∫Good morning… Fir, Gloria.∫

[Mornin’ Nea!]

It’s the next morning, which means it’s finally time to learn to use magic!

We decided to cut things short yesterday, since it was about to get dark, but we still learned a lot. That last revelation might’ve been even more important than learning magic…

Nea got the telepathy skill from the skill terminal.

This is significant, because up until then I had two theories regarding the skill terminal:

A, we’re the only ones with the skill terminal. When it was installed in us, it wasn’t installed in any other being in the world.

B, everyone has the skill terminal, ours was just installed late for some reason.

Nea using the skill terminal proves theory A can’t be correct.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean B is right.

In fact, I know it isn’t, Nea told me so.

After they told me they used the skill terminal, I asked them how long they’ve had it and they told me their entire herd only just got it recently.

Which lines up perfectly with when I…

No, no. It could still be a coincidence.

Just because I was thinking of that exact thing the moment everyone in the world had it installed…

Anyway!

Moving on to another topic, the Stadiea are way smarter than I thought. And I already thought they were super-geniuses!

Not only did Nea get the telepathy skill, they also got a mind-reading skill because that’s not bundled in with telepathy.

And then they used that mind-reading skill to peer through Gloria and I’s mind’s.

But that’s not the most impressive part; neither the telepathy skill or the mind-reading skill come with an auto-translate function.

Nea learned English exclusively through reading our thoughts, and was proficient enough to hold a conversation after a minute at most.

And they’re even better at it today.

By the end of the day, Nea might be completely fluent!

That information stone seriously understated the true impressiveness of the Stadiea’s intelligence.

Speaking of!

According to Nea, Stadiea have a sort of pseudo-hivemind through their whole species (which is only Nea’s herd), allowing them to share ideas and knowledge near instantly.

It works closer nearby though, which is why Nea called all the remaining members of their herd here, all to help teach us magic.

There must have been a lot of Stadiea away from the herd, because now they’ve at least doubled in number.

Will we really be able to handle mentorship from all these super-geniuses at once?

I hope we don’t disappoint them…

∫Are you prepared to… begin?∫

{I think so.}

∫Excellent. Then we shall begin... forthright.∫

Who the hell says forthright?

∫Are you... cognizant of the utter basics?∫

{I believe so. We have the beginner’s magic understanding skill at level 6.}

∫Understood. Then we… shall start from the absolute basics.∫

...Was that an insult?

∫First and foremost, we must… discuss ‘mana’, and it’s… properties...∫

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Ugghh, this is taking foreeeeeveeeer.

I know Fir said magic was super duper important to learn in order to survive, but c’mon, can’t we make this a little more fun?

Why can’t we shoot fireballs instead? That’d work as training!

But nooooo!

Instead, it’s ‘mana’ this and ‘circulation’ that!

‘It is important to comprehend the many different forms mana can-’ blah blah blah!

Doesn’t all this stuff come built into the magic understanding skills? Why do we gotta learn it?

I don’t geeeeeet iiiiiiit!

Are we finally done?!

{Ah, Nea, magic understanding leveled up just now.}

∫Excellent. In a mere three levels you will be… capable of casting basic spells.∫

Three levels?!

No. Way!

I am not waiting three levels! That will take for-e-ver!

∫I apologize, Gloria, but I… request that you be patient for the… time being.∫

[H-huh?! Don’t read my thoughts without permission!]

{Gloria…}

[What?! It’s not my fault they decided to peek into my head!]

∫I apologize. I will… make a sincere effort to… refrain from repeating the same mistake in the future.∫

Hmph! I will not accept that apology!

∫Now, let us return to the topic at hand; construction of magic circles on a medium.∫

Ugh!

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

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∫Now, I believe that should serve as a sufficient spot to finish off for this session. I will meet with you once more tomorrow, and we will continue from where we are leaving off now.∫

{Alright. Thanks a lot, Nea! It was great.}

∫I am truly happy that you enjoyed yourself.∫

{Gloria, say goodnight to Nea.}

[Tch, fine. Goodnight Nea.]

∫Goodnight Gloria, Fir. I look forward to meeting you in the morning.∫

With that, Nea walks away, joining the rest of their herd once more.

Ahh, that was fun!

I’ve always enjoyed learning, I’m happy I found someone to act as a mentor in this world.

Gloria didn’t seem to enjoy that though…

But this time, I won’t let her ruin this for me!

If she tries to get me to walk away from this, I will put my foot down, and firmly say ‘no’!

Nea is the first other intelligent being I’ve met besides Gloria since I got reincarnated here, so I won’t let us be dragged apart from each other. I’ll stick to Nea like glue, no matter what it takes!

Ahem.

Anyway, magic is super interesting.

I’d be lying through my teeth if I said I understood most of what Nea taught today, but I know more now than I did before.

It’s… well, it’s complicated. I don’t know if I’d be able to explain it as well as Nea did with my lacking knowledge.

For example; from what I understand, mana exists not only as a particle, but also as a nebulous energy between those particles.

See? Makes absolutely no sense.

I was never great at the more advanced levels of physics, which is exactly what learning about mana feels like.

It’s a good thing that, according to Nea, knowing this isn’t essential, it just helps get our understanding skill to a higher level and helps us better visualize what we’re doing when we use magic.

I really don’t know what I would’ve done without Nea…

If you didn’t have a mentor, magic would be practically impossible to learn. No OP MCs who learn magic at the age of two from reading random books their generic villager parents have just lying around the house here!

In fact, I find it hard to believe anyone even managed to figure this out in the first place. I mean, come on, particles? Energy?

How could a world like this know about that stuff?

Ah! Unless!

Is this world one of those hyper-advanced magic world types? The kind with cities that stretch across continents, aglow with magically lit lights all day every day?

That’s so… actually…

I was gonna say I would hate it if that were the case, since I’ve always favored medieval-era fantasy over future type stuff. Buuuut…

For a world I actually live in, a futuristic magical utopia would definitely be preferable.

I can imagine it now…

A beautiful sprawling city with clean air thanks to magical methods of clean energy generation!

Street lights bright even in the darkest hours of the night, illuminating my path as I walk.

A large apartment in a skyscraper that stretches all the way into the stratosphere!

Air conditioning!

Hot water for my bath and shower!

A working toilet!

And of course, the most important part… the computer, with hyper-fast internet speeds!

Ahhhh, I want to live in a magical fantasy utopia!

We have to learn magic fast, so we can make our way to the surface, find a way to become human, then live lives of luxury!

I won’t accept any other outcome!

Over the next two weeks, we trained like hell under the Stadiea.

Every day we woke up as early as possible, before the light stones even came on, and walked all the way to the nearest field, where the Stadiea waited for us.

Once we got there, Nea would first take a few hours to teach us about magic, for the sake of leveling up our understanding skill (though Gloria never really paid attention).

After that, we trained physically. Apparently, doing so makes you get way stronger the next time you level up.

I’m glad Nea told us about that, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken us to figure that out by ourselves…

Training so hard physically also comes with the nice little bonus of leveling a lot of our skills.

Honestly, Gloria’s doing most of the physical work. I’d feel bad if it weren’t for how lazy she is when it comes to learning about magic.

Oh, and if you’re wondering how we’re training…

There’s a reason so many of our defensive skills are stronger now.

You may have noticed we also have a new skill; magic resistance.

You may have also noticed it’s level four already.

Nea says it’s not only important to use magic, but be able to take hits from it.

So, they make us take hits from it.

And it hurts like hell.

They haven’t even been hitting us with their strongest attacks!

Magic has many elements that can be used. Typical fantasy stuff, fire, water, air, earth, etc. Any generic fantasy magic type you can think of probably exists.

It’s also possible to use magic without an element.

This is the category spells like magic missile and such go into. Stuff that’s just pure mana used in various ways, basically.

Nea and the rest of the Stadiea have been using exclusively element-less magic on us.

Why?

Because there’s a trade-off when using magic either with or without an element.

Magic with an element is typically much stronger, but also takes more mana to use.

Meanwhile, element-less magic, or basic magic as it’s called, is dirt-cheap in mana cost compared to it’s elemental counterparts, but lacks in strength. It’s also typically simpler to learn and cast.

So, the Stadiea have been using basic magic on us, because if they used any element, it’d probably just kill us.

When Nea first taught us about basic magic, I underestimated it. I thought, ‘why would anyone use this after they’ve already learnt elemental magic?’

That thought was knocked right out of my body later that day, when the first of many magic missiles hit our body with the force of a bullet train.

I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say I thought we died in that moment. It was probably the most pain I’ve ever felt in both this life and the last.

I don’t know if there was even anything in my last life that could possibly inflict so much pain without just killing me.

And it just got worse from there, because that was just the first shot in a volley that seemed to be endless.

I think I lost consciousness at some point after that. Either that, or our head got hit hard enough to knock the memories out of my head by the end.

By the time I woke up, every inch of our body was completely numb from pain. Sleeping that night was incredibly difficult, to say the least.

I would say what happened every other day, but my body aches every time I remember the pain, so I’m just gonna do what I do to every bit of trauma I face: shove it out of my memory!

Hmm? Hellish training under creepy deer monsters? I have noooooooo idea what you’re talking about.

Nope, not a clue.

Anyway!

I have a good feeling about today. Our beginner’s magic understanding skill is almost ready to level up to level ten, and I have a feeling today might just be the day!

After two long weeks of training, we’ll finally be able to use magic!

Two weeks is really slow compared to Stadiea, who according to Nea learn magic just three days after being born, but I still think we’ve done a pretty alright job all things considered!

It’s impossible to explain how excited I am about this!

In just a few hours, I’ll be able to use magic! The very magic I used to daydream about in my old life!

Every single day, I used to lay in my bed and obsess over the thought of being whisked away into a fantasy world and learning to use magic, shooting fireballs and lightning from my fingertips as easy as I breathed.

Of course, I never could have imagined it’d actually happen, much less that I’d become a weird monster.

But here I am! It was so worth bearing with Gloria’s irritations and the terrible food.

Magic! Here I come!