Reaching the top of the stairs, we made our way past rooms. I could hear people talking, working or laughing on our way past. It was rather peaceful here, I haven’t seen or heard of a monster attack. Crater didn’t get monster attacks, but with how we hybrids were forced to live we never experienced what it was like to live peacefully. Shaking my head free of those thoughts while resolving myself to save my brethren, I continue following Anita as we reach the entryway that leads outside.
“One moment” taking a small scroll from her pocket, I sense mana from Anita as the scroll lights up and bursts into flames. “Let’s go.” Following behind her as we walk out into the snow once again, I look at the night sky. Even if it was cloudy, I felt my mana resonate with my surroundings as it stirred with me due to the moonlight that was coming through. Looking around, the streets weren’t as busy as they once were, homes had light coming out of their windows and I could smell wood fires all around me. Feeling Alice quickly retreat into my shirt again, I bring my hands to my mouth and try to warm them up.
After a few minutes of walking, Alice suddenly pokes her head out and lets out a “Kraa!” and before I can react to her, she jumps out and flies up, looking in a direction, a feeling of eagerness coming from her. The feeling was a lot stronger than it was before. “Do you want to go somewhere?” “Kraa!” “Can you find me again?” Flying around my head, I felt a confidence from her, knowing she could somehow locate me. I nodded “Be safe, come to me if there is any trouble.” “Kraa?” Feeling a confusion from her, she flies off quickly.
“She is unusually obedient for a Dark Raven. Usually one would’ve just flown off without waiting for you to respond.” Commenting on this Anita too watches Alice fly off. “Right, we’re nearly there.” As Anita said, a few minutes more of walking we came to a large courtyard, empty of anything; it was like a barren field excluding the snow. There was somebody already in the middle. As we approach, I make out a familiar face.
“Hello punchy girl!” Greeting me was Ash, the one who was watching me try to escape from Jin. “Seems like you got caught hehe.” Thinking of the events that happen prior I purse my lips, still a bit embarrassed and angry from that moment. Giggling, Ash pats my shoulder “I heard you gave old Anita here a surprise, good work! I’m Ash, Ash Cinders, an Apprentice Fire Magician, nice to meet you again!”
“That’s enough Ash. Can I leave her with you? She’s just been through the ritual to rebuild her mana veins and pool as well as reveal her True Magic Nature, she’ll need to be taught a few basics.”
“Yep! It’s so exciting to be able to teach a newbie. Thanks for the chance Anita!” Anita nods and hands her a book and a bracelet before turning and walking back.
“She works too hard, probably will need a week to recover.” Without giving me time to ask what she meant, Ash plops onto the ground and gestures for me to sit as well. Sitting down, Ash looks over the book while flicking through a few pages. With a nod, she places it on her lap.
“Alright, basics of the basics then I’ll teach you two spells for Lunar Magic. Firstly, let's show you how to see your mana realm. This is important to advance your magic up ranks after level 20, the System won’t do it for you.” Tiling my head in confusion Ash giggles again. “Seems you don’t know about level 20! Everything in due time. Now, close your eyes and eliminate all thoughts. At the point your mind is empty, focus your thoughts on sensing your mana, you should then enter your mana realm.”
Nodding, I follow her instructions. Clearing all thoughts, worries and fears from my mind, I empty my mind and start trying to sense my mana. Very quickly I am standing on a giant lake. This is no longer the small pond with those weird tubes coming out, I was now on a lake that I couldn’t see the end of, a sky filled with hundreds of stars, a small blue thread bouncing between them constantly. There was a strong wind blowing throughout the area, weak lightning in the far distance and the lake was glimmering with a beautiful bluish glow that matches the turquoise colour of the lake.
Watching the lake, I see small strands drift from the surface and float into the sky to join the stars above. Compared to the old mana pool, this was beyond my expectations. I understood what Anita meant when she said the one I opened before was primitive. Looking down at the lake, I see stars being reflected…no, there were different star formations, this wasn’t a reflection. Curiously, I also noticed I was standing here in my physical body without any clothing on. Last time I wasn't in a physical form but rather just seeing everything from above. Closing my eyes, I blocked sensing my mana as I felt a tug and I left the realm.
Opening my eyes, I see Ash’s face in front of mine, full of curiosity and excitement. “So how was it? Tell me everything in detail!” Smiling softly, I told her in detail what I saw, and when I mentioned the lake with stars in it, her eyes sparked…quite literally.
“You have a mutated mana pool and veins too! It’s not common, but it’s rare for someone to get a mutation that fits their magic. Mine is mutated too, but my lake is on fire!” Nodding to show I understood what she meant, she added “So the lake is your mana pool, it will drain slowly when you use mana. The stars are your mana veins, the blue lines bouncing around is mana travelling your body. Right, whenever you need to rank up your magic, head in there. I’ll tell you about ranking up later.”
Thinking over what Ash told me, it was fairly easy to understand. I wasn’t sure on what to do with rank up, maybe it was different for everyone. Thinking everything over, I ask her about the differences from my old mana pool and veins to the new one.
“Ah right! With your old mana pool and veins, your mana was just kind of being blasted down a vein and into your body wherever those veins led to, which is all fine for a fighter like yourself, but could severely injure you if you used too much at once. Your new veins in turn have thousands of mana veins connecting every muscle, bone, hair strand and etcetera of your body, allowing you to output mana smoothly and quickly in any direction.”
“What is True Magic Nature?” Asking a question that was on my mind, Ash nodded and gave me a response. “I’m not surprised you don’t know. True Magic Nature is magic that reflects your true soul, magic that you will have great potential with. You have Lunar magic as one, meaning your Lunar type spells will be stronger than other spells, and the same goes for your Wind magic. Think of it as you’ve gained another type of magic to use, but one that is very compatible with you, along with your Wind magic.”
“What about my Class?” Ash thinks for a moment before saying “Your Class won’t suddenly change out of nowhere so it will absolutely return, the reason why you don’t have it right now is likely because you’re either not adept at using your new mana pool and veins…or there is a deeper reason within you” Suddenly staring deeply at me, I felt like everything about me was suddenly exposed for a brief second, those eyes staring at me were powerful. I had no secrets in front of her.
“Right, time to teach you two lunar abilities. Anita will teach you more about wind magic once she’s recovered. She’s very eager to teach you, you must’ve impressed her!” Suddenly changing her tone to a cheerful one, Ash grabs the book off her lap and starts flipping through.
Smiling shyly a bit, still a bit overwhelmed by that stare, I adjust myself a bit as Ash starts giving some advice. “Alright, let's start with the basics of Lunar magic. Lunar magic is about strengthening yourself and others with magic, while it has attack-based magic, the main purpose is to provide support, or so it says here, maybe you’ll use it differently. You’ll be a lot stronger at night, but weaker during the day. The first spell is simple, it’ll make you glow.” Winking at me, she looks back at the book.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Moon Glow, it uses moonlight you absorb to give you a faint glow. It might be cloudy but you should still be able to use moonlight to use it. Close your eyes and imagine the moon, then imagine the glow from it surrounding you. Carefully surround yourself with a tiny amount of mana. The stronger the mana the stronger the glow. Too strong and you’ll blind those around you.” Speaking while reading, Ash tells me what to do. Closing my eyes once again, I visualise the moon.
Breathing in, I imagine being covered in moonlight and letting out some mana. Not familiar with how my body circulates mana now I release it a bit too strongly. “A little less!” Hearing Ash, I focus on lowering my mana again and keep my mental image up. After a few seconds a new feeling washes over me, an energy that wasn’t coming from me but was blending with my mana. “That’s it! Hold that feeling while you make it stronger and weaker over and over.”
Breathing in, I do as Ash says. I start getting used to this feeling, slowly making it stronger and weaker. Suddenly she claps “Right, you’ve got the hang of it. Practise it plenty, I’ll test you later.” Opening my eyes, I nod with a smile as she flips the pages again.
“Second spell, an attack type. This one fits you too, Star Dust Punch. Gather starlight onto your fist and punch out. It can inflict a daze on your enemies too, and it’s simple to use just like Moon Glow, instead of moonlight, imagine the stars shining onto your fist, but this time gather as much as you can before striking. It mentions a limit of sorts, but it’s vague.”
Nodding, I practise as she mentioned. In my mind, I visualised stars shining brightly, with an image of my hand curled into a fist amongst them. Opening my eyes, I see my fist with a faint glow, a different feeling surrounding it, a calm and relaxing energy swirls around my hand. Increasing my mana slowly, I focus on making the image of starlight stronger as well. My fist starts glowing brightly with a silver glow as Ash nods and says “You’re really good! Now, punch me with it. Don’t worry, I can take it.”
Holding out a palm for me to strike, Ash strikes a strange pose where her other hand has two fingers over an eye. A bit confused, I strike out at the fist and feel it “explode” with power on contact. It wasn’t an explosive hit, but rather it was oddly soft and calm. Grinning, Ash tells me to try it a few more times as I keep practising. After a few more strikes I see some notifications come up.
[Lunar Magic is now complete due to gaining an understanding.]
[A Hidden Condition has been met.]
[You learnt Moon Glow.]
[You learnt Star Dust Fist.]
“Alright, with that feeling you’ll be able to start working on more spells or even start making your own. And we finished in just a bit over an hour. Let’s head back to the dorms and get some food, I’m starving!” Now she mentioned it, I too was hungry. Just as Ash starts walking I hear Alice calling out “Kraa!”
Turning and seeing her land on my head, I’m about to ask where she’s been when she pecks my head for attention. With another “Kraa!” she takes off again, circles my head and flies in the direction she came from, before turning and looking at me while flying “Kraa!” feeling an impatience from her, I wondered why she wanted me to follow.
“Seems your Dark Raven wants you to follow. Let’s go! Sounds like fun!” Nodding to Ash’s comment, we walk as we follow Alice through alleyways and streets. After about twenty minutes of walking, I started to pick up on a molten smell, something metal was burning. After a few minutes towards this smell, Ash mentions “Come to think of it, the blacksmith is in this direction. Maybe she found it warm here and wanted to share it with you?”
Smiling, I thought the same. Alice usually shared things with me, generally it was small stuff like meat I gave her she’d always try to give me a piece, or something she found in my sack. I see her circling an area behind one more set of houses, and as we walk there, I ask Ash a question that was on my mind.
“If you’re a fire magician, couldn’t you heat the air around you to always keep warm?” Stopping, Ash looks at me dumbfounded. After a minute, I feel the heat around me warm up to a nice warm feeling. “Oh my god, I could’ve done this to keep you warm!” Giggling at her comment, I tell her not to worry about it as we keep walking. Turning the corner, I see a large building, smoke billowing out from the windows and chimney. Alice was circling the building, I could hear her “Kraa!” from here as she flew back to me and landed on my head.
Pecking at my head, Alice looks at the building. Giggling, I picked her up off my head. “Alright alright, we’re here already, let’s go in and see what is getting you all excited.” “Kraa!” Turning to Ash, she smiles and gestures for me to go ahead. Stepping towards the building, I notice that the door is closed, seemingly locked. Before I could say anything, Ash knocked on the door loudly and I heard someone on the other side coming towards the door.
As the door opens, I see a tall, muscly man open the door and look at me with a bit of confusion, before looking at Ash with more confusion. “Miss Cinders, this is an unexpected surprise, did the academy have more business with us?” Smiling, Ash replies “Not today Simon, just visiting with a new student.”
Pointing at me, Simon looks at me with curiosity and nods. “If that’s the case, a tour is fine. We have a new smithy ourselves, found her outside earlier yesterday. Turns out I may have found a hidden gem, she’s a wiz with the hammer.”
“My names Simon, nice to meet you.” “I’m Alisha.” I wave my hand in the air as Ash giggles. Stepping aside to let us in, we entered the building, a blast of heat hitting us.
“Actually, can I submit an order? Now that I think about it, Alisha here doesn’t have any weapons.” Simon nods and grabs a stack of binded paper from his pocket with a piece of thin charcoal and looks at me for a moment and starts writing.
“Alright, what magic does she use and what's her style of combat?” We continue walking behind Simon as Ash speaks on my behalf. “Lunar and Wind magic. Combat style is close quarters with her fists and legs. Proficiency is high but rough, filled with intent to kill and furious, like a monster.”
‘She wasn’t wrong about that last part’ I thought to myself as we moved into a huge room, filled with heat. The smell of molten fire was very apparent here, nearly overwhelming me for a moment as I worked to filter the smell. Looking around the room, my eyes land on a very familiar sight. Wearing a sleeveless shirt, holding a hammer in one hand and the other hand holding something down was a girl with long silver hair and matching eyes, soot marks on her face and arms, paying no attention to her surroundings. “Kraa!” Alice pecked me once again, but she didn’t need to tell me.
[Level 18 Human, Sally]
‘Why is she showing as a human?’ Thinking back to my Status, it did say my race was hidden, was that the case for Sally? Was I also showing as a human? I was about to ask Ash when I realised how silly that question would sound.
“May I have a look around?” Asking this, I turn to Ash who turns to Simon who in turn nods “Just don’t distract anyone or touch anything. These guys are very picky about the placement of things.” Nodding, I leave the two to talk while I move around, slowly making my way to Sally while letting her finish what she was doing. Soon, I arrive in front of her, she had yet to notice me. I was going to stay silent to not distract her when Alice did it for me. “Kraa!”
“Not now Alice, I need to finish this bef-”. Frowning, Sally frowns and suddenly looks up confused. Seeing me she drops her hammer. “Alisha?!” Before I can reply, Alice gives a mighty “Kraa!” Petting Alice, I say “Yup, it’s me. Heya Sally.” Sally runs around the table and pulls me into a tight hug. I can feel people looking at us but I shrug it off and hug Sally back. Pulling away from me, she looks me over before giving me a confused look. Before she could say anything Ash pops out from behind me.
“Oooh, is she your friend Alisha? Nice to meet you, I’m Ash Cinders, something like a mentor to Alisha!” Waving her hand to Sally, she waits for a response while Sally looks even more confused before stuttering out “I-I’m Sally.” Turning to me, Sally asks “Can we talk alone?”
“No problem, I’ll keep Simon busy, quick head out the back!” Hearing Ash say this, we look at her just as Simon speaks up “It’s fine, Sally said she was lost and couldn’t find her friends. Take her with you, I can’t house her at the moment. Sally, feel free to come here to learn, I’m eager to see what you can do.” Seeing Sally nod, she drags me outside while Ash remains in the blacksmith to give us privacy.
Finding a spot outside that was quiet, Sally looks at me confused and says “Alisha, why are you showing as human? What happened?” Tilting my head, I say “You’re showing as human to me as well Sally. I think the System is hiding the fact we’re…” Looking around again in case Ash sneaks up on us, I whisper “...hybrids.”
Nodding, Sally thinks for a moment before asking “What happened to you?” Sitting down and patting the spot next to me, Sally sits down as I rest my head on her shoulder. “Well, the story is…”