"Alright, so. Magic," I said, the next morning.

Whatever it was Rachel typically did all day- goddamn freeloading aristocrats- that had, clearly, been suspended in favor of bringing the new kid up to speed, and making sure I ate food. Speaking of food, we'd come to the downside of medieval cooking: breakfast foods. A fried egg was a fried egg, and fried eggs were good, but porridge wasn't exactly appetizing, even with the fried egg on top. Still, I choked it all down, unwilling to waste food.

I'd just need to teach these people about the magic of noodles at earliest convenience.

"Magic," Rachel said, nodding. "Now, I will confess to my own circumstances and preferences, but I will note that doctrine is on my side: of all the elements, Air is the most straightforward to learn."

"Fair enough," I said. "So, how do we start?"

"I will take your hand in mine, and channel my will through you," Rachel said. "Feel the path my will traces, and try to replicate that."

I grunted, and stuck out my hand. "Fair enough. Hit me."

She took my hand, and I felt the presence of her will once more. This time, it didn't go to my eyes, and instead, simply suffused through my forearm. I felt a breeze across my arm, the gentle swirling of Rachel's will around my arm, and the circulation of the air, matching her will.

I hummed quietly, raising my other hand, and tried to replicate the wind manipulation. After a few false starts, I managed to create a breeze flowing across my palm.

[New Skill: Air Manipulation, Level 1.]

"Huh," I said. "So the status menu tells me automatically when I've learned a new skill."

"It does that, yes," Rachel said, nodding. "Now, you can practice air manipulation later; with Learning 20, you should pick it up very quickly. It is more prudent to move on to the next skill. Ready?"

I nodded, letting go of the breeze.

She closed her eyes, and I felt her will spread out to suffuse my entire body. And then... suddenly, I was awake in a way I'd never felt before, more alert, and more aware of my surroundings.

And then, as soon as it came, the feeling went away. Thankfully, the awareness had begun during Rachel's exercise of will, and so I found myself knowing what to do to bring the feeling back.

[New Skill: Physical Enhancement, Level 1.]

"Hell yeah," I said, despite my version of the effect not being quite as strong as Rachel's. "Okay, this rocks."

"The more magical side of Air is quite convenient, yes," Rachel said. "It also burns through mana like a forest fire."

"Mana?" I asked.

[Mana: 8.5/10]

"Okay turning it off now." I dropped back to my normal level of alertness in a hurry. "Fuck me running. How much mana is a twenty five year old supposed to have? Because I'm willing to bet it's a lot more than just ten."

"It varies between peasants, knights, and higher nobles," Rachel said. "But yes, even a common peasant your age has at least a hundred mana. I myself have one thousand and two hundred."

"Fantastic," I despaired. "How the fuck do I increase it?"

"It's like a muscle," Rachel said. "Wear it down, and let it fill back up. With Learning 20, you should grow quickly."

"Fair enough," I said. "Hrm... It occurs to me that I might want to record some of this stuff for later reference, and judging the speed of my growth. What do you people do for writing things down?"

"Ink on parchment, mainly," Rachel said.

"Is it cheap enough for you to indulge this habit of mine?"

"Provided you do not use multiple pages per day, yes."

"Got it," I said, nodding. "Although, thinking about it, I probably should teach you guys about paper. It isn't quite as durable as parchment, but it's far, far cheaper to produce in quantity."

"What is it made of?" Rachel asked.

"It can be made from anything fabric is made from," I said. "Linen, wool, cotton- well, you may not have cotton. But! With some know-how and some chemicals that I... do not remember how to make... you can make it out of woodchips and sawdust. And then, with cheaply-cast stamps made of lead, one can write an entire page of text in seconds, and perfectly copy that page endlessly- or until the stamps wear out. These two technologies together make copying books far more practical and economical, and will improve general literacy."

"Fascinating," Rachel said. "But, perhaps we should continue with our magic lesson?"

"Right, right," I said, nodding. "What's next?"

"Water magic," Rachel said, picking up a wooden mug off of her nightstand with somewhat less care than one might expect, considering the possibility of spilling water all over her bed. "Now, if it's all the same to you, I would prefer that you put all of the water back into the mug when you're done."

"Of course," I said, as she guided me through lifting a particularly large drop of water out of the mug, and then putting it back gently, without splashing.

[New Skill: Water Manipulation, Level 1.]

"And now... the complicated side of Water magic," Rachel said. "You may, however, appreciate the changes you will be able to impose upon your body."

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"Oh?" I prompted.

"Water is the element of life," Rachel said. "Of flesh and blood. As for what it does... well. You will see."

Her will moved to my eyes again, and another menu opened. This time, however, it didn't look like an RPG character sheet. Instead, it looked rather more like Create-A-Sim, and showed my body... kind of. 'Showed' was the wrong word- it made me aware of my body, and as my focus shifted to different parts of my body, it gave me contextual prompts, things I was told I could do.

"I do see," I said. "And this is used for healing as well as cosmetic shapeshifting?"

"Indeed," Rachel said. "Most with a Water affinity do not become true healers, however; the amount of trust one requires to allow another to alter your body so is not easily given."

"I see," I said absently, as I spent three mana on repairing my goddamn teeth. Rachel had already gotten rid of my facial hair and given me B-cups- I wasn't quite satisfied with the size, but considering they were only slightly smaller than her own, perhaps she thought it was the proper size for the 'Alpha' she thought I was- and so my teeth were the only high priority thing left on my list. "...Huh, my maximum mana is increasing already."

[Mana: 7/15]

[New Skill: Biosculpting, Level 1.]

"It would seem I was correct about your rate of growth," Rachel said.

"My mana is also refilling pretty quickly, but I don't know if that's just a result of me having an infant's capacity," I said. "I've gained back one and a half mana in... honestly, probably as many minutes?"

"I still do not know what a minute is," Rachel said.

"One sixtieth of an hour, of which there are roughly twenty four between sunsets," I said. "Or, from the other direction, sixty consecutive seconds, which are roughly equivalent to a resting heartbeat."

"Were there any devices your people constructed to measure them more precisely?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, but while I know how they work, I don't know how to make them work with any real quality," I said. "I was a dilettante who, for a brief time, took an interest in horology. I was not any kind of practiced clockmaker, and that I don't know what a clockmaker does that couldn't be replicated by anyone with a good lathe and some very small gear-cutters mostly tells me that I don't know enough to make it work properly."

"...I understand most of those words individually," Rachel said. "So, these... clocks... are complex mechanical assemblies involving a number of gears?"

"That's the gist of it, yes," I said. "A lot of gears, probably."

"Then our next element will be quite important," Rachel said, setting the mug back down on her nightstand, and picking up a rock that I hadn't noticed. "Try not only to move it, but to shape it."

I nodded, and reached out to the rock with my will, attempting to flatten it, and managing only to dent it slightly.

[New Skill: Earth Manipulation, Level 1.]

"You... did that one by yourself," Rachel noted.

"The elemental manipulations aren't that different from each other, on my end of things," I said with a shrug. "So, what's the weird esoteric Earth magic that isn't just throwing rocks around?"

"Anchoring permanent magical effects," Rachel said.

"I see," I said, levitating the rock out of her hand and into mine with Earth Manipulation. I focused my will a bit more intently, pouring in some mana, and then...

[New Skill: Enchantment, Level 1.]

I let go of the rock and dropped my hand, and it remained floating there in the air, a weak Earth Manipulation effect applying just enough force to counteract gravity.

"Hell yeah," I said, before the enchantment wore off and dropped a rock on my knee. "Fuck. Whatever. Bring on the Fire magic." I spent half a point of mana on fixing the extremely minor damage and getting rid of the already-fleeting pain.

"Oh? You already know the elements?" Rachel asked.

"Bit of a loaded question," I said. "Where I'm from, we didn't have magic, but we did come up with a classical model of four elements- water, wind, fire, earth- to explain the natural world. Hell, another model included a fifth element commonly translated as void. But as our understanding grew, we came to realize that these models were wholly unhelpful and largely wrong. Here, though... well, magic is real, and it apparently follows the model to some extent." I blinked. "...Also, it occurs to me that you already told me the elements last night, and we both seem to have forgotten about that. So! Fire! I'm going to... underfuel this one as much as possible."

"A wise choice," Rachel said.

I concentrated my will into one finger, focusing just beyond the tip. As I slowly, carefully, fed it more and more power, a flickering candle flame appeared, just far enough away to not burn me.

[New Skill: Fire Manipulation, Level 1.]

"Nice," I said, flicking my hand and dismissing the flame. "I take it more practiced Fire users can make more useful amounts of fire?"

"Enough to cook with, in fact," Rachel said. "Now, the final art I will teach you this morning is Illusions, the subtler side of Fire."

"What about Void?" I asked.

"Void Manipulation is... odd," Rachel said. "It is a consolidated skill that absorbs and replaces the four discrete elemental manipulation skills. However, it always starts at Level 1, and I had enough levels by the time learning Void Manipulation was an option that it was deemed not worth the cost. Also, it is more XP-intensive to level than the individual elemental manipulation skills, and so it sometimes remains not worth it for those who intend to specialize. As such, I don't know the Void Manipulation skill, and therefore I can't teach you that skill. If you do figure it out, though, you'll likely be pleased with the results."

"Fair, I suppose," I admitted. "Anyway. Illusion magic. Show me."

She waved her hand, the one not clasped in my own, creating the image of a flower hovering above her palm. I could feel her will now, even without special effort on her part, and nodded, trying to replicate her spell.

I succeeded, instead, at creating the image of a green-ish cube, with slightly rounded corners and edges.

[New Skill: Illusions, Level 1.]

"...Close enough," I said with a shrug. "Alright, now what?"

"Now, I turn to some of my own duties, and you practice your new skills," Rachel said, letting go of my hand. "A servant will come to change the bed linens at some point, and I will bring you lunch. Try not to wander off." She climbed off of the bed, stretching in a way that likely would've given me a boner if I'd been one of those girls who loved muscledykes, but alas, I was not.

And then, after a few moments, I was alone.

"Void manipulation," I muttered, lying back and closing my eyes. In the traditional godai, the fifth element was usually translated as Void, but it was often also translated as Sky or Heaven, and occasionally as Spirit or Energy. And so, therefore... "Void is nothing. Void is everything. Void is the heavens, it is spirit, it is energy, it is the world beyond us. Void is nothing and void is everything."

[Skills Merged: Air Manipulation, Water Manipulation, Earth Manipulation, Fire Manipulation.]

[New Skill: Void Manipulation, Level 1.]

I grinned, swirling some air and a candle flame around my hand, and lifting the stone and a drop of water to join them. Yeah, I could work with this.