“Why did you attack me? And how did you do it?” the girl demanded. Ray put on his bravest face, answering in the deepest voice he could muster.

“Why did you shadow travel so close to me? Did you expect me to not attack when you did so?” Ray asked, acting like he was someone powerful.

The girl tilted her head, “I can tell if you are telling the truth, you know. A power of mine. So weigh your words before saying them.”

“And would you like to answer my questions?” Ray asked, still keeping up his facade. The girl couldn’t tell he was lying if he just asked questions.

“Would you like to answer mine?” the girl asked back.

“No.” Ray replied. “Though I expect I already have.”

“So it is. Did you target me?” the girl asked.

“No, did you?” Ray asked back.

“No, I don't even know who you are. I doubt you know me. So it would seem that what occurred here was a simple misunderstanding, one that did no harm. I suppose you may pass.” the girl said, disappearing into the shadows. Ray watched a shimmer travel through the shadows. Ray sighed in relief as he hurried back home, glad that he was weak for once.

Ma did not arrive back home till an hour later, trying to sneak in quietly. Ray was not having it, he sat there on the sofa, waiting for her.

“Ma, could you tell me what has happened? I know that you went to visit an alleyway, and you’ve been a bit too lenient with me. Not to mention that we moved here all of a sudden.” Ray asked.

Ma looked at him for a few seconds before taking a deep breath in, “Ray, did you follow me? Why would you do that?”

“I was worried about you, you were acting strange.” Ray replied.

“Ray, next time you get worried, just ask me instead of following me. Do you know how dangerous it could have been if someone had seen you? The people there aren’t to be messed with.”

Ray froze, remembering his encounter with the girl dressed in black. Should he tell Ma? Well, that girl was threatening…and he had a feeling that it might be best if he knew who she was.

“Well, I kinda did meet someone.” Ray hesitantly said.

Ma froze, speaking seriously, “Ray, I need more information. And I need it now.”

“Well, while I was coming back, there was this shimmer in the shadows… I knew it must have been a person hiding in there, and it was very close to me, so I attacked and ran away. The person caught up to me in seconds, it was a girl dressed in black with very scary eyes. But I was able to scare her off, she thought I was someone powerful,, and we resolved the misunderstanding.” Ray said, trying to act impressive.

Ma just froze, staring at Ray for a few seconds before removing the noise-cancelling device and switching it on. “Ray, the person you met is the Shadow princess, heir to the leader of the rebellion. Yes, that rebellion, the one against the Empire. What you did wasn’t just dangerous, it was irresponsible.

“Not only did you endanger yourself by attacking the heir to the rebellion, you endangered me and Anita too. The rebellion would kill all of us if something bad happened to her. Do you understand that?” Ma said, shouting by the end.

And the scolding was here.

“Ray, this world is not some playground where you can just run about and have fun, no matter what Anita thinks. I swear, the two of you are worse together. But do you truly think what you are doing is ok?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Tell me, how much mana do you have? Fifty? No, thirty-nine? I have nearly twenty times as much, and I am among the weaker people in the city. Ray, you are a Tier 0, a nobody as far as strength is concerned. Just because you can attack now does not mean you are powerful enough to pull it off.”

“I want you to promise me, Ray, that you won’t put yourself in danger for no good reason again.” Ma said, staring at him. Ray wanted to run away, to be anywhere but here.

“I was just worried…” he said. Ma just stared at him. “Yes, I promise.” he relented

Ma smiled saying “Now, enough of that, let me see what I can cook up, and then you can tell me all about your powers.”

Ray fidgeted as he waited for the bus to arrive. Ma had let him go by himself to the Merchant’s district so that he could retain the illusion that he wasn’t from the Commoner’s district.

The bus arrived and Ray got on, avoiding everyone else while looking for Marcus, but he was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had caught another bus. Ray sighed as he took a seat in the middle of the bus, trying to keep away from others.

The middle of the bus was the least likely to have people coming and demanding the seat, something that often happened in his experience. As expected, all of the threatening looking people went to the back or the front, letting Ray sit in peace.

The bus eventually took off, taking Ray to his second day in the College. Ray had plans for today, first he was going to brush up on the alchemic process and the mana manipulation involved, and then he was going to see if he could make the cough’s Cure.

The bus arrived at the College and Ray got off in a hurry, still avoiding anyone. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t been here long, or he’d just not attracted enough attention, Ray was left alone.

Ray decided not to question his luck and rushed to the library, ready to get on with his day. The library. Just like yesterday, but with a different person was checking badges.

Ray handed her his badge, asking, “Is Marcus not here today?”

The bored-looking girl looked at him weirdly, saying, “No, he works here only once a week.”

“Oh, thank you.” Ray replied, heading towards the pillars, looking for the book he had found yesterday. Art of Alchemy. The answers he wanted lay in there. The next few hours were spent learning all he could about how to make the potion, when to add what and how much of it.

A professor would usually accompany a student in such an endeavor, but Ray had no intention of asking one for help. Not only did he risk exposing his secret, they were unlikely to help him.

Ray got up and walked to the girl that collected his card and asked,” Do you know where I can try to make potions? Is there a lab of some sort around?”

The girl raised her head from her book and assessed him for a second before saying, “A student is allowed to use a lab three times a week for one hour each. After that, you have to pay.”

“A map is available over there,” she pointed towards a pillar near the door that did have a few scrolls on it.-“ But I would suggest that you start small, sir, doing it yourself can be a bit of a challenge early on even if you have done it before.”

Ray nodded, accepting her kind intentions, “Thank you, I will just be doing a Cough’s Cure as my first. I expect it will be rather easy.”

“Ah, yes, I expect it will, sir.” the girl replied, going back to reading her book. Ray walked out of the Academy, snatching a scroll from the pillar. The Academy was a rather complicated place, having multiple buildings that seemed to be placed completely randomly.

But at least the library was near the lab building. The College being an institution for Alchemy, had an entire building dedicated to labs. A large tower made of white stone that seemed more like a fortress than a lab building. Ray had a sneaking suspicion that the building had seen its shares of explosions and other catastrophes.

An alchemist was bound to explode something or make a poison sometime during their lives, just too many things in the world matched to make one of the two. The gate of the building was guarded by a triad of students in gray uniform, likely serving a similar duty to Marcus.

“I would like access to a lab, please.” Ray said, holding out his id card.

An irritated looking student took it, examining it before returning it, “What type of lab do you require, sir? And what ingredients? I do hope that you would book one ahead of time next time, we will not be able to accommodate you if you require anything but a basic level lab.”

“The basic one will be fine, and the potion is Cough’s Cure, just give me some distilled water, herbgreen lavender and Sawroot.” Ray said.

“As you wish.” the student said, opening the building door and leading Ray inside, opening the first door they came across. “The lab is booked after fifteen minutes so please clear away by then, the ingredients should already be in there, they're basic anyway. Please holler if something goes wrong.”

The door slammed behind Ray as the student stormed off. Ray expected it had something to do with his paid student status, had news of it spread so far already? But whatever the case, he had a potion to make.