it's like a river, or a pitcher that you use to pour water on a cup," Ciel says, "You control the rate of the flow, too much and you lose control, too little and it drips along the edge and down the pitcher."
"Ri-ver?" Suzy asks and tilts her head.
"Ne-ver, used, pi-tcher," Ted says.
"You should have my knowledge of it, shouldn't you?" I ask.
Both of them look at their hands.
"Diff-rent."
"Bo-dy."
"Oh, I see," I say and hold my chin in thought, "They may have my knowledge but lack the means to apply it. I thought it was kind of weird they didn't know how to control mana seeing they have my experiences."
"Ad, hoc," Ted says.
"Ah, right! Mana is dependent on the soul and mind, so the way we control is different for each person."
"It shouldn't be that different," Roxanne says, "The standard [Mana Control] training is done with hundreds of other students so everyone learns the same way. Nonstandard control could lead to some dangerous side-effects when you start to cast bigger spells, especially with the empire's [Ritualism]."
"The souls of the golems are already nonstandard," Ciel says, making Roxanne frown.
"We shouldn't try to create something new. The golems are already dangerous as is, we don't need to make them even more special, it would only make them more difficult to deal with," I say and Roxanne nods.
"Dan-ge-rous?" Suzy asks, and Alissa and Lina look at us with puppy eyes.
Roxanne chuckles and says, "Not in the way you are thinking. Currently, you are harmless but your growth is an unknown, we don't know how powerful you will become. If we can't control you or you can't control your own spells properly then you might become dangerous to us or others."
"[Golemancy] is a very rough and unfinished magic school so we would rather not take any risks," I say.
"Un-der-stood," Ted says and nods. "Keep, us, far, from, com-bat."
"That would be difficult, the first thing anyone would want from [Golemancy] is cheap and disposable soldiers. If we don't develop [Golemancy] that way someone else will and they might not have the same concerns with safety as I do."
"Well, we are just a small group of people, maybe if the scholars of the capital join hands they would have more resources to deal with this safely than we do," Alissa says.
"But my knowledge of robotics and artificial intelligence sets me apart. I might know more about [Golemancy] than anyone in this world, alive or dead," I say.
"You never really explained what those two things are," Lina says.
"The first one is a little difficult to explain since this world doesn't seem to have sensors yet. But basically it is something like this: you see the water level of a rainwater collector is too high, so you open a trapdoor and let some of it spread to workshops, like say soap-makers.
"You have three important parts on this: first your eyes, they showed you the water level. There's a way to do something similar with mechanisms and electricity, it sends a signal, the higher the level of the water, the stronger the signal, the bigger the electric 'pathway.' The second part is the logic: if the tank is full, then open the trapdoor. If the condition is fulfilled, then do an action, this is one of the basic building blocks for logic. There's a thing called transistor that hasn't been invented here yet that you use for this. The third part is the action: you open the trapdoor for the water to escape. With a thing called actuators, mechanisms that allow you to do physical movements, humanoids can activate the actuators by simply sending an electric signal.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Now, artificial intelligence is basically [Golemancy] or [Summoning Magic], specifically, the brains of golems and summons. It is the copying of our capacity for processing information and applying it in other areas. The interesting part of these magic schools is that they copied the brain while in my world we tried to build the brain from the ground up."
I stop and notice how I have been talking non-stop. The girls are looking at me warmly with a small smile on their mouths.
"Alright, then. Now I believe you are the most qualified person for this," Alissa says with a wide smile.
"You are a scholar, alright. Your eyes were shining all the time you spoke just like the ones I met," Hana says and smirks.
"What's logic?" Lina asks.
I smile and pull a piece of paper. I start by explaining her decision trees and flow-based programming.
Alissa turns into a small fox and comes to sit on my lap while reading a book. Her cute little paws flip the pages with a little difficulty.
"Sensors... maybe, maybe we can do something like this with the gnomic picture creator," Lina says.
"There's the mechanical ones, too," I say.
"Hmm... there are those mana batteries, maybe we can use a mechanical opener for them using [Telekinesis]."
"Can you channel mana down a wire or pipe?"
"Not really efficient but possible, going to use a lot of Kanal metal, though."
"Too expensive, if we can convert mana to electricity then it's better, it flows through simple and thin copper wires."
"I see..."
Ted and Suzy look over my diagrams.
"Our, min-d, works, li-ke, that?" Suzy asks.
"No, your mind is very different," I say. "This is just the distillation of logic into its base components, this is called 'hard' computing. Your and our brains work differently, it's called 'soft' computing or 'white box' computing because it's only a bunch of numbers that have no meaning when looked separately."
Lina and the golems look at me inquisitively, well at least Lina does it, I'm assuming that's the meaning of the stare of the golems.
"The neurons in our brain work in a different way. Somewhat similar to the flow-based programming I showed but in a more purely mathematical way."
"Ohohoh, well listening to you is quite enlightening," Roxanne says, her voice slightly slurred.
Hana rolls her eyes and removes the cup from Roxanne's hand. "That's enough for today," she says.
"Awn, I got drunk already? Well, Wolfy, living with you has removed the resistance my body had to alcohol."
"That's good for your health," Ciel says and I smile wryly.
"Sorry that your training got interrupted," I say.
"We are going to have enough time on the roo~ad," Roxanne says and drops her body on the arms of Hana.
Soon after the clothes of both of them are on the ground and my erection starts to rise. Aoi and Gify read the mood and jump on the table, curling on each other, and going to sleep.
Alissa looks at me and sends me a toothy smile. She innocently increases her size and pushes the book away. -.
-
Today is the 28th.
-
I feel like I'm on the grasp of creating the shield vortex, like a word that's on the tip of my tongue. The feeling of edging so close to my goal was frustrating at first but I slowly managed to get it under control, like the anxiety from going downhill on a bicycle, it makes my heart beat fast at the uncontrolled feeling of freedom, but then feels refreshing once I stop and look back.
At the class, Alissa parts from my body with much regret so I can demonstrate my muscle control with [Shocking Touch]. The spell is originally chaotic to fry the nervous system, making it more controlled wasn't that hard, although my control is still rough for what I'm trying to do.
"Controlling the heart, how novel," Professor Nellan says, "I have been focusing on mechanical and chemical uses for [Electric Magic] so I don't know much about the medicinal uses."
"His reasoning seems sound, this path of research should definitely be investigated further," says a professor.
"You think you can control the brain?" Asks another professor.
"That would require so much control in the spell that I think it is not humanely possible," I say.
"'Humanely'," says the first professor with a snort, he's a halfling.
"That's now how the word is supposed to be used," says the second professor as he narrows his eyes.
"That was a joke."
The professors try my spell and see that it is possible. The halfling professor is quite pleased.
Lyle manages to increase the area of effect of his [Discharge]. Not very powerful but it should be enough to disrupt certain weaker monsters like harpies.
The other students display a variety of focuses. Most use [Lightning Bolt] as a way for a quick stun and the second biggest group uses [Rush] as a retreating tool.
Mathias sent a letter that the council will evaluate my thesis at the next day of Tann, the 30th.
"Well Wolf, this is our last class together, it has been a pleasure to study beside you," Lyle says, Hatara nods emphatically and Garanae nods shyly.
"The pleasure is mine, your family's talent with [Electric Magic] is admirable. Also, don't forget about what I said about actuators," I say and smile.
Lyle is my best hope in inventing the transistor and bringing robotics to this world.
Hana and Roxanne are quite content, the ride might be bumpy but changing the scenery and sleeping in the open seems to be something they miss. Though with my tent and [Heal] the ride will be much more comfortable than usual.
"How's Maoka?" I ask Roxanne.
She waddles through the water and deposits herself in my arms, then she says, "It's quite hot, from what Hana told me it's like Sommerland but with fewer trees and more tall grass instead of bushes. Oh, and we have lots of tall mountains, so, on the horizon, you can always see a snow-peak. I guess we don't tan as well so the skin color of our people is more varied than over Sommerland."
"There's a large archipelago on the eastern side of the continent, right? Ever been there?"
"No, you have to cross the Death Valley so I never felt the courage to do it," she cringes lightly.
"How Mithra was?" Ciel asks, "You never really told us about her."
Roxanne frowns and says, "Do I have to? You know I don't like to talk about it."
"Wolfy did, you should know that talking helps."
It helps us accept reality, once you put your feelings into words they seem more "real".
Roxanne looks at me with pleading eyes.
"You should talk," I say, and her gaze turns sultry, her pale skin contrasts with her red lips, who are calling mine. I plant a kiss on them, I taste her tongue and tease her palate, then I break the kiss and say, "You really should talk."
Roxanne clicks her tongue and sighs. "Well... where should I start."
"Her personality," Ciel says.
"Happy, carefree, and just generally positive about life."
"Sounds like you are talking about yourself," Hana says with a smirk.
"Except the last part," Alissa says.
- "If we are going to talk about this then at least massage - me," she says and gives me a peck on the lips. "Well Mithra was her own person, if anything she made me realize how life is fun outside of studying and training."
"Considering how you abhor mana training I believe this is true," Hana says and Roxanne's dagger tail touches Hana's throat threateningly.
"How did she look like?" Lina asks.
"Like Hana but albino, it's quite common among our kind and I think it's a fetish of mine," Roxanne says and licks her lips.
"You are not meeting Sonny again," I say in a serious tone.
"Oh please, don't be a killjoy," she says while rolling her eyes dramatically, "I'm sure you would love to -."
- Roxanne's mouth is very dirty -
"That was... too specific, you are never meeting Sonny again," I say -.
"Also, you are changing the topic, Mithra, please," Ciel says, slightly annoyed and blushing hard.
"Ahn...! Fine, as I said, she's just like Hana, I like being dominated-"
"Hah! Now you admit it," I say.
"Wolfy, shush, you are going to pull the topic away again," Ciel chastises me.
- "Anyway. When we first met it was like a [Lightning Bolt] struck -."
"That sounds wild," Hana says with admiration in her voice.
"And it was, though we never did it again, we are not that depraved," she says and Hana snorts.
Roxanne sighs wistfully -. "With Mithra, things were just right, it's like the first time in my life I had someone who really wanted me by their side, we really just wanted me to be happy." -her face turns into an angry scowl- "Mother just wanted me to start a lineage! Father is just a limp-one who lets Mother do as she pleases! The others are just snobs who keep sucking each others flowers! Not even in my own damn birthplace was I well-received because Mother ruins other people like a breeder-type sucks souls!"
Her movements restart with anger -.
"It's all my [Fire Magic] this, my [Water Magic] that, my [Mana Control] is oh so amazing that I had a line of people just wanting to suck on my toes. Well, screw that, Mithra didn't even know my specialty magic until she asked when we left to hunt some monsters, then she shat her damn pants off because she didn't know what [Explosion] was capable of. What even is the fun in being so high up there that you can't see the ground anymore!?"
She hugs herself and hunches over, then she grits her teeth and scowls at the water.
Hana comes over and buries Roxanne's head on her - chest, I - hug her from behind. She turns her head sideways to look at me and I see that she's crying angry, silent tears.
Aoi and Gify swim towards us to enter the cuddle puddle. The last three girls surround us and Gify turns on his special touch. I feel the anguish inside Roxanne's heart, her anger at a lost childhood. Then I focus on my time with her; her happy nature and teasing personality; her reliability in battle and her talent for potions; our adventures and bright future together.
In a few minutes, she seems to calm and fall asleep. Her calm expression makes her look even more beautiful asleep.
We gently wake her and leave the bath, then we slowly start to talk again and return to normal.
At night, Roxanne spends her time playing Civil War with Lina, for once we had a more quiet evening.
Today is the 29th.
-
This morning I spend practicing my [Godly Language], I easily tip over and find release. The second vortex forms, weakly, and shields me from my own voice.
"Now you can easily make someone puke that is not yourself!" Roxanne teases, completely back to normal.
"If I put 20 points on it I can do it without anyone getting too sick," I say.
"There's one word on your phrase that gives me a lot of concern," she says and walks away, out of my reach.
"Har, har."
She spends her morning happily coaching the little golems and Aoi in [Mana Control] while Alissa decides to glue on me again and we practice our mana routines together.
Today is the [Blessing Magic] test. The most straightforward of them, you just show all the spells you can chant. I show up to my [Reinforce] and the judge immediately tells me I passed.
"I'll miss the professor's singing," Hatara says and sighs deeply. "She's just so beautiful too."
I really have a dirty mind.
"Now that classes are done can you show us [Fly]?" Ciel asks.
"KWEH!" Aoi yells in my ear.
"O-okay, but later. Now I want to relax, tomorrow I have to defend my thesis," I say and clamp Aoi's mouth shut with my hand.
She wiggles out of my grasp and suddenly her slippery tongue is inside my mouth. She wraps it on my tongue and gives it a squeeze before quickly removing herself, giving me a large jolt of pleasure.
Hana smiles wide and pats Aoi, congratulating her on the successful sneak attack.
Oh boy.