Chapter 33: Problems in all shapes and one size

Felix Sythias’s POV

I watched the professor anxiously as he examined my cylinder and the mana I was attempting to push through it. I didn’t like the look on his face. It was somewhere between confusion, puzzlement, and sadness. It was really unsettling that looking at my handiwork caused such a range of expressions. Was I doing that bad? Or was there something else at play?

The professor must have seen my expression, because he hardened his, being careful to not let any emotion seep through. If anything, that was more unsettling. He looked back down at the cylinder and wordlessly took it from my talon. He rolled it in his hand, threw it in the air a few times—probably to test its weight—and even tasted it. Frowning, he then channeled some mana through it. And then some more, and then even more. He channeled so much that I could taste it on the air. That had only ever happened with dad when he got serious. The professor was probably using a Skill on the cylinder. His frown deepened, and he spun around, walking to his desk and picking up a different cylinder. He handed it to me.

“Try again with this one,” he said.

I took the cylinder, and I tried channeling mana through it. It failed in the exact same way as it did with the previous one. The professor took it from me and got a different one again. I once again channeled mana through it and was once again met with failure. We repeated this two more times, before the professor stopped handing me a different one.

I was now thoroughly worried. If there had been something wrong with my technique, the professor would just have told me. And if something had been wrong with the cylinder, he would have stopped after the third one. So if it wasn’t my skill, and it wasn’t the cylinders, that left only one real option: there was something wrong with me.

“I’m sorry Felix, I have no idea why this isn’t working. Your technique is more than good enough and the cylinders are fine. It should’ve worked, and I can’t figure out why it’s not,” the professor said, sounding frustrated. “I thought it might be that something about your mana doesn’t like iron but those last two cylinders were of a different element, so that isn’t it either.”

I was quiet for a moment, thinking, then asked: “Do you think you could figure out the problem?”

The professor sighed, rubbing their forehead and suddenly looking a decade more tired. “I don’t know, this is new to me too. But I’ll do my best. I need to help the other students now, but when I’m done, I’m coming back to help you, okay? But I think you need to prepare yourself for the eventuality that this won’t ever be possible for you. Or at least not in any reasonable time-frame. If you can’t do the basics, you simply won’t have a chance with the rest of class.”

I didn’t know what to say, and I felt like crying. How could it just not work? It made no sense. Mana was mana, so his shouldn’t behave any differently from mine—so why did it? I sighed. First my System, now this. Did the worlds hate me? It certainly felt like they did. Noone else seemed to get this many roadblocks. It wasn’t fair. How could I ever get ahead of my problems if new ones kept popping up like this? It was pointless to try, clearly. Maybe I should just give—Alex put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at him, my eyes wide and tears welling up in the corners. He smiled reassuringly at me, rubbing his thumb gently across my scales.

“It will be okay,” he said, and I wanted to believe him. “You’ll figure it out, and if you don’t, I know you’ll find something else just as good. And I’m here to help you however I can, if you want. You’ve helped me plenty of times already, it’s about time I pay you back for that, anyway.”

I felt warmth spread through me. It was really nice being told someone had faith in you, especially since it was Alex who said it. Even if I didn’t quite believe it. Despite the bad situation and awful news, a slight smile crept onto my face. I pulled him in for a hug.

“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “And you don’t owe me anything. I helped you because I wanted to, not because I expected anything in return.”

He was surprised and didn’t hug me back, instead looking around frantically. I only then realized we were still in the middle of class, and a few people were looking our way. I glared at the one guy looking at us in disgust and felt guilty for putting Alex in the situation. Remembering I was still holding onto him, I let go. He noticed that and finally stopped looking at the people around us and looked at me. On his face, discomfort fought with longing and finally settled into a smile. He looked around hesitantly one last time and hugged me back. The guilt I felt faded slightly and my smile grew wider.

“I know, but the offer stands,” he said.

I suppressed a sigh. If there had been any doubt left about my feelings for Alex, those had now been thoroughly crushed. He was willing to fight his own fears of public intimacy to comfort me and I couldn’t deny how his bravery made me feel. It was strange how I refused to admit this crush to myself earlier this week. So little time had passed, but I’d learned so much about myself. While I rested a talon on Alex’s back, careful about not letting it go too low, I idly wondered about what the coming weeks held for me.

After a few seconds, Alex let go of me, and we went back to our work. He continued practicing. Seeing him wince every time he used that siphon was really unpleasant. Giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, I turned my head away. I personally hadn’t needed the tool when I was learning magic—I’d been able to extract mana from my pool for as long as I could remember—but I’d tried it out a few times just to see what it was like. I didn’t have the words to describe it, but others I’d talked to had described it as pee being forcefully sucked out, whatever that meant. I didn’t pee, so I had nothing to compare it to. In any case, it was awful. I told Alex I’d give him some extra help with doing it on his own. He seemed grateful for that.

Eventually the professor came back, and we did a bunch of experiments. We started with going through various methods of channeling. He then had me try them out on numerous materials. None of them worked, so the professor gave me differently shaped items in the hope it was the shape that was hindering me. The sheer number of cubes, cylinders, spheres, pyramids, and other shapes he had impressed me. If there was a shape, it seemed like the professor had it available in all the common materials, from wood, to iron, to bone. It proved useless, though, and about ten minutes before the end of the class we ran out of shapes to try.

Neither the professor nor I had any ideas of what we could try next, so he went to help the other students and explained next week’s homework in the remaining time. I didn’t bother to write it down.

After the class, the professor and I spoke about the issue. “It’s odd,” the professor said. “I know about your circumstances, but that shouldn’t matter. This is mana-manipulation, not System-fuckery. And the way it keeps failing is weird as well. It’s never quite the same, but always rather similar. Your mana disperses before it can get anywhere, then returns to your claws like it’s being pulled back by a magnet. Are you sure you’re not doing it by accident?”

I shook my head. “I’m not.”

The professor shook his head. “I thought not, but I had to ask. Your manipulation ability is too high for that anyway. I’m sorry Felix, I don’t think I can help you with this. I’ll see if I can find something about it in my notes, but I recommend talking about this to an expert in mana manipulation.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I thanked the professor for his time and went to the next class. There wasn’t even time to chat with Alex to lift my mood. No, I had to rush to make it in time to the field for Aerial Combat. I couldn’t wait for my wings to be regrown. At least then I’d have the time to rest a bit between these classes.

I made it on time, if only barely. It sucked that I had to hurry up so much for a class I couldn’t even properly attend. It was so boring sitting at the sidelines while everyone else flew about, learning and experiencing new things, and probably having tons of fun, too. I still studiously made notes, though. Professor Marchie made an effort to include me and explained all the things everyone was doing right and wrong. The least I could do was to pay attention.

I was glad that we discussed theory for the last half hour of the class. It felt petty, but I smiled at everyone’s grumbling at having to sit still and take notes. Luckily, I was able to properly engage with this part of the class, since I could draw from my vast experience flying to answer any questions the professor asked. The theory was interesting, and Professor Marchie had a way of fitting in twice the amount of theory other professors could in the same amount of time. By the end of the class, my talon ached from writing so much in such a short period.

After class, one of the other students called out to me before I could leave. I turned around and saw the lizardkin that had flown ahead last Monday approaching. He was of the jeweled gecko type and had beautiful green scales. What was his name again… right, it was Viggi. He was the one who suggested the restaurant to Alex.

“Viggi, right?” I asked once he was close enough.

“I am yeah, and you are Felix, right? Unless there are any other dragons around that I somehow missed.”

I shook my head. “I’m the only one. Can I help you with something?”

“Oh, I just wanted to introduce myself,” he said, holding his hand out. I tentatively took it and he shook my talon. “I’m Viggi. I’m a second-year student and I love flying.”

“Oh, um, I’m Felix and I’m a first-year student. I also love flying, though I haven’t been able to for the last week or so.”

“Yeah, I heard about that. You were also down there when the monster surge happened?”

“It wasn’t really a monster surge, but yeah. You were down there, too?”

He nodded. “I was, yeah. My party and I were doing a contract when suddenly this large ugly wolf-goat thing showed up. It was almost double our level. Luckily I could carry one of my teammates while I flew, and the other was specialized in speed so she could run away.”

“None of you got injured?”

“Almost. That damned monster shot lightning from its horns, and I got hit,” he said and lifted his shirt to reveal a jagged pattern across his stomach where scales were scarred. I made a mental note of that. Healing could relatively easily remove scars, so he had chosen to keep it. I could see why, it certainly looked pretty damn cool.

“Ow, that looks nasty.”

He shrugged and let the shirt fall back down. “It hurt like crazy, and I lost a bunch of scales. I like the way the scar looks, though. That jagged lightning pattern is awesome. But really, I’m just glad my teammate didn’t get hit. At least I had my scales to protect me somewhat, they didn’t.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you got out mostly unscathed. Can’t say I was as lucky.”

Viggi grimaced. “Yeah, I can see. How did that happen anyway?”

“Can I tell you while we walk? I need to open my room for my roommate.”

“You have a roommate? I thought the Academy stopped that a few years ago. And sure, it’s not really along my route, but with how fast I can fly, that hardly matters.”

We started walking, and I explained Alex’s situation, leaving out the personal details. I didn’t know how well Alex knew this guy, and I wasn’t telling him anything Alex might not want him to know.

“That makes sense. Sleeping in a single room with your family is a staple for our culture—sort of, anyway. It’s honestly been really weird sleeping alone here. At least I managed to get my dad to go along with me. My mom didn’t react nearly as well to my coming out.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Good that your dad came with you, though. Is he following the fast-track?”

Viggi nodded. “Yes, and no. He already finished it. I was only sixteen when we arrived here,” he said and got quiet for a moment. “You were going to tell me how you lost your wing, right?”

He understandably wanted to change the subject, so I let him and told him all about the fight and a summary of what happened after. I made sure to sprinkle some details in there about the levels and a made-up Skill or two so he wouldn’t get suspicious. The professors all already knew about my predicament, but the students didn’t. Not yet, anyway, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

“That’s really fucking gruesome,” Viggi said. “I’m sorry that happened to you. At least it’s regrowing. Does it itch a lot? My scales certainly did the first few days after healing.”

“It does,” I said. “It’s unbelievable how much it can itch. They even gave me an extra-strength anti itching salve, and I still feel it itching a bit.”

He laughed. Not at me, but at the situation. “The best healers in all the worlds, and they can’t even fix an itch.”

I laughed with him. “Honestly, I think they’re leaving it itchy on purpose.”

“Probably, yeah.”

We fell quiet again, and we continued walking down the path. The path went through a small patch of thin forest. A few leaves were starting to turn yellow already, despite Fall still being a month away. I took the break in conversation to muster up the courage for a question I wanted to ask.

“Hey, Viggi, would you maybe want to, um, hang out with me and Alex some time? He spoke positively of you, and I’ve been enjoying our conversation, and I think you’re nice, and—”

“I’d love to,” he said, interrupting me. “I have some time next week. Do you guys have anything planned next Tuesday after class?”

I blinked. That was easier than I expected. Good thing he interrupted me, too. I think I would’ve continued rambling on for quite a while if he hadn’t. This had gone so much easier with Alex. But then, the circumstances had been different with him.

“I don’t think so,” I said, trying to remember if there was anything that would need doing, aside from homework. “Was there anything you had in mind?”

Viggi was quiet for a moment, thinking it over. “We could eat at our restaurant? On the house, of course. Dad is always saying I need to bring more friends over. We could play a board-game after.”

“You have a restaurant?” I asked.

“Well, my dad owns the restaurant, but I work there too,” he explained. “You went there last Tuesday, remember? On your date with Alex.”

“Oh, so that’s why you recomm—” I stopped midstep, finally registering what he had just said. “Date? What in the Depths are you talking about?”

Viggi also stopped, now looking confused. “Didn’t you go on a date there with Alex? It certainly looked like it.”

I held up a talon. “No, no, no. Definitely not a date. Alex just wanted to try it out since you recommended it to him.”

He frowned almost imperceptibly, but his expression quickly turned to a grin. “But I’m guessing you wanted it to be one, huh?” he asked, but continued before I could protest. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to drag the answer out of you. That’s just what I observed. The way you smiled at him during that dinner… well, I’ve only seen that look on someone who’s smitten. And I’ve seen plenty of smitten teenagers—it kinda comes with the territory when you work at a romantic restaurant.”

“I… maybe,” I said, then frowned. “You were spying on us?”

He rolled his eyes. “I work in the kitchen, I could see you sitting there every time the door opened. That aside, you don’t have to tell me whether you like him. But I think you’d have a decent chance if you decide to ask him out. I don’t really know either of you, of course, but he smiled at you in that same smitten way you did.”