Albatos watches Zeph walk off, then turns to me, "I'm surprised you didn't sell this the first chance you got, you little thief." His expression is still twisted in a mixture of loathing and contempt.

I nonchalantly reply, "I may have done just that if I had been on my own for much longer, I already finished reading it so there wasn't much more use for it."

"You… You read it? You're telling me you're good enough at reading to finish the entire book in two weeks?"

"Yeah, I had a lot of time on my hands." This line of conversation sparks a question I had been wondering, "How common is being able to read? Most of the shops I saw used pictures instead of words."

Albatos eyes me with something resembling curiosity, "I'm starting to see why Zeph took an interest in you, rat. If you must know, it's not uncommon for ordinary people to read, depending on their job. What is uncommon is for a rat like yourself to be able to."

"It's Stein."

"It's whatever I decide is an appropriate title for you, rat. Let's put to the test whether you have any measure of talent, shall we? Go wait over there," He says, pointing to an open clearing.

I head to the specified clearing and wait. I watch from afar as Albatos goes around the camp and instructs others to join me in the clearing.

Counting them as they come over I see there’s a total of 12 others, a mix of races and genders. I also notice that besides myself it seems like everyone is at least 18. Some are even older, with a dwarf looking like he’s in his 30s. A girl walks up to me and asks, “Are you the last?”

“Seems so.”

“Great, then we can stop sitting on our asses waiting to get trained.”

Once we’re all assembled Albatos comes over with a clipboard in hand to start giving instructions, “All right everyone, line up in a row.”

We do as instructed, I end up more or less in the center of the row.

“You, on the end there. Step forward and introduce yourself.”

At the end of the line on my right an elf stands forward, hands clasped behind his back, “Vurt.”

Albatos makes a shooing motion and Vurt steps back into line. Albatos points out the next person who steps forward and introduces themselves as well. The process continues until we’ve all said our names.

“All of you are now comrades in arms. It doesn’t matter where you come from or who you are, in a fight these are the people you’ll have to trust to have your back. So get along.”

He sighs before continuing his rehearsed speech, “Now, all of you should have some level of aptitude for magic, or else you wouldn’t be here. So it’s time to put to the test what you know.”

He holds his hand out and creates a ball of flame around the size of a basketball, “You will each do as I do.” As we watch the ball of flame shrinks in his hand before becoming the size of a ping pong ball, gaining a bluish hue in the process. “You will create a moderately sized ball of flame and compress it to about this size while making sure it doesn't lose any of its energy. Start.”

13 fireballs spang into existence along our line. Seeing all of us have no issues with the first step Albatos says, "Good start. It doesn't matter what idea you use for your compression so long as the fireball doesn't lose any heat."

I try and think about how exactly I'm going to go about this. Doing a spell to create a ball of fire and a ball to compress something are easy enough on their own, but without being able to multicast doing them simultaneously is a problem I haven't run across before.

I look up and down the line of people on either side of me. Most of the others are similarly stumped and making no progress, but a few, like the elf on the end who introduced himself as Vurt, are managing it no problem.

The girl next to me, whose name I believe was Holeria, asks, "Do we need to be able to multicast, sir?"

"No, a spell of this level is possible without having the ability to multicast. Those of you who have managed to do it already can move on to doing it with bigger balls of fire. When you manage it with the next size, make it bigger again."

A boy on my left asked, "How big should the final ball be?"

"Just keep going until I tell you to stop."

I go back to thinking about how to accomplish the task at hand. If multicasting isn't necessary then how exactly were you supposed to produce two different effects with a single concept?

I look around again, focussing on the recruits who actually managed to do it. I realized some were doing types of hand signs after they created their initial fireball. One in particular was making a squishing motion with his hands.

The fireball always comes first, then they start condensing it. It's a two-step process, not one. Does that mean they're applying a secondary concept to the first without activating a different spell?

I thought back to what I had learned from the book. Spells were brought into existence by layering an array over the soul corridor. Adding a second array was tantamount to doing another spell, so that meant something had to be done to the first array.

Does that mean it's possible to append additional elements onto an active array? Guess it's worth a shot.

In what was a simplification akin to drawing the Mona Lisa with crayons, it could be looked at like this. If an array was contained within a circle, the spell for fireball could be seen as a square within the circle. If I wanted to add an additional element, like drawing a mustache on the poor woman in the portrait, I could add additional elements onto the pre-existing array. So in the circle I could add other shapes like a diamond or a cross.

That was the working theory, the only other issue to solve was what concept I would even apply to a fireball to compress it like I needed to. The obvious answer was the idea of just pressing down onto it, like some of the others had been doing, but as I looked I could see that once their balls got to about twice the size of a basketball they started having issues in getting it to the necessary size.

So while that was an option I wondered if there was something more efficient to do instead. The first idea that came to mind was an air compressor, a machine designed to take a large volume and condense it. The problem with that idea is I didn't really have a good idea of how an air compressor actually worked, so I didn't have a clear concept of it in my mind.

For some reason, a whirlpool popped into my mind. Whirlpools are good at sucking stuff up and depositing it elsewhere, but that concept also didn't really apply to the problem.

Though it does make me think of something else that might work.

The cone shape of the whirlpool put the idea of another object in my mind, a funnel. Strictly speaking, a funnel also didn't do anything to help with the current task. But if you ignored the rules of reality and viewed a funnel from above, it did take a wide area of liquid and funnel it into and through a small area. If I just ignored the idea of the liquid being displaced somewhere else it seemed worth a try.

My thoughts were interrupted by a hand being placed on my shoulder. I look behind me and see Albatos, who says, "Having trouble? Need a little advice? It seems like your talent was a little overvalued if it's taking you this long." His smile only serves to irritate me.

"No, I think I can manage on my own, thanks." I turn away and take a breath, then give a little twist of my hand toward my fireball. The flame swirls into a spiral as it slowly condenses into the size I had wanted. I turn back to Albatos behind me and give a little smirk.

Alabtos gives me a death state as he walks on toward the next recruit who's having trouble. I breathe out a sigh and start preparing to move on to the next size. As I do, I hear a recruit fall to his knees on my right.

Looking over, I see one of the ones who had gotten it almost immediately, a girl, clutching at her head with a hand. Albatos walks up next to her and says, "All right, Redina. You're done. Go over there and wait for everyone else by that tree."

Redina just gives a slight nod before standing up shakily and walking over to the tree before sitting down on the grass. The rest of us look to each other, wondering if we're done for the day. Our hopes are quickly dashed when we hear, "What are you lot waiting for? Continue." Albatos writes something on his clipboard before moving on to help somebody.

I turn back to focus on continuing my task, starting to see where this is going. It seems our sadistic mentor wants to teach those of us who are inexperienced something new while also measuring everybody's mana capacity.

When my fireball is around three times the original size the third recruit to run out of mana taps out. Before I can even finish condensing the fourth recruit also taps out.

"Wait, everybody stop." We look around in confusion as Albatos walks over to the fourth recruit. When he's directly in front of the recruit Albatos looks down at the man as if studying him. Then he lifts his boot and kicks the man over.

The man scrambles to his feet with a, "What the hell! What's wrong with-" He's cut off by a fist landing directly into his gut, and he folds over onto the ground.

"Next person to try and fake out early gets to run 30 laps around camp and do latrine duty with their migraine."

I see several of the other recruit's faces go white. That hadn't been the only person thinking to take the easy way out, that much I was sure of.

Time goes by as more and more people check out, each with a painful migraine of their own. Though I dread having to go through that pain again, I know I signed up for this. Besides, I've already been through an annoyingly brutal boot camp before, so you could say I'm a lot better prepared for it than the people around me are.

By now there's only about four of us left standing, the other three with me having also had trouble getting their fireballs to compress, though at this point my fireball is much bigger than theirs. It's about three quarters the size of an SUV. I think mine might be the biggest anybody was able to get to, most tapped out around the size of a flat screen TV, unable to get it to compress further.

The heat from my ball of fire is so intense I've been summoning it further and further away from myself. Where it sits now is about a meter away from me, suspended above the charred grass.

For the past few fireballs I've had to layer my condensing technique to get it to shrink down to the ping pong ball size needed. As I finish this time I look at it and an intrusive thought worms its way into my mind.

I wonder, how small can I really get it?

So as I maintain the small size I close my eyes to focus, and keep layering compressions on it. I lay on one, two, then three additional compressions. I feel the third one drain me of a considerable amount of mana.

Maintaining this many layers of compression is much more demanding than I anticipated, and it takes all my focus to keep the spell from coming apart. As I slowly open my eyes I'm momentarily blinded by a bright white light directly in front of me. Adjusting to the light I see my ball of fire, its size indistinguishable because of the intense light it's giving off, like looking into a flashlight. The heat the thing is giving off also feels intensified, like a magnifying glass focusing the sun's light.

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As I struggle to figure out how to dispel my spell without the intense energy quite literally exploding in my face I see Albatos walk up next to me.

"Thank you, Stein. You've proven you are indeed more than just a rodent that managed to tag along. This is also an excellent opportunity for a demonstration. Listen up, everybody." He needn't have called their attention though, the eyes of every person in the clearing were fixed on the spectacle I had created.

"Remember this, recruits. No matter how impressive or devastating your spell might be, there will always be a counter. In cases like this, there is a universal counter to even the mightiest of spells." He brings a hand up and makes a simple handsign, "Anti-magic area."

I feel myself encompassed in a strange atmosphere that expands from Albatos. As the expanding zone engulfs my spell I feel it unravel, layer by layer. I grunt as I try and hold the energy together, but it's like sand slipping through my fingers, and I lose control of it completely. I put my arms up in front of my face to blast the heat that expands outwards but it too dissipates before it reaches us.

I watch as my spell vanishes into a sparkly blue mist that quickly dissipates into the air. From next to me Albatos says, "To put so much mana into a spell to the point it's visible once it comes undone is quite unusual. You're done, go wait with the others. I can tell if I let you keep going you won't be of any use tomorrow."

"What do you mean? Won't it be the same for everyone else?"

"The duration of mana withdrawal is tied to the size of your mana pool. So the more mana you have, the longer the migraine lasts. These others will be fine by tomorrow morning."

With that, he gives me a small push towards the others, and I willingly walk over and have a seat among my fellow recruits. Some of them eye me up, while others look oblivious to the world, caught up in the pain in their heads. I hear, "Showoff." from somewhere behind me. I had kind of stolen the show, even if I hadn't intended to.

After another ten or so minutes the last few recruits finish up and Albatos comes over to address the group. "Glad to see everybody here is at least competent. We move out tomorrow morning, so go get some rest. Dismissed."

As the recruits get up and start moving I'm reminded of a small horde of zombies. As I get up myself I thank whatever lucky star I was born under I don't have to experience that pain again, at least not tonight.

I follow the group to a small cluster of tents and watch as each recruit goes back to their own. Seeing as how I don't have one for myself I decide to explore a little around the camp.

As the sun starts to set I wander around the camp aimlessly. Eventually I'm drawn by a heavenly aroma to a mess area where a woman is cooking and a dwarf is drinking.

The dwarf spots me and calls me over, "Hey! You're the last recruit, ain'tcha? Come on over and introduce yourself!"

Walking over I take a seat across from the dwarf, "Stein," I said matter of factly.

"Bodelee, or just Lee if ya prefer. Good ta meet ya, Stein." He raises his tankard at me jovially.

Something sparks in my memory, "Weren't you the dwarf working at the forge earlier?"

"That I was. It's my job to make sure everyone has the gear they need and it all stays in top shape. Well…" He leans in closer, "Technically they're all supposed to do it themselves, but some just don't care enough to so it falls to me. Though I suppose it's what I enjoy so I don't mind it so much."

"How do you move around an entire forge?"

"Well actually all I take with me is the anvil and tools. Everything else is just made with good ol' earth magic. Stuff like these tables, too." He gives the table a rap with his knuckles, "Solid stone."

"Is it just weapons you work on or do you do armor as well?"

"Everything really. Armor ain't that common but there's a bunch of odds and ends that need taken care of. Wheels, axles, belt buckles, the works. This extended stay has really given me the chance to catch up on a backlog. Say, what made you want to join up with this bunch? You're a bit young."

"I just… needed money."

"Ah, ain't that the truth." Bodelee continues drinking and we sit in a companionable silence as he does.

Slamming his mug down Bodelee says, "Here's a word of advice, young Stein." He points to the woman cooking, "If there's anybody in this camp you never, EVER, want to piss off it's that lady right there." He pauses for a moment then admits, "Though truth be told most of the women in this camp would kick yer ass if you crossed 'em."

"Alright, so what makes the cook so special?"

He scoffs at me, "The cook. The cook, he says." Bodelee gets up and walks around the table. Sitting next to me he wraps his arm around my shoulder and points at the woman in question, "That lady right there that you so rudely called a mere cook is none other than the goddess of our little company. Our own guardian angel. You get hurt in any way, shape, or form and she'll patch you up like it never happened. That and her cooking is divine."

"She knows healing magic?"

"Sure do." The lady walks over to us, joining in on the conversation, "Come on, Lee. It's rude to talk about somebody who's practically right next to you."

Bodelee takes his arm away from my shoulder and gives a grand shrug, "And yet every word was the truth."

"I thought only the church used healing magic?" I can't help but pursue this question, as healing magic seemed like perhaps the single most useful form of magic. I couldn't think of any others that could directly save your life.

"The church is generally the only ones who teach it, and most practitioners belong to the church in some way or another. For example, I'm still technically considered a wandering cleric. Nika, by the way." She reaches out her hand and I take it.

"Stein."

"Good to meet you, Stein." Her smile is so pure and radiant I think to myself for a moment she may actually deserve the title of goddess.

"You're a bit young to be hanging around this bunch. You get into some kind of trouble or something?"

I scratch the back of my head, "Something like that."

"Well, whatever led you here, I don't intend to pry. Seems like everyone here has some dark secret they'd rather keep hidden, but once they open up to you most are pretty nice. If you ever get hurt just come see me. I'll fix you right up."

"All right, I'll be sure to remember that. So what are you making tonight?"

"Beef stew and fresh bread."

Next to me I hear Bodelee's stomach growl. Nika and I both laugh at him, while Bodelee at least has the modesty to look embarrassed.

"Bodelee, you said I should watch out for the women of this camp. Mind telling me who you mean, exactly?"

Nika and Bodelee glance at each other and Bodelee starts, "Well, see that pair over there, the strikingly familiar dwarf and the girl he's fawning over?"

I look over at where he's pointing. The dwarf is strikingly familiar, and the girl looks like she's no more than 15, around the same age as me. "Yeah sure, I see them."

"That's my brother, Bodelin, and our wife, Annora."

Huh? Back up, there are several things wrong here.

Bodelee laughs at the incredulous look I give him, "You humans always give that look, and it never fails to crack me up. Alright let me explain, that girl, looks like your average teenage human right?"

"She's not?"

Bodelee shakes his head, "That stunning beauty is a dwarven woman in her prime. See the heartstone in her chest?"

I take a look, having to squint my eyes to see her in the distance. I can vaguely see a portion of her garments around the chest is cut away to reveal what looks like a yellow gem sticking out of her chest. "Yeah, I see it. So that's a heartstone? Do only the women have one?"

"Nope, every dwarf has one." He shifted his shirt so I could see his own hidden underneath, "We men don't really need to display ours since most people can tell a dwarf by sight. But since our women look like children to the eyes of you humans they like to display the heartstone do you can tell they're a dwarf."

"Okay, so what's up with her being a wife to both of you?"

"Oh Stein, we dwarves are truly unfortunate creatures." Nika scoffed at him from the side. "It's an unfortunate fact that we men outnumber the women of our race about 10 to 1. So it's not unusual for a harem to form around the women. It'd be more strange to find a single dwarven woman than a monster that had decided to live among the races. Our women are so stunning that it's also not unusual for men of other races to be infatuated with them."

I guess there are creeps in every world.

"Okay, I get why you wouldn't want me getting on the wrong side of your wife. Who else is there?"

"Now Stein I think you've got the wrong idea."

"How's that?"

"If you wanted to try and put the moves on our wife, neither me or Lin would mind. That's just how us dwarves are. I'm telling you to be careful because she's the single strongest fighter in this camp. Cross her and you'll get your ass whooped."

"Really?" I look to Nika and she nods seriously. "Alright then, good to know."

"As for the last, hm, how to describe her?" He looked to Nika as well.

"She's certainly an enigma," Nika says. "We call her Black, none of us know her real name because she won't tell us. That's her, fishing on the river."

I look to the river and see the girl fly fishing in the water. Even from a distance I can tell she's part demon, with jet black hair and solid white horns crowning her head.

"She's been with us a while," Nika continued. "I remember about half a year ago we had just gotten some new recruits, and they had a little bet with each other. In some foolish challenge of courage, one of them stole her guild ID. It was a little tough healing him so he didn't have any scars."

"That's… scary."

Nika shrugged, "It's not like she's mean, she's just secretive. That incident certainly taught everyone that she wasn't someone to be messed with though."

"Say," Bodelee started, "Since we're leaving tomorrow I figure Albatos should have put you recruits through the mana wringer by now, how come you're still up and around?"

"You mean that thing where he made everyone burn through all their mana so he could take stock? Yeah, we did that already. I was the only one he let off without having to burn through all my mana. Said I'd be useless tomorrow if I did."

Bodelee whistled to himself and Nika looked at me with what might have been a sense of admiration. Bodelee said, "Damn Stein, I do believe that puts you in the running for having the most mana in the company. I remember Annora once ran out of mana and she was out for the entire next day."

"Yeah, that happened to me too. Though I've been meaning to ask, is it possible to increase the amount of mana you can have, or is it determined at birth?"

Nika shakes her head, "Your mana capacity is tied to the shape of your soul. It's not something you can just change on a whim. You can transfer mana from one person to another, but even that can't help with the migraine once it starts."

"Why not? Isn't the migraine tied to being out of mana?"

"The migraine is triggered by being out of mana. The duration of the migraine is usually about how long it takes for a person to completely regenerate their mana naturally."

"So how do you transfer mana?"

Bodelee cut in, "I think Albatos would rather teach ya that. He likes to try and keep everyone on the same page. You'll learn it sooner or later."

"Speaking of Albatos, I was wondering, it kind of seems like he wields a lot of authority. Is he Zeph's right-hand man?"

"Pretty much," Bodelee replies. "Zeph points us where to go while Albatos handles most of the day to day matters."

"Is there… any way to avoid his ire? I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot." I say sheepishly.

Bodelee frowns, "Why, what'd you do?"

"I… may have stolen a book from him two weeks ago in town."

Both Nika and Bodelee just stare at me for a solid second before Bodelee bursts out laughing.

Nika puts her hand on my shoulder sympathetically, "Just remember I'll always be here to patch you up."

Bodelee doesn't bother trying to be subtle, "Oh kid, you're fucked." And he continues laughing.

Eventually, Bodelee's laughter subsides and he says, "Was wondering what had happened two weeks ago to put him in such a foul mood coming back from town. Guess we know now."

Some time passes as we continue chatting. Eventually Nika goes back to work on her stew and Bodelee takes me to one of the wagons and gets me set up with supplies.

After pulling a spare tent and bedroll off a wagon and handing them to me he asks, "Stein, are those the only pair of shoes you have?"

The 'shoes' in question were little more than rags tied around my feet at this point. "Yeah."

"Mm. That won't do. Those won't last on the road. I'll fix up some new ones for you by tomorrow morning."

"Really? Are you sure you'll be able to do that in just one night?"

He waves me off, "I'll just modify an old pair we have lying around ta fit ya. Shouldn't be much trouble."

I smile, "Thanks, Bodelee."

"No problem. Now go set up that tent, dinner should be served soon."

I do as instructed and set my tent up near the other recruits' tents. Part of me regrets deciding to set up near them as I felt the scornful gaze of several of them peering out from their tents as I pounded my stakes in.

With that done I head back to the mess area, where a majority of the camp has lined up and is getting served their food. I wait with the rest and get my food. Nika gives me an extra helping, saying I look a little too scrawny. After not having enough food to go around for the past two weeks I'm extremely thankful.

Maybe she really is the goddess of the camp.

I leave the crowded mess area in favor of a more secluded spot to enjoy my meal.

As I work my way through the delicious beef stew I notice movement out of the corner of my eye. Looking to my side I see it's the girl simply known as Black making her way through the trees alone, away from camp.

I wonder what she's up to. Well, it wouldn't be good to pry on my first day.

I finish my food and go back to my tent to settle in for the night.